By Jazmine Hughes

No matter the primary results tonight, the mood at Dianne Morales’s election party was festive and celebratory: it also functioned as the candidate’s birthday party. (She turned 54 on Monday.)

Supporters and staff gathered at The Corners in Bedford-Stuyvesant, her neighborhood bar, and feasted on mac and cheese, fried chicken and ribs, all ordered from a local joint. A cake birthday cake was offered for dessert.

“It feels like we’re in the middle, at a crossroads, starting the next chapter,” Ms. Morales said, addressing the crowd around 9:30 p.m.

In a speech that referenced Frederick Douglass, Shirley Chisholm and Michelle Obama, Ms. Morales described the challenges her campaign, historic in its elevation of an Afro-Latina woman to the mayoral ballot, had overcome in order to make it to election night.

“The path has not been easy: my candidacy was erased, dismissed, subjected to racist and sexist tropes and underestimated,” she said. “But we challenged idea that political outsiders can’t run for office.”

Regardless of the outcome, Ms. Morales’ ideological effect on the race is a point of pride for her. She said that the excitement around her campaign, the furthest left in the field, had invariably pushed other candidates to be more progressive. “Almost every candidate in this race has shifted their positions to be closer to ours,” said Ms. Morales. “We can track the changes.”

She redoubled her commitment to working to transform the city, especially on behalf of marginalized communities. “I am convinced now more than ever that if anyone can do it, we can.”

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