New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio may be white, but he isn’t boring, according to his 18-year-old daughter Chiara de Blasio.
She gave a speech at a fundraising event on Sunday and introduced her father in a delivery that ended in applause and a hug from her mother, Chirlane McCray.
“I’m so happy that I get to work with my dad and the rest of my family on this campaign, because, you know it’d be one thing if I just thought he was just like some boring white guy who didn’t know what he was talking about,” she said in a video.
“But you know, he truly– he cares about everybody in this city, every different type of person. You know, rich poor, black white, blue, whatever,” she goes on to say.
McCray — who is African-American — has been married to de Blasio for 19 years and they have two biracial children together, Chiara, and 15-year-old Dante.
Dante has also appeared in a campaign ad for his father, in which he says de Blasio is “the only one who will end a stop-and-frisk era that unfairly targets people of color. Bill de Blasio will be a mayor for every New Yorker, no matter where they live or what they look like and I’d say that even if he weren’t my dad.”
After being an underdog in the mayor’s race for months, de Blasio has recently surged in many recent NYC polls, even taking the lead in one.
Most observers suggest his position on stop-and-frisk has been the biggest boost to his campaign, especially among black voters.
Follow Lilly Workneh on Twitter @Lilly_Works