Eric Adams

Eric Adams’ latest role: mayoral candidate

The Brooklyn BP is launching his campaign with a video

Eric Adams is releasing a video kicking off his mayoral campaign, shared exclusively with City & State.

Eric Adams is releasing a video kicking off his mayoral campaign, shared exclusively with City & State. Adams for NYC

Eric Adams has played many roles throughout his life. He was a teenager, “traveling down the wrong path,” arrested for trespassing into the home of somebody who owed him and his brother money.

He was the young Black radical who joined the New York City Police Department and became one of its fiercest critics, courting controversy while calling out racism throughout his 22 years on the force. 

He was a state Senator, and then Brooklyn borough president, always commenting on the issues of the day while sharing his own story of defeating diabetes through healthy eating. 

And on Wednesday, Adams is going to reintroduce himself to New York City voters in a new role: as a mayoral candidate.

Adams is releasing a video kicking off his mayoral campaign, shared exclusively with City & State. He’s also hosting a digital press conference at noon with supporters and endorsements from elected officials where he’s expected to officially make the announcement.

Adams’ run has been anticipated for years, and he’s made no secret of the fact that he would be joining the June Democratic primary for mayor. Adams has raised $2.1 million as of the latest filing deadline in June, and can expect millions more in his account when public matching funds are released in December. That will likely make him the best-funded candidate in the race. After years of laying the groundwork and building political connections, Adams is entering the race as one of the race’s top candidates.

Given all that, Adams is disappointed that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is keeping him from having the kind of kick-off party he wanted.

“We wanted to show people the diversity of our support,” Adams said in an interview with City & State ahead of the announcement. “We were really looking forward to having people wearing a hijab, wearing a dashiki, wearing a yarmulke, a kufi, dressing in traditional garb. We just really want to put on display a thousand people who were coming out and saying that we know this man.”

That’s key to Adams’ pitch to voters. While other candidates are looking to white collar workers and moneyed types, he’s the candidate for a different type of New Yorker. 

“My voter wakes up in the morning, they pull the gate up in front of their shop,” he said. “They sweep up so they don’t get a summons from a heavy handed city. They do 13 or 14 hours hoping they can eke out a living for their family. And they want to be safe. That’s my voter.”

And Adams, though he has spent the last 14 years as an elected official, identifies as a different kind of New Yorker himself. “I am going to be the first blue collar mayor,” he said. “My nails are not manicured. They’re chipped. People shake my hand, they feel the callouses.” 

But Adams is at home with the donor class too. He is “a guy that is comfortable drinking merlot in one community or drinking beer in another.”

His launch video establishes that appeal. It’s a four minute tour through Adams’ life, starting with his story of getting arrested at age 15 with his brother and brought to a police precinct in Jamaica, Queens. There, the police officer told the boys they were going to get a “beatdown” and brought them downstairs to brutally kick them.

As anybody who heard Adams’ “go back to Iowa” political invective against gentrifiers in January knows, the man is a New York native, raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, then South Jamaica, Queens. Over video of the modest home where he was raised with five siblings, Adams talks of living on the edge of poverty, carrying a garbage bag of clothes to school because he was afraid the family would be evicted during the day. 

Adams, now 60 years old, lives in a Bed-Stuy townhouse he owns – when he isn’t sleeping at Brooklyn Borough Hall, as he did throughout the early months of the pandemic. 

From a difficult youth, Adams was able to “rise up” into the NYPD, activism and politics, the launch video says. Just as the city can “rise up” out of the coronavirus pandemic, increasing crime rates, and government inefficiency. “Rise up” seems to be a campaign slogan throughout the video, but the candidate himself declined to elaborate when asked about it, preferring his own bon mot: “We’re dysfunctional,” he said, referring to city government. “And the inefficiencies lead to inequities that give us the injustices that we’re seeing.”

Adams is all about inefficiency, and will go on at length about government programs that could be fixed. The foster care system. Rehabilitating public housing. Licensing pet dogs. Politically, he identifies as “a pragmatic progressive” who thinks “the term progressive has been hijacked” when the real progressives are people like him who promote dyslexia screenings in every school as a way to combat educational inequities. 

Adams faces many opponents in the Democratic primary, including New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, former counsel to the mayor Maya Wiley, former Citigroup Vice Chair Ray McGuire, former White House Budget Director Shaun Donovan, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales and former Veterans’ Services Commissioner Loree Sutton. Many of them will try and paint Adams as a moderate who is all too happy to take donations from real estate interests that other candidates shun. Adams was, after all, a registered Republican from 1995 to 2002. But Adams can be difficult to characterize politically – never somebody to easily fit in a political box. This campaign launch gives Adams an opportunity to reinvent himself once again, as a serious contender for mayor of New York City, and millions of voters will be watching.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.