NEW YORK — New York Mayor Eric Adams set out Thursday to persuade skeptical voters to grant him a second term, hosting a kickoff event for his independent reelection bid after a corruption indictment, a controversial dismissal and a decision to drop out of a the Democratic primary.
Standing on the steps of City Hall, Adams sought to draw a contrast between himself and the likely Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani, casting the young liberal as a child of privilege with no real political achievements or realistic policies.
“This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a silver spoon,” Adams said. “A choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails.”
Two days ago, progressive upstart Mamdani declared a stunning Democratic primary victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the presumed favorite despite a sexual harassment scandal that forced him from office four years ago.
Results will be finalized after the city’s ranked choice vote-counting resumes July 1, and the winner advances to November’s election against candidates including Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime group.
Adams, 64, is a retired police captain who later became a state senator and Brooklyn’s borough president. He presents himself as a champion of working-class New York, public safety and an upbeat, self-believing attitude he calls “swagger” — the kind of drive that propelled a house-cleaner’s son to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s most populous metropolis.
Mamdani, 33, is the son of an award-winning filmmaker and an anthropology professor at Columbia University. He graduated from a private liberal arts college, worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor and had a side-hustle as a rapper before first being elected to the New York Assembly in 2020. Despite his short resume, the democratic socialist has picked up significant momentum with an energetic campaign centered on improving the cost of living.
Adams, still a registered Democrat, pulled out of the primary to run as an independent candidate in April, shortly after a federal judge dismissed the corruption case against him. Adams, who had struggled to raise money, argued the legal saga had sidelined him from the campaign trail.
He has done little in the way of campaigning since then. But as the results in Tuesday’s primary were coming in, showing Mamdani with a commanding position, Adams underscored his own independent run with a post on social media that “the fight for New York’s future begins tonight.”
Adams has seemed to relish a general election matchup with Mamdani, whose relative political inexperience and criticisms of law enforcement could afford Adams a viable reelection lane.
Democratic nominees generally enjoy strong tailwinds in a city where about two-thirds of registered voters are Democrats. But New Yorkers elected an unaffiliated mayor as recently as 2009, when incumbent Mike Bloomberg won a third term after leaving the Republican Party.
The big question for Adams: whether he can overcome his shaky standing with voters.
He might woo moderate and business-focused Cuomo supporters uneasy about Mamdani. Though Cuomo himself is mulling an independent campaign that would put him on the general election ballot as well.
