Bill de Blasio wins the most votes in NYC mayor’s primary

Bill de Blasio holds a significant lead in the race to become the next mayor of New York City after winning a majority in Tuesday's primary. 

By Tuesday evening, de Blasio's vote tally was hovering around the 40 percent mark with three-fifths of the vote counted, according to POLITICO. 

A 40 percent benchmark would avoid a runoff with the apparent second-place candidate, William C. Thompson Jr.

Thompson, a former city comptroller, was at 26 percent and City Council President Christine Quinn at 15 percent.

Anthony Weiner trailed behind in fifth place with 5 percent.

Exit polls showed de Blasio sailing toward the finish line with support from nearly all key voting blocs. The Brooklynite had the votes of men and women, blacks, whites and Hispanics, and residents of all boroughs except the Bronx, reports the New York Times.

Earlier in the day, de Blasio told reporters that he was prepared to take his race all the way through a runoff. "We expect a runoff, we're ready for a runoff, and we've been planning all along for it," de Blasio said when he voted.

Underlining his central campaign theme, de Blasio criticized three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"The mayor has been increasingly unwilling to address inequality and that is the central issue of our times. I made inequality the core issue and I think people responded to it."

Bloomberg has not endorsed any of the candidates in the race but in an interview with New York magazine he seemed to hint that he supported Quinn.

The city council speaker is vying to become the first woman and openly gay mayor of New York City.

"I'm incredibly confident, particularly given the amazing response I've been getting all over the city in the past few days that I'm going to be in the runoff and three weeks from now, we'll be right back here again and I'll win the runoff," Quinn told reporters after casting her ballot in Chelsea.

Thompson, the lone African-American candidate, went up against Bloomberg in the mayoral race of 2009 and came very close to knocking the billionaire incumbent out of the race.

Anthony Weiner — the candidate who's attracted the most headlines during the race for a series of lewd text messages — is trailing in a distant fourth.

The former congressman's lead in the race evaporated when it emerged he continued to send the explicit messages to women even after leaving office.

He was recently caught on cellphone camera confronting a heckler who had insulted his wife.

More from GlobalPost: Anthony Weiner confronts heckler as cellphone cameras roll (VIDEO)

Reuters contributed to this report.