For months, as New York City faced a growing spate of shootings, mayoral candidate Eric Adams delivered the same line at one campaign event after another: "The prerequisite for prosperity is public safety."

Adams' message, which included a vow to beef up subway patrols, appears to have resonated with a broad swath of New Yorkers as the United States' most populous city undertakes a tough recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and confronts deep challenges including wealth inequality and police accountability.

In initial results from Tuesday's Democratic primary election, Adams was the first choice on more than 31% of in-person ballots. That puts him nearly 10 percentage points ahead of liberal rival Maya Wiley, who has called for cutting one-sixth of the city's $6 billion police budget. read more

A year ago, amid widespread demonstrations across the city over police brutality and calls to "defund the police," it might have been difficult to imagine a former police captain who advocated for more officers on the street emerging as the Democratic Party's preferred mayoral candidate.