Trump’s absentee vote in New York polls to no avail, Democrat Mayor for 2nd term

Washington: The White House said US President Donald Trump cast an absentee ballot in Tuesday’s municipal elections in his hometown of New York City.

Principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah confirmed that Trump voted, but declined to say for whom he voted.

Progressive Democrat Bill de Blasio cruised to re-election for a second term as mayor of New York, US media reported, riding a wave of home-town distaste for Donald Trump in America’s most populous city.

The 56-year-old former city councillor from Brooklyn easily defeated his Republican challenger, 36-year-old Nicole Malliotakis, the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Cuban mother, media said.

With 79% of votes counted, de Blasio was swept into office for another four years.

The vote was seen as a ringing endorsement for De Blasio’s anti-Trump stance in an overwhelmingly Democratic city where 80 percent of the electorate voted for Hillary Clinton and Trump is despised. Since Trump swapped Fifth Avenue for the White House, the mayor has emerged as a strident opponent, regularly denouncing the Republican’s attempts to restrict immigration and repeal the Affordable Care Act.