2025 New York City Mayoral Election
Here’s who’s running for New York City mayor in 2025
Get to know the candidates in a wide, weird field.
He's baaaack. Al Drago/Getty Images
It’s certainly an unusual New York City mayor’s race. Spurred by a historic indictment of the sitting mayor, a long list of prominent Democrats started fundraising to see if they can topple incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in the June 24 Democratic primary. But in a stunning turn of events, Adams is no longer facing corruption charges – and he’s no longer running for reelection as a Democrat. He is running for reelection now as an independent, he announced, just one day after a judge accepted a request from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to dismiss the charges against him. Free from his legal troubles and untethered to a Democratic Party that he remains unpopular in, Adams’ path to reelection is a narrow one. But no longer needing to vie for support in the Democratic primary this June, he now has until November to make the case for why he should be given a second term – giving him more much needed time to recover from the reputational fallout of his now dismissed case.
Now that they are finished petitioning to get on the primary ballot, the remaining Democratic candidates will blaze forward in the final weeks, seeking to shake up a field in which former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is currently the clear front-runner.
Here are all the prominent mayoral contenders. This post was last updated June 6.
Skip to: Independent incumbent Eric Adams, Democratic primary candidates: Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, Scott Stringer, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Michael Blake, Whitney Tilson, Independent candidate Jim Walden, Republican Curtis Sliwa
Eric Adams
His ideological stance in brief: Conservative, pro-business Democrat who is now running as an independent candidate. More likely to criticize progressives than the Trump administration.
Major endorsements: None reported yet.
Fundraising: $4.5 million raised so far. He has an estimated $2.7 million in the bank, as of May 30. He has been denied public matching funds so far.
Where’s home? Gracie Mansion, but he previously claimed to live in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
What is he running on? Delivering a “safer, more affordable city,” illegal smokeshops are closing, the landmark City of Yes zoning reform will spur more housing. He’s running on the “Safe Streets, Affordable City” and “EndAntiSemitism” ballot lines in November.
What’s holding him back? Federal corruption charges that were suddenly dropped by Trump’s DOJ, coziness to Trump, abysmal approval ratings, being denied public matching funds… it’s also not easy to win as an independent candidate.
What’s his deal: There’s a reason so many candidates have come out to challenge Adams. He certainly started 2025 with more political vulnerabilities than most incumbent mayors do. The most obvious of course is the fact that he faced a federal criminal indictment on bribery and corruption charges – at least until the Trump Justice Department instructed the Manhattan U.S. Attorney to drop them. The mayor’s overtures to the Republican president, including trips to Florida and Washington to get in his good graces, seem to have paid off. On April 2, a federal judge dismissed his charges with prejudice – meaning prosecutors are unable to reopen the case. While the Department of Justice did not weigh in on the merits of the corruption charges, this frees Adams, at least in part, from the perception that Donald Trump has total control over him.
Adams has always maintained he did nothing wrong.
Adams announced on April 3 that he’d run for reelection as an independent instead of running in the Democratic primary. This move will give the mayor more time to make a case to voters on why he should be given a second term – and set up what’s likely to be an unusually competitive general election in November – but he still faces great obstacles.
Adams has struggled to maintain a sense of stability in his administration. He was pressured by the governor to clean house last year after multiple aides were touched by federal investigations, and he elevated trusted public servants in their place. But many of those aides have since tendered their resignations as well. There’s also been chaos in the top ranks of the New York City Police Department. Jessica Tisch is a popular and successful police commissioner, but she’s also Adams’ fourth one – an unusually high level of turnover.
Still, the power of incumbency is real. Yes, Adams’ approval ratings have hit record lows. Yes, the Campaign Finance Board has deemed him ineligible to receive public matching funds (he’s now suing them for that). Yes, public safety is still a top concern for New Yorkers, and certain major crimes have increased since he took office. But he does at least have a number of accomplishments to point to. Shootings and murders are way down since January 2022. Adams also got his sweeping City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning overhaul across the finish line, he’s negotiated contracts with the vast majority of the unionized city workforce and unemployment in the city has fallen. And after his case was dropped, Adams returns to campaign mode with a renewed sense of determination.
Further reading:
New Yorkers want their mayor to be a good manager. What does that mean?
Eric Adams’ survival strategy
Eric Adams’ federal corruption charges dismissed
Rather than remove Adams, Hochul proposes watching him very closely
WTF is Eric Adams doing?
Eric Adams denied public campaign funds for reelection bid
Andrew Cuomo
His ideological stance in brief: Pro-Israel moderate who promises to keep the Democratic Party from falling off the left edge of the map.
Major endorsements: Reps. Greg Meeks and Ritchie Torres, Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, 32BJ SEIU, Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
Fundraising: $7.1 million raised so far, including public matching funds. He has an estimated $5.2 million in the bank, as of May 30. Cuomo’s allies have also launched a political action committee that has raised another $10 million. Cuomo’s campaign was initially denied matching funds on April 15, then docked about $1.3 million for coordinating with the super PAC.
Where’s home? He’s a Queens boy, but currently registered to vote in Midtown East.
What is he running on? “New York City is in crisis.” He was governor for a decade, passing marriage equality, paid family leave, gun control laws and building things like the Second Avenue Subway and revamping the city’s airports.
What’s holding him back? The cost of performing well in early polls – and of developing a reputation as a ruthless operator – is that your opponents will train all their attention on defeating you. Cuomo negative starter pack: sexual harassment allegations, handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes and previous vindictiveness toward New York City leaders.
What’s his deal: Cuomo used to be the most powerful elected official in the state. In throwing his hat in the ring for New York City mayor, he’s aiming for what some have suggested would, to him, amount to a consolation prize. (He’s said as much.) While a less powerful job than governor – and one that would position him awkwardly under his former lieutenant in Albany – Cuomo’s long-predicted entrance into the mayoral race nonetheless throws him back in the center of the political universe he’s had his eye on since unceremoniously resigning in 2021.
The two-and-a-half-term governor’s fall from grace came swiftly that year. After serving as Democratic beacon at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the tail end of Trump’s first term, Cuomo was engulfed in a series of scandals, including multiple allegations of sexual harassment, scrutiny of his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, and his $5 million book deal. Cuomo – and in large part his allies – have spent plenty of energy in the past four years fighting that narrative, including by frequently criticizing Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has amounted to much more than just his interim replacement in Albany.
Cuomo has led the mayoral field in recent polls, even before officially entering the race, prompting insiders to question which version of Andrew Cuomo voters remember today. But with some of that polling showing high negatives for the former governor, Cuomo’s opposition is hoping that the surveys reflect a ceiling for his popularity in the city.
The latest polls and endorsements show that the divisive – but unquestionably talented – politician has a decisive lead among Black voters and Jewish voters. Both have historically been essential to citywide victory. But, in addition to reports of a Trump Justice Department investigation into whether he lied to Congress, he’ll also be contending with the rest of the more progressive field that is now as focused on “anyone but Cuomo” as it was on “anyone but Adams” six months ago. As a back-up plan, Cuomo has petitioned to appear on the general election ballot too – under the “New York City is in crisis” and the “Fight and Deliver” ballot lines.
Further reading:
FAQ: The Justice Department investigation into Andrew Cuomo
Mayor Cuomo and Gov. Hochul? It would be weird.
WFP on Andrew Cuomo in general elex: ‘Likelihood he earns the Party’s support is close to none.’
Can Andrew Cuomo bounce back?
Zohran Mamdani
His ideological stance in brief: The leftest of them all. A pro-Palestine socialist Democrat who isn’t shy about it.
Major endorsements: Working Families Party (No. 1), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (No. 1), New York City Democratic Socialists of America, socialist lawmakers, including state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest, state Sen. John Liu
Fundraising: $8.3 million including matching funds. He’s got $4.5 million in the bank, according to the latest Campaign Finance Board estimate.
Where’s home? “The Peoples Republic of Astoria,” Queens
What is he running on? He wants to freeze the rent, make buses free, make child care free, launch a Department of Community Safety and build public supermarkets
What’s holding him back? It’s not as cool to be far left anymore, and an Israel critic hasn’t become mayor of New York City since the country was founded.
What’s his deal: It’s official. Zohran Mamdani is the left’s candidate in this race. His dominant fundraising, social media prowess and volunteer enthusiasm have netted him the No. 1 endorsements of both the Working Families Party and Ocasio-Cortez. Toward the end of March, he announced he’d reached the maximum funding limit for the June primary – the first candidate to do so. Recent polling consistently has him behind Cuomo in second place. As Democrats process the city’s rightward shift in the presidential election, most of Eric Adams’ challengers have attempted to distance themselves from the progressive label. That leaves the leftist lane of the mayor’s race wide open for the Assembly member, and he’s not shying away from it.
Mamdani, a DSA member who successfully primaried a well-liked establishment Democrat in 2020, can easily appeal to the typical highly educated yuppie socialists in North Brooklyn and western Queens – and they have formed an army of volunteer canvassers for him. But the lawmaker, who sponsored controversial state legislation to withhold public funds from organizations that operate in illegal settlements in the West Bank, is also confident he can bring working class Muslims outraged over the war in Gaza into his coalition. Many South Asian voters also love him for his successful advocacy for debt relief for taxi medallion holders – including with a 15-day hunger strike in 2021.
In the mayor’s race, Mamdani has articulated several simple policy ideas that set him apart from the pack – even if their feasibility isn’t clear: building on a pilot program he pushed in the state Legislature, he wants to make public buses free. (The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a state agency, but he says he’ll get creative with his mayoral authority.) He also wants to freeze the rent on rent-stabilized units. He is also promising free child care, a $30 minimum wage and city-owned grocery stores.
Further reading:
How much will AOC’s endorsement help Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani is trying to build a new NYC Democratic primary coalition
Episode 5: An Interview with Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani unveils ‘$30 by ‘30’ minimum wage push as part of mayoral campaign
Zohran Mamdani wants to make NYC buses free as mayor. How would that work?
Could this pro-Palestinian socialist really be NYC’s next mayor?
Brad Lander
His ideological stance in brief: Brownstone Brooklyn progressive Democrat who gets under the mayor’s skin
Major endorsements: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, New York Working Families Party (No. 2), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (No. 3), Independent Neighborhood Democrats, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (No. 1) and state Sen. Liz Krueger (No. 1)
Fundraising: $7.5 million raised so far including donations from when he was running for reelection and matching funds. He’s got $2.7 million in the bank, according to Campaign Finance Board’s estimates.
Where’s home? Park Slope, Brooklyn
What is he running on? He’s pitching himself as a competence candidate. He wants to get homeless people with mental health issues into stable housing, restore funding to early childhood education, and carry out capital projects management and other reforms he’s called for as comptroller.
What’s holding him back? Lander is a nerdy white guy who has struggled to unite progressives as he faces Mamdani’s leftist wattage and Adrienne Adams’ outer-borough cred.
What’s his deal: Brad Lander is a Park Slope progressive – a Missouri-born organizer who put roots down in Brooklyn and has championed progressive causes, first in the nonprofit sector, and then as a council member and now as comptroller. The comptroller, while hardly a co-equal position to mayor, can nonetheless function as a watchdog, with the responsibility to conduct audits of city agencies and oversee city contracts.
For much of Adams’ three years in office, Lander has filled that role as expected, often clashing with the more conservative mayor over budget cuts and how the administration has handled the influx of migrants to the city over the past two years. By virtue of his position, perhaps as much as his politics, Lander has been a consistent critic of Mayor Adams during his three years in office.
But in a race for mayor – and one taking place amid a continued shift to the right in parts of the city – Lander, who cofounded the City Council Progressive Caucus, has to walk a more careful line than just being the progressive foil to Eric Adams. Lander, along with several other progressives in the race, hasn’t touted that moniker like candidates have done in the past.
The strategy so far hasn’t caught on. Recent polls have shown Lander struggling to catch up to Mamdani and Cuomo among Democratic primary voters. Many progressive leaders have ranked him second behind Mamdani, including the influential Working Families Party. Though he secured her early and vocal support in his 2021 comptroller race, Ocasio-Cortez dealt him a blow when she ranked him third in this year’s mayor race.
Lander’s got a lot riding on this race. He’s giving up a chance at a second term as comptroller to run for mayor. But as comptroller, Lander is well-positioned to make the efficient manager case, and he’s out with a few creative TV ads that manage to make that a fun pitch. His support will likely still come from the liberal centers that elected him – like Brownstone Brooklyn and the Upper West Side.
Further reading:
Episode 9: An interview with Brad Lander
Lander pitches doubling NYC’s general reserve fund to protect from Trump admin
Brad Lander: ‘I don’t think this is a moment about lanes or ideology’
Are comptrollers running for NYC mayor doomed?
Brad Lander makes his case to business leaders
Eric Adams might need someone to serve as a check. Is that Brad Lander?
Adrienne Adams
Her ideological stance in brief: A well-respected, but low-key moderate Democrat who some see as a compromise candidate
Major endorsements: District Council 37, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (No. 2), state Attorney General Letitia James, Assembly Members Brian Cunningham and Andrew Hevesi, New York City Council Members Diana Ayala and Amanda Farías, New York Working Families Party (No. 3)
Fundraising: $2.7 million raised so far, including from a prior campaign account and public matching funds. She has an estimated $2.3 million in the bank, as of May 30.
Where’s home? Southeast Queens
What is she running on? Her record as City Council speaker, including spearheading programs to support working mothers and adult learners, and fighting agency budget cuts.
What’s holding her back? Outside of political circles, she doesn’t have widespread name recognition. She entered the race relatively late with little money on hand, and City Council speakers have historically lost in citywide elections.
What’s her deal? Within the span of just a few weeks, Speaker Adams’ path to retirement upon the conclusion of her final City Council term stunningly transformed into an all out mayoral campaign – one that heavy-hitters like state Attorney General Letitia James pushed for behind the scenes. Up until recently, Speaker Adams showed little interest in furthering any political ambitions, but it’s hard to resist a drafting campaign in a field that some saw as still missing something. She officially announced her candidacy on March 5.
Supporters hoped Speaker Adams, a Black moderate whose district is home to an active Black voter base, would prevent Cuomo from dominating the current mayoral field, but so far, she’s struggled to gain support in her home borough. Cuomo has scooped up endorsements from a long list of Queens elected officials, including county chair Greg Meeks. Still, Speaker Adams’ entrance into the race was a big headache for Cuomo. A recent internal poll commissioned by the left-leaning Working Families Party found that Democratic primary voters would choose her over Cuomo in a general election contest.
Speaker Adams is well-respected, particularly within the New York City Council and among other city elected officials. She was elected City Council speaker as a compromise candidate, aided by powerful outside union support without Mayor Adams’ backing. The two attended high school together, but they aren’t related. Their relationship pre-indictment was largely amicable, but they’ve also clashed over legislation.
While she clinched public matching funds and a second-choice endorsement from Ocasio-Cortez just in time to be a real contender, Speaker Adams faces headwinds. She’s behind in fundraising and has low name recognition outside of political circles. She has presided over a City Council that has been seen as very left-leaning at a time when most mayoral hopefuls are trying to tack to the center.
Further reading:
A couple of Cuomo endorsers in the City Council lose budget negotiation roles
Eric Adams and Adrienne Adams are both running for mayor. They’re also hashing out the city’s $115 billion budget.
Adrienne is on the horn
Meet New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams
Scott Stringer
His ideological stance in brief: A Manhattan liberal who had a shot as a progressive mayoral candidate last cycle, but is tacking center now.
Major endorsements: Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (No. 4), Assembly Members Micah Lasher and Deborah Glick, West Side Democrats
Fundraising: $5 million, including matching funds. He has an estimated $3.1 million in the bank.
Where’s home? Financial District, Manhattan
What is he running on? Plans to beef up the NYPD, tackle corruption, unlock more land for affordable housing, expand child care and clean up the streets
What’s holding him back? His 2021 mayoral bid failed amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Stringer strongly denies allegations from one woman and has been fighting them in court with a defamation lawsuit. He said he doesn’t remember ever meeting another woman who subsequently came forward. He’s also been out of the political game for a while.
What’s his deal: A former Assembly member, Manhattan borough president and city comptroller, Stringer certainly has the insider resume to be New York City mayor. He is known as a savvy political operator and a skilled campaigner, as his hefty early fundraising numbers showed.
He’s also motivated by redemption after a bruising 2021 fight, where he came in fifth place in the first round of ranked choice voting. He had amassed broad support from progressives and elected officials he had mentored, many of whom ultimately abandoned him following the misconduct allegations. After nearly three decades in public office, he has had the past few years off, and he’s been singularly focused on this goal.
Sitting comptroller Brad Lander is likely to appeal to many of the same voters, and both straight, white Jewish comptrollers were dealt a blow when The New York Times Editorial Board announced it won’t be endorsing in local races. But Stringer is slightly less progressive than Lander, including on Israel.
Stringer has prevailed in some dog fights. He beat out nine other candidates to become Manhattan borough president in 2005. He often recounts his victory in the 2013 race for comptroller in which he narrowly defeated former Gov. Eliot Spitzer as evidence he shouldn’t be underestimated.
Further reading:
Episode 7: An interview with Scott Stringer
All aboard Scott Stringer’s anti-Cuomo tour bus
Scott Stringer readies primary challenge to Mayor Eric Adams
Scott Stringer has always been progressive
Scott Stringer, millennial for mayor
Jessica Ramos
Her ideological stance in brief: Pro-labor progressive who doesn’t like to fall in line.
Major endorsements: Working Families Party (No. 5), Teamsters Locals 804 and 808
Fundraising: $280,000 raised so far. She has an estimated $9,000 in the bank. She has not qualified for matching funds.
Where’s home? Jackson Heights, Queens
What is she running on? She wants to improve child care access, bolster affordable housing supply and integrate mental health care citywide.
What’s holding her back? Slow and messy fundraising, trouble distinguishing herself in a crowded field of progressives. And a bunch of her supporters pulled their endorsements after she backed Cuomo.
What’s her deal: Ramos has touted her independence and no-nonsense personality as an asset. But her lack of political allies has become evident in her troubled mayoral campaign. Initially excluded from the Working Families Party slate, Ramos made a video calling the lefty party out. Then, the day after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez excluded Ramos from her ranked slate, Ramos went nuclear. She shocked the political world by endorsing Cuomo – who declined to endorse her back. Ramos, who recently speculated about Cuomo’s senescence, told the Times she thinks Cuomo is “best positioned right now to protect this city” from Trump. That puzzling about-face prompted a cascade of condemnations and rescinded endorsements from progressive groups.
Ramos is a progressive state lawmaker who has represented East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona since she ousted a moderate Democrat incumbent in 2018 as an insurgent, Working Families Party-backed candidate. She has forged a reputation as a tough and effective lawmaker, notching some high-profile legislative victories as chair of the Labor Committee. She has cracked down on wage theft, passed paid sick leave for domestic workers, enacted new protections for workers on farms, at nail salons and in distribution warehouses, and secured unemployment for more nontraditional workers. Beyond Ramos’ legislative victories and her condemnation of Mayor Adams for his handling of the migrant crisis, she’s perhaps best known for her – ultimately failed – attempt to block a proposed casino bid from Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Ramos’ ties to the labor world run deep. She has a background working in communications for social service employees union SSEU Local 371 and building service workers union 32BJ SEIU. But while many see her as a champion for labor, she has so far been unable to unite any major labor support. 32BJ SEIU and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council are backing Cuomo, while the public employees union DC 37 is backing Adrienne Adams. Ramos launched her campaign in mid-September, she so far hasn’t been able to fundraise enough to make her competitive. She’s one of two Latino candidates – the daughter of Colombian immigrants – and a mother to two boys.
Further reading:
Progressives pull Ramos endorsements after she backs Andrew Cuomo
Episode 1: An Interview with Jessica Ramos
Will Steve Cohen’s gambit to sidestep Jessica Ramos work?
Jessica Ramos, no-nonsense state senator from Queens, is running for NYC mayor
Jessica Ramos was majorly bummed out at the WFP rally
Jessica Ramos isn’t sugarcoating anything
Zellnor Myrie
His ideological stance in brief: Progressive, increasingly pro-real estate Democrat.
Major endorsements: Rep. Dan Goldman, Zephyr Teachout, Abundance New York (shared with Lander), Working Families Party (No. 4), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (No. 5).
Fundraising: $4.1 million raised so far, including public matching funds. He’s got $900,000 in the bank, according to latest Campaign Finance Board estimates.
Where’s home? Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
What is he running on? Proposals to build and preserve 1 million homes in New York City, and create universal, free after-school programs.
What’s holding him back? Most voters haven’t heard of Zellnor Myrie – though an MSNBC hit with Goldman might have helped a little bit
What’s his deal: Zellnor Myrie, a City Council staffer turned Davis Polk attorney, started off his political career by running against Eric Adams – by proxy, at least. In 2018, Myrie challenged state Sen. Jesse Hamilton – a protege of Adams who was serving in the same Central Brooklyn seat that Adams once held. Alongside Jessica Ramos and several others that year, Myrie succeeded in defeating the incumbent, who along with a handful of other Democrats, was caucusing with Republicans.
Myrie has since accumulated some high-profile legislative wins, including ones that earned him good favor with progressives, like early voting and the Clean Slate Act to seal criminal records for some people who have served their time. But in mounting his run for mayor, Myrie hasn’t made a claim to the progressive lane, preferring to eschew those identifiers altogether in favor of one that he – and others – seem to believe will be a more compelling pitch for those weary of a chaotic City Hall: a competent manager for New York.
One of Myrie’s signature policy proposals is a plan to build 700,000 new housing units over the next 10 years and preserve another 300,000. But his YIMBY pitch has also caught the eye of tenant advocates, who are looking to hold candidates to promises to freeze the rent. (Myrie, who advocated for tenant protections in the Legislature, eventually joined other candidates in calling for a one-year rent freeze.)
Coming from Adams’ old district, Myrie, who is the son of Costa Rican immigrants, seemed better positioned than some of his other current challengers to dig into Adams’ 2021 base of middle- and working-class Black and Latino voters in outer boroughs, but so far hasn’t made much of a dent.
Further reading:
Episode 8: An interview with Zellnor Myrie
Zellnor Myrie speaks at church, vows to stand up against Trump
Zellnor Myrie wants to represent New York City. First, the city has to meet him.
Zellnor Myrie wants to give NY a clean slate
Michael Blake
His ideological stance in brief: Moderate Democrat in the style of Barack Obama.
Major endorsements: Three Bridges Democratic Club (shared with Ramos and Mamdani)
Fundraising: $547,000 raised. He has an estimated $18,000 in the bank. He hasn’t qualified for public matching funds.
Where’s home? Melrose, Bronx
What is he running on? He wants universal child care and a tax break for middle-class homeowners. He also wants to speed up government payments to nonprofits.
What’s holding him back? Blake has been out of office for a few years, and with a couple of unsuccessful campaigns, he’s in danger of becoming a perennial candidate.
What’s his deal: Blake is a former state Assembly member from the Bronx who entered the mayoral race toward the end of November. Like many of the candidates, he’s emphasized that his campaign will center on making things more affordable for New Yorkers and on quality of life issues. An alum of the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns who also did a stint in the Obama White House, he’s a fairly moderate Democrat – certainly more than many of his opponents. He’s championed more progressive causes though, including the Raise the Age legislation to prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from being tried as adults.
Name recognition and differentiating himself will be big hurdles in his campaign. He gave up his seat in the Assembly in 2020 to run for Congress. He came in second to Rep. Ritchie Torres in the Democratic primary. The year prior, he finished fourth of 17 candidates in a special election for New York City public advocate.
Further listening:
Whitney Tilson
His ideological stance in brief: Pro-charter school Wall Street moderate focused on public safety.
Major endorsements: Bill Ackman – though Ackman recently donated $250,000 to the pro-Cuomo PAC.
Fundraising: $3 million, including public matching funds and $185,000 in loans he made to his campaign. He has an estimated $1.8 million in the bank as of May 30.
Where’s home? Upper East Side, Manhattan
What is he running on? He wants to reduce violent crime, grow the city’s economy, and rein in excessive city government spending.
What’s holding him back? He has no experience in politics, low name recognition and he’s a millionaire but not Bloomberg rich.
What’s his deal: Tilson, a former hedge fund executive, announced he’d be running for mayor in late November. He fell short of his highly ambitious goal: Raising nearly $8 million including matching funds by Jan. 15, but he still put up some strong numbers.
It’s Tilson’s first time running for a political office after years of donating to Democratic candidates – both local and national. He has a history of education philanthropy, particularly involving charter schools. He cofounded the PAC Democrats for Education Reform, which supports pro-charter candidates. The group successfully advocated to raise New York’s charter school cap. Tilson was also on the board of charter network KIPP NYC, and he helped found the service-year program Teach for America, which places recent college grads in struggling public schools. Some of his top priorities listed on his campaign website include growing the city’s economy by 50% over the next decade, cutting violent crime by 50% during his first term, addressing the “cost-of-living crisis,” curbing “out-of-control city government spending,” and to “prioritize” citizens and permanent legal residents when it comes to allocating city resources. Before announcing any aspirations to run for mayor, Tilson garnered national headlines when in July 2024 he urged President Joe Biden to drop out of the race.
Further reading:
Whitney Tilson is running on education, and he’s claiming the pro-charter lane in the mayoral race
With Adams ditching the primary and Cuomo absent, mayoral ire turns toward little-known Tilson
Episode 4: An Interview with Whitney Tilson
Jim Walden
His ideological stance in brief: Independent with a pugnacious streak.
Major endorsements: NYPD Retired Sergeants Association; former prosecutors including former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue. He initially launched with support from David Paterson, but the two parted ways.
Fundraising: $3.4 million including public matching funds and a $500,000 loan to his campaign. He has an estimated $2.1 million in cash on hand as of May 30.
Where’s home? Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
What is he running on? He wants to root out corruption in New York City, create jobs, and tackle intractable problems like housing production with public-private partnerships.
What’s holding him back? Outsider candidates often face outside odds.
What’s his deal: In launching his mayoral campaign as an independent candidate, Jim Walden is cutting a different path than his Democratic competitors.
That’s not the only way he stands apart from the field. The founding partner at Walden Macht Haran & Williams is a first-time political candidate whose legal career has nonetheless left him well-acquainted with the major players and systems in New York politics. In his launch, Walden has emphasized trial wins for New York City Housing Authority residents and experience taking on the mafia as a prosecutor for the Eastern District.
Between leaning toward running as an independent, business-minded technocrat and injecting $500,000 into his own campaign, the comparisons to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg are obvious. Bloomberg floated his own campaign a much larger chunk of change, and Walden still faces an uphill battle to pull off a Bloomberg-like win. But he’s making a go of it, assembling a policy platform that so far leans heavily on his pitch to root out corruption, but includes other proposals that defy conventional thought about alignment on the ideological spectrum; he wants to build more bike lanes and expand the NYPD. Walden is suing to allow the words “independent” and “independence” back on the ballot.
Further listening:
Curtis Sliwa
His ideological stance in brief: An eccentric conservative activist who joined the Republican Party a few years ago
Major endorsements: All five Republican county parties
Fundraising: $223,000 as of late May. He hasn’t gotten public matching funds. (He’s also not facing a primary election.)
Where’s home? The Upper West Side
What is he running on? Combating crime, building up the police department, opposing migrant shelters and e-bikes
What’s holding him back? He’s a Republican running for mayor again in a city that remains deeply Democratic
What’s his deal: This is not Sliwa’s first time running for mayor. He was the Republican candidate in the last mayoral election – and he lost handily to Eric Adams. But this one is shaping up to be potentially more favorable for him. With Eric Adams running as an independent candidate in the general election, and with the Working Families Party potentially running a progressive in the general election to combat Andrew Cuomo, we’re potentially looking at a November contest with five strong contenders. Suddenly a Republican victory doesn’t seem so impossible in this (recently) deep blue city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1. Sliwa has also noted that he hasn’t been endorsed by President Donald Trump, saying, “the Trump candidate is Eric Adams.” Sliwa might be well-known for his red beret and deep love of cats, but he’s also proven himself time and time again to be excellent at garnering attention. Over the last couple of years, his Guardian Angels misidentified a man as a migrant and tackled him during a live TV interview, he had Guardian Angels members resume volunteer safety patrols on the city subways, and offered up a solution to Adams for his rat problem: deploying a fleet of feral cats.
For his part, Sliwa has projected confidence about his odds this time around, pointing to the fact that President Donald Trump won 30% of the vote in New York City last November – the highest share of the vote for a Republican presidential nominee since George H.W. Bush in 1988. (Though that was more so driven by the votes Democrats lost than the votes Trump gained). Much of the topics Sliwa focuses on – like crime, people leaving the city, and the city’s sheltering and care of migrants – have been hot button issues throughout Adams’ administration, giving him plenty of campaign talking points.
Further reading:
‘The Trump candidate is Eric Adams’: Curtis Sliwa sizes up the mayoral race
Episode 6: An interview with Curtis Sliwa
Sliwa gets clean sweep from Republican Party chairs, who still say they won’t give Adams the ballot line
Wait a second, is Curtis Sliwa making sense?
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