Election results across the country are examples of some 360-degree turns. Detroit elected its first white mayor in 40 years and New York elected its first Democrat in 20 years. This writer wouldn’t have been convinced this could happen prior to Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5. Enough with awe. Who is this Bill de Blasio, 52, poised to take office in January 2014 in the nation’s largest metropolis? First things first, we know he’s been campaigning hard because his victory was a landslide. According to reports, no other mayor has had a victory like this since Edward I. Koch in 1985.
In his speech to hundreds of supporters on election night, de Blasio talks about the challenges and problems he will tackle are not easy ones, which includes undoing practices put in place by outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg – particularly the controversial stop-and-frisk policy.
“My fellow New Yorkers, today, you spoke out loudly and clearly for a new direction for our city,” he says at his election night watch party in Brooklyn. “Make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it, together.”
Here’s his backstory.
Of Italian descent, de Blasio was born in New York and reared in Cambridge, Mass.
New York’s 109th mayor-elect is married to Chirlane McCray. In 1991, they met at city hall while working under then-Mayor David Dinkins; administration.
