In a showdown between the Brooklyn Democratic Party and the mayor who once lead the borough, Eric Adams lost.

Monique Chandler-Waterman trounced the mayor’s preferred candidate, Hercules Reid, in a special election for an Assembly seat Tuesday. Reid only managed to get 18% of the vote, while Chandler-Waterman ended with close to 80%.

“I am humbled, grateful and thankful,” Chandler-Waterman said from Albany.

The pair will face off once again in the June primary.

A former non-profit executive who recently worked for the city’s test and trace COVID-19 program, Chandler-Waterman was the nominee of the Brooklyn Democrats and the Working Families Party. She will now serve in the Assembly until the end of the year, representing parts of East Flatbush, Brownsville and Canarsie.

“Truly affordable, income-targeted affordability for our community. That’s the top priority,” she said.

But her rival Reid, a former Adams aide, vows to run again in the June 28th primary, which will select the Democratic nominee to run for a full two-year term beginning in January 2023. In deep blue Brooklyn, the Democratic primary winner will almost certainly win in the November general election.

At a campaign event earlier this month, the mayor said Reid was “the right person for the right time.”

“There’s no permanent enemies in this, there’s no permanent friends. We all work together for permanent issues and making sure we find permanent solutions,” said Chandler-Waterman when asked about working with Adams in the future.

In a statement, Reid said in part: “This incredibly low-turnout special election result will only be temporary. I will not back down against insiders trying to install one of their own in this seat.”

Only 2,400 voters participated in this election to fill the vacancy left by former Assemblyman Nick Perry, now the US Ambassador to Jamaica.

The Republican and Conservative candidate Monique Allen-Davy got two percent of the vote.