Rochester’s presumptive mayor-elect, Malik Evans, cast his ballot at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Rochester Academy of Medicine expressing hope about the future but calling the day “bittersweet.”
Evans, 41, has been on every general election ballot in Rochester since 2003, but this year’s Election Day marked the first that he was without his father and political mentor, Lawrance Lee Evans Sr., who died in 2018 and would have turned 76 years old Tuesday.
“Today is Nov. 2, it would have been my dad’s birthday,” Evans said. “My father has been involved with every single general election I’ve had. So it’s almost bittersweet and ironic that the election falls on the first general election that he’s not here with me.”
Evans, a member of the City Council, arrived at the polling station with his 10-year-old son, Cameron, in tow, sounding chipper and expressing hope about that his administration could “accomplish great things.”
When asked if the boy was his son, Evans quipped, “No, he’s just some kid I picked up off the street.” His son shot back, “I’m your first-born son.”
Evans dismissed the idea that his impending election, which is uncontested and has been a foregone conclusion since he defeated Mayor Lovely Warren in the Democratic primary in June, was anti-climactic.
“We’re preparing an administration, and although that stuff doesn’t make a lot of the headlines, that’s what we’ve really been spending the time with,” Evans said. “So for me and the staff it’s absolutely not anti-climactic.”
He said he has been reading, researching, and thinking about the future of Rochester as he builds his cabinet, which he acknowledged remained incomplete. Evans added that he would spend part of the day calling supporters to thank them and contacting people he was hoping to draw into his administration.
“The future I envision is one where we build a bridge to the future of Rochester where we really try to take Rochester to the next level, where we are proud to say that we accomplished great things in Rochester, where violence is something in the rear view mirror, and that we have a city where my kids, where my son, who I brought to vote today, are proud of,” Evans said.
Evans is scheduled to join Democrats at the Hyatt Regency Rochester Tuesday night to celebrate his victory.
But before he did that, he said, he planned to stop by Riverside Cemetery to visit his father on his birthday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXBJB9OuBds
David Andreatta is CITY's editor. He can be reached at dandreatta@rochester-citynews.com.