NYC Mayor Candidate Dianne Morales Concedes Democratic Primary

(Bloomberg) -- New York City mayoral hopeful Dianne Morales conceded Friday morning, dropping out of the Democratic primary and bringing to an end her bid to run the largest U.S city.

“I am sending you this message to officially concede in my race to become mayor of New York City, but rest assured I will never concede on our work, because the journey toward equity and justice is far from over,” said Morales, a 54-year-old nonprofit executive, in a video message.

The candidate dropped out just ahead of the final round of primary results that are expected to be released July 6. Morales had been far back in the field after several rounds of ranked-choice voting.

Among the most liberal candidates, she had pledged to cut $3 billion from the New York City Police Department's budget during a campaign that came to focus on issues of crime and justice.

After campaign manager Whitney Hu departed amid conflicting accounts of staff friction, Morales faced controversy when some campaign workers were either fired or left for trying to unionize. The campaign fired more than 40 staff members who participated in a work stoppage.

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