Adrienne Adams faces a formidable group of men in her bid for New York City Mayor
Her likely opponents include the current mayor, Eric Adams, and former governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo
If elected in November 2025, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would be New York City’s first female mayor.
March 2025: Even before Adrienne Adams publicly announced her candidacy for New York City Mayor, her fourth and probably last State of the City address as council speaker sounded like a campaign speech. Not only did she highlight her work in areas like housing affordability, public safety and education – all issues that voters are particularly concerned about – she pointedly criticised NYC’s current mayor, Eric Adams. Adrienne Adams, a member of the Democratic Party like the mayor, questioned his opaque relationship with President Donald Trump. (N.B. Though they share the same surname, the speaker and mayor are unrelated.)
Adrienne Adams – she prefers to be referred to simply by her first name Adrienne to avoid being linked to Mayor Adams – announced her decision to run for mayor on Saturday, 8 March 2025. The mayoral race is now crowded with a total of ten Democrats vying for the seat, including New York Assembly Members Jessica Ramos, and Zohran Mamdani, former NYC assembly member Michael Blake, former NYC comptroller Scott Stringer, in addition to the incumbent mayor and former Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo. If elected, Adrienne would be New York’s first women mayor.
Confirming her decision to enter the mayoral race, Adrienne said that she never planned to run after being sworn in as speaker of the NYC council in January 2022. “But,” she added, “I’m not giving up on New York City. Our city deserves a leader who serves its people first and always, not someone focused on themselves and their political interests. I’m a public servant, mother, and Queens girl and I’m running for Mayor. No drama, no nonsense - just my commitment to leading with competence and integrity.”
Her run for mayor would be Adrienne’s first municipal campaign in a city where her name recognition is low. She will need to quickly fundraise and assemble a team with fewer than four months until the 24 June Democratic primary. She has very little time to qualify for the city’s public matching funds programme, which is essential for anyone running for mayor. She also faces some formidable opponents.
According to a poll by Quinnipiac, Andrew Cuomo is the current (10 March) front-runner, being favoured by 31 per cent of registered Democrats. The poll puts Adrienne at four per cent, but the compilation does not account for NYC’s ranked-choice voting.
Speaker Adrienne presides over the first female majority council in New York’s 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.
As Mayor of New York, Adrienne will not only have to serve her city competently but, in an increasingly divided US society, take on the Trump administration. An almost immediate decision she will have to make is whether to maintain the city’s sanctuary city status.
Adrianne will also have to perform on the international stage. The mayorship of New York is globally the most high-profile one. Foreign finance, trade and investment are vital for the prosperity of the city. The last NYC mayor who fulfilled the role of city ambassador with panache was Michael Bloomberg (2002 to 2013). His predecessor, Rudy Giuliani (1994 to 2001), achieved global recognition due to his handling of the 9/11 aftermath.
Confirmed Democrat candidates for Mayor of NYC:
Eric Adams: Incumbent mayor
Andrew Cuomo: Former New York State governor
Brad Lander: New York City comptroller
Adrienne Adams: New York City Council speaker
Jessica Ramos: New York State senator
Zellnor Myrie: New York State senator
Zohran Mamdani: NYC Council member
Scott Stringer: Former comptroller
Michael Blake: Political consultant, associate pastor
Jim Walden: Lawyer
Witney Tilson: Investor and investment research
Curtis Sliwa: Founder of vigilante anti-crime group Guardian Angels
Source: City & State Media, 8 March 2025.
Of the last ten NYC mayors, seven were members of the Democratic Party, two mayors started as Republicans but later switched to the Democrats. Michael Bloomberg was first elected on a Republican ticket but ran as an independent for his third term.