Adrienne Adams is officially a candidate for mayor of New York City.
The City Council speaker is the latest and (likely) final major entry into the Democratic primary, following Andrew Cuomo. Adams, who is of no relation to Mayor Eric Adams, kicked off her campaign in Southeast Queens on Saturday with more than a hundred supporters, including a number of sitting city and state legislators. It was an impressive early show of strength for a candidate who could vault to the top tier if she manages to quickly catch up to her rivals in fundraising.
Had Speaker Adams kicked off her campaign last year, beginning her fundraising around the same time as Democrats like Brad Lander and Zellnor Myrie, she would have multiple millions in public matching funds by now. She might have even begun the process of lining up endorsements from major labor unions and leading elected officials. For now, she’ll have to settle for an assemblage of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Bronx Democrats whom she leads in the City Council, along with Queens State Senator James Sanders Jr. and Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi.
Can the speaker actually win? Maybe. Cuomo is the clear frontrunner, holding a polling lead of at least 20 points over the rest of the field in most surveys. Eric Adams, even with his federal corruption charges dropped, appears to be mortally wounded, and there are lingering questions over whether he’ll seek re-election after all. Petitioning is underway and we’ll soon know whether the mayor reaches the ballot.
Both Cuomo and Adrienne Adams will be fighting over Eric Adams’ 2021 winning coalition: working- and middle-class outer-borough Black and Latino voters, along with a smattering of white moderates and Orthodox Jews. Cuomo has the advantage over Adrienne Adams with the latter two groups, but if she does fundraise well and win the backing of a few large labor unions, she can effectively block Cuomo from finishing first in central Brooklyn, Southeast Queens, and the Black neighborhoods of the Bronx.
Politically, the City Council speaker is often described as a moderate but she has managed strong working relationships with her body’s progressive wing. She is campaigning on housing affordability and expanding early childhood education. In left-leaning brownstone Brooklyn, northern Brooklyn, and western Queens, she is more likely to appear on ballots than Cuomo, who may suffer from an emerging DREAM movement (Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor) and repeated attacks on his record as governor, including his management of the pandemic and the sexual harassment scandals that drove him from office.
If Adrienne Adams does move upward in the polls, she might be able to pick off some of the real estate support that could drift to Cuomo. The City Council speaker could be too liberal for their liking, but she did shepherd City of Yes, the massive rezoning that will add more than 100,00 new homes, through the legislature. If Attorney General Letitia James, a quiet Adrienne Adams backer, leans on the city’s politicians, civic leaders, and business leaders to support the speaker, she will be in a strong position.
For now, her greatest challenge will be getting known. She’s a well-regarded legislative leader but has kept a lower profile than her recent predecessors. Beyond her Queens base, she is mostly unrecognizable to the electorate. Since fundraising is such a pressing concern, it might be harder for her, initially, to do a great deal of retail politics.
If the cash shows up quickly — if she is able, in a month or two from now, to close the gap with her rivals — she will have a chance to topple Cuomo. She has her work cut out for her.
Ross Barkan is a journalist and author in New York City.
