Eric Adams kicks off reelection campaign seeking improbable comeback story

Politico

3 days ago

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams kicked off his long-shot reelection campaign with a rally on the steps of City Hall Thursday, slamming likely Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani as out of touch and inexperienced as the mayor seeks to rehabilitate his flailing political career.
'This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue-collar and one with a suit and a silver spoon,' Adams said, referencing the 33-year-old state lawmaker who stunned the political establishment with his near victory over Andrew Cuomo Tuesday. 'A choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails. A choice between someone who delivered lower crime, the most jobs in history, the most new housing … and an assemblymember who did not pass a bill.'
Adams was flanked by hundreds of supporters, including two aides whose homes were raided by the FBI in 2023, as he delivered an address that leaned into his personal history and 3½ years at the helm of city government.
Adamsdropped out of the Democratic primary in April while facing federal bribery charges, instead opting to run in the general election on an independent ballot line. He now begins his uphill battle days after Mamdani — who, contrary to the mayor's claim, has passed four bills — won the first round of ranked-choice voting with backing from affluent white voters in Brooklyn and Queens.
The mayor is polling abysmally for an incumbent, a station predicated by corruption allegations and his warm relationship with President Donald Trump, whose Department of Justice successfully moved to dismiss Adams' criminal case this spring. A recent surveyconducted by the Manhattan Institute found the mayor trailing Mamdani in a general election and losing to the state lawmaker, Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, should the former governor run on an independent line of his own.
The mayor's low standing was evidenced Thursday by a dearth of institutional support from sitting elected officials. His emcee for the proceedings was former state Assemblymember Inez Dickens, who retired from her Harlem seat last year. And his surrogates were predominantly religious leaders — a point driven home when a protester who infiltrated the gathering began shouting expletives at Adams.
'We utilize the letter F for faith,' Adams said in response.
One of the attending religious leaders, Moishe Indig, presides over an influential bloc of Orthodox Jewish voters in Brooklyn. He pledged to support Adams at a recent event, despite endorsing Cuomo in the primary.
While his chances appear slim, Adams has a few attributes: He was a charismatic and dogged campaigner in 2021 — attributes he shares with his chief rival — and Mamdani's success has so rattled the city's business and real estate leaders that they are scrambling for a way to beat the democratic socialist in November. That fear could be channeled into a pecuniary lifeline for the mayor, whose campaign has lost out on millions of dollars from campaign regulators who denied him public matching funds.
Speaking over a steady din from niche protesters — many appearing to take issue with Adams' cinematic perp walk of accused murderer Luigi Mangione — Adams recounted his low-income upbringing in Brooklyn and Queens, a biography that resonated during his first run with his erstwhile base of working-class Black and Latino voters.
'I always knew what struggle was,' he said.
He recalled his time as a police captain and his first-term accomplishments — some of which he had more influence over than others — that include a dramatic drop in murders and shootings on his watch, a record level of affordable housing financed by his administration and a growing economy.
He said he'd focus on driving down crime, launching a citywide mental health initiative and expanding workforce development during a second term, but didn't offer much in the way of details.
A general election without Cuomo presents the most straightforward, albeit narrow, path for the mayor, who would have a shot at winning back Black voters wary of Mamdani.
Those voters are among the most loyal Democrats. And Latino voters, who formed a load-bearing pillar of the mayor's 2021 coalition, broke for Mamdani Tuesday.
Mamdani pushed back on the mayor's criticisms.
'New Yorkers have been suffocated by a cost of living crisis and this mayor has taken almost every opportunity to exacerbate it, all while partnering with Donald Trump to tear our city apart,' he said in a statement, referencing Adams' support of federal immigration agencies.
In contrasting himself with Mamdani's promises of free childcare, fare-less buses and city-run grocery stores, Adams employed rhetoric placing him well to the right of the archetypal moderate Democrat being sought by the city's permanent government — an indicator of the mayor's flirtations with the GOP and MAGA luminaries that could cause him trouble over the next five months.
'There's no dignity in simply giving you everything for free. There's dignity in giving you a job so you can provide for the family and the opportunities you deserve,' Adams said. 'This is not a city of handouts.'