Top Dem Launches Late Run For New York City Mayor

NEW YORK — New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is running for mayor, making a late entrance into the Democratic primary to unseat indicted Mayor Eric Adams.

Her decision stands to shake up the race as her traditional base of support overlaps with that of the two scandal-scarred executives headlining the contest: Mayor Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“New Yorkers can't afford to live here, City Hall is in chaos, and Donald Trump is corrupting our city's independence. It’s time to stand up,” Speaker Adams said in a statement.

“I never planned to run for Mayor, but I’m not giving up on New York City,” she added. “Our city deserves a leader that serves its people first and always, not someone focused on themselves and their own political interests. I’m a public servant, mother, Queens girl and I’m running for Mayor. No drama, no nonsense—just my commitment to leading with competence and integrity.”

She’s expected to begin petitioning for ballot access immediately, according to a person familiar with her plans who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. She is also planning to hold a campaign rally Saturday in her home borough of Queens.

This would be Speaker Adams’ first citywide race and the low-profile legislative leader would need to quickly fundraise and build out a team with fewer than four months until the June 24 Democratic primary. She has low name recognition and very little time to qualify for the city’s public matching funds program — all but essential for anyone running for mayor.

Speaker Adams endorsed Eric Adams for mayor in 2021, but the two — who attended high school together and bear no relation — have had an increasingly tense relationship. They have battled over police reform, housing voucher policy and the balance of power in city government, and she eviscerated him for attending the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump instead of local Martin Luther King Jr. Day events last month.

Her decision comes more than a week after candidates began petitioning to get on the ballot and reflects deep anxiety among elements of New York’s Democratic establishment about their options in the primary.

As of Wednesday, Cuomo — who entered the race over the weekend — appears to be the frontrunner, capturing 31 percent of registered Democrats voters in a Quinnipiac Poll that put Speaker Adams at 4 percent. But the survey did not offer a simulation of ranked-choice voting, which can alter the outcome of an election.

The speaker has only won an election in her individual council district and, unlike her predecessors, wasn’t planning to run for higher office throughout her tenure. She only recently became convinced to jump into the primary following a recruitment campaign from Attorney General Letitia James and leaders of District Council 37, the city’s largest public workers union, POLITICO first reported last month.

Deputy council Speaker Diana Ayala tried to spin her colleague’s longstanding political reticence into a positive.

“We need to stop recycling the same type of politician,” she told POLITICO. “There’s just too much at stake right now to play politics. We need somebody that’s actually going to focus on the leading and not on the publicity.”

Speaker Adams attended a candidate screening forum of the politically influential union 32BJ SEIU — which represents building service workers — Saturday and has avoided opportunities in recent days to go after Cuomo.

But Speaker Adams unleashed frustration Tuesday with the state of leadership in New York as she delivered an annual speech, saying “New York City is bigger than one person, and our city deserves leadership that prioritizes its people over individual glory or interests.”

“We need solutions more than slogans,” she added, “service rather than saviors and partnership over patriarchy.”

She got an early, positive reception from the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who is first in line to replace the mayor if he were to resign. Williams, a self-described activist elected official, has already backed City Comptroller Brad Lander’s candidacy but offered warm words for Speaker Adams.

“I am very excited about Adrienne. Very excited. I want to see what she brings. My main focus is DREAM. Gotta make DREAM happen. ‘Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor,’ Williams said in an interview Wednesday. “Let’s live the dream. And I think she can be a part of that.”

Speaker Adams’ entrance speaks to dissatisfaction with the mayor, who received a paltry 20 percent approval rating in Wednesday’s Quinnipiac poll.

Mayor Adams came under fire after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department moved to dismiss his federal corruption case to secure the mayor’s help with immigration enforcement. Cuomo looms as a leading contender, but some political players dread the return of his domineering style and view his past scandals as disqualifying. Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 following sexual misconduct accusations, which he has denied.

Other challengers have yet to break through, recent polling shows — though they have about 16 weeks to change the trajectory of the race. Those poll results have sown doubts about their ability to overcome Cuomo’s persistent popularity, and some political and labor leaders would prefer a mayor with more moderate politics than many in the left-leaning field.

Enter Speaker Adams, a 64-year-old former corporate trainer for Fortune 500 companies who hails from a vote-rich section of southeast Queens that’s predominantly home to older Black Democrats.

The speaker is known to business, real estate and political players around the city through her legislative leadership role, but her public name recognition is nowhere near that of Cuomo or the mayor. A churchgoing grandmother, she’s a graduate of Spelman College and is active with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority — both prominent Black institutions with ties to fundraising operations. She stands to compete for votes in central Brooklyn and southeast Queens, both of which are predominantly Black and key to Cuomo’s path to victory.

New York City voters have never elected a woman as mayor. The only female competing so far, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, has struggled to raise money.

Speaker Adams presides over the first female majority council in city history — a fact she’s been proud to mention regularly.

She will need to immediately raise a lot of money. She had just $211,000 in a city campaign account as of her last filing, compared to the $3 to $4 million other contenders have.

But she won’t be eligible for a payment from the city’s public funds program until mid-April at the earliest, as POLITICO reported last week. She is not known as an eager fundraiser, and if she doesn’t bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars soon, she may not unlock matching funds until May 30, just weeks before the primary.

Council speakers have run for mayor before. Christine Quinn was an early front runner in 2013 before losing to Bill de Blasio. Quinn’s bid — and the failed citywide attempts of speakers before and after her — underscore the pitfalls associated with seeking citywide office as a legislative leader. Council speakers are responsible for balancing the often disparate interests of 50 other council members, leading to controversial bills and real estate and budget decisions.

The right-leaning New York Post already ran an op-ed slamming her as “in thrall to the antisemitic left,” in part for considering a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Speaker Adams did not end up bringing any resolution for a vote.

Under her leadership, the council opposed Mayor Adams’ budget cuts, refused to entertain any rollback of sanctuary city policies and joined a lawsuit challenging him for refusing to implement the council’s laws expanding access to housing rental vouchers.

The speaker also overrode the mayor’s vetoes on a pair of bills increasing oversight on police and correction officers, and lambasted him for acting like a “king” for pushing through ballot proposals meant to increase his influence in the legislative process.

Speaker Adams’ platform for a mayoral campaign isn’t clear yet. But at her State of the City address Tuesday, she suggested she’d pitch herself as somebody above politics.

“Throughout my time in office, I’ve been labeled as a ‘moderate’ in people’s attempt to make sense of who I am,” she said. “But my focus has always been public service, which has no political label.”