'We Beat Your Racist A**:' Richards Calls Out Crowley, Keeps Lead

QUEENS — Queens Borough President Donovan Richards declared victory in a neck-and-neck contest for the job – and accused his rival, former City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, of racism, which she has since denied.

Ranked-choice results and a preliminary absentee ballot count released on Tuesday showed Richards maintaining his narrow election night lead over Crowley, whom he led by a 50.3 to 49.7 percent margin.

"We won!!!!!" he tweeted after the latest results were released. Then, less than an hour later, Richards called Crowley a "racist a**" and recounted a time when he said that she told him "she would win, because [Black Lives Matter] would die."

When Patch initially reached out to Crowley's team about Richards' statement, they directed us to one of her recent tweets, in which she did not conceded the election or make mention of Richards' claims.

But, several hours later she posted a longer statement on Twitter, calling Richards' remarks "slanderous and untruthful... unfounded accusations based on no evidence whatsoever."

While she acknowledged that the two have had policy differences throughout the campaign, she compared his tweet to "Trump-like bullying," adding "strong women should not be bullied out of ensuring that every vote and voice is heard."

By contrast, other leaders have spoken out in support of Richards.

"I’m so sorry you had to put up with that. You deserve to win. Congratulations!" tweeted Queens-based City Council candidate Moumita Ahmed.

"They tried to play dirty. But we kept working and showed them people and values still matter," echoed Queens Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, who previously criticized Crowley's choice to send out anti-Richards campaign mailers that featured a fake eviction notice.

Bronx Assemblymember Amanda Sepitmo congratulated Richards on his "victory" and for "keeping it real." Also, in response to some comments on Richards' thread that he used crude language to call out Crowley, Sepitmo said "calls for decorum in politics are usually calls for people to tolerate & accept abuse in silence, which like….no."

After election night, before the absentee ballots were tabulated on Tuesday, Crowley said her campaign was "encouraged by the results we've seen so far" and "believe we're on a path to victory" citing the then-uncounted absentee ballots.

Although the eventual absentee ballot count did not tip the scales in Crowley's favor, Tuesday's count still does not include nearly 4,000 ballots with errors, which voters are given a chance to fix before July 9, according to the Board of Elections (BOE).

Those so-called "uncured" ballots likely won't make a difference in other races where the winner had a large lead, but Richards and Crowley are separated by a razor-thin margin — just 1,044 votes separate the two competitors.

On Wednesday Crowley said her campaign "will make a determination about our next steps once every vote gets counted" — likely alluding to the uncured ballots. "This is a very close election," she wrote.

Also, there's a roughly 0.6-point difference between the two frontrunners, and if the difference drops below 0.5 percent as the counts continue, the BOE will need to do a manual recount.

More will likely be known next week, when the BOE is slated to release official certified results.

Assuming that Richards wins the primary, he will be the sole Queens Borough President name on the ballot in November's general election. A victory in the general election would cement his next four years in office, starting in January.