Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams introduced late Wednesday she’s going to run for mayor this 12 months, leaping into an already crowded major area that was reshaped by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s current entry into the race.
“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,” the speaker mentioned in a press release confirming her plans to run for mayor.
“I never planned to run for mayor, but I’m not giving up on New York City,” she continued. “Our city deserves a leader that serves its people first and always, not someone focused on themselves and their own political interests.”
The speaker — whose announcement was first reported by Politico — faces an uphill battle in mounting a run in opposition to Mayor Adams in June’s Democratic major.
Although seen internally within the Council as a gentle hand, she has little identify recognition on a citywide stage.
Petitioning for the first, meantime, began late final month and should be accomplished by April 3, giving her staff a brief window of time to finish the labor intensive signature course of required to get on the June 24 poll.
In line with a supply acquainted with the matter, the speaker will instantly begin petitioning.
The speaker solely had about $210,000 in her Council marketing campaign account on the finish of the newest submitting interval. That pales compared to the thousands and thousands of {dollars} that a lot of the different Democratic 2025 mayoral candidates are sitting on after months of fundraising.
Speaker Adams’ candidacy may spell hassle for each Mayor Adams and Cuomo, although.
New York Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams delivers the State of the Metropolis tackle on the Jazz at Lincoln Heart live performance corridor in Manhattan on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
Representing a bit of japanese Queens that features Jamaica and South Ozone Park, the speaker is standard with average Black voters, a key base of political assist that the mayor and Cuomo additionally court docket. The speaker endorsed Eric Adams’ profitable 2021 marketing campaign, however has since soured on him amid heavy clashes over coverage and budgetary points.
For months, Cuomo — who launched his marketing campaign on March 1 — has been ranked in polls because the race’s clear front-runner, as Mayor Adams faces intense political headwinds amid his persevering with federal corruption indictment, surrounding scandals and record-low approval scores.
The speaker’s entry may scramble Cuomo’s calculus within the race, given their overlapping bases of assist.
“I’m a public servant, mother, Queens girl and I’m running for mayor,” her assertion mentioned. “No drama, no nonsense—just my commitment to leading with competence and integrity.”
She is barely the second girl to announce a mayoral marketing campaign this 12 months, with the opposite being Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who introduced her run in September. If elected, Adams would change into the primary Black girl and feminine mayor in New York historical past, giving her candidacy a historic air.
Adams was first elected to the Council in 2017 and is term-limited from serving one other 4 years within the legislative physique.
She’s broadly thought of a average Democrat although she has as speaker helped push by means of a slate of progressive laws. That features main the cost to override the mayor’s vetoes final 12 months of two high-profile public security payments that carried out new transparency necessities on NYPD officers and banned solitary confinement in metropolis jails.
Adams has additionally as speaker clashed with the mayor over budgetary issues and mounted an aggressive advocacy marketing campaign final 12 months that resulted within the mayor undoing spending cuts he enacted to town’s public libraries.
In her fourth and ultimate State of the Metropolis speech as speaker earlier this week, Adams hinted at her discontent with the mayor.
“The dignity and trust in government leadership has been shaken in our city,” she mentioned, “and it must be restored.”
