Adrienne Adams will back Mamdani for mayor

NEW YORK — New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is backing former Democratic primary rival Zohran Mamdani for mayor — though she raised doubts about his chances in the general election.

“We'll see if he's elected,” Adams said Monday when asked in an interview with POLITICO whether she’s endorsing Mamdani. “But you know, I am a lifelong Democrat, and I will be supporting the Democratic nominee.”

The speaker said she had “no plans” to campaign for Mamdani but kept the door open to doing so.

“Tomorrow will be a week since the primaries and I’m still recovering from all of that wonderful work that I’ve done over the past few months,” she said at a separate, unrelated press conference Monday. “So we’ll look further down the road as time goes on.”

Adams had a complicated relationship with Mamdani during the mayoral primary. Both harshly criticized Cuomo, who was considered the frontrunner, and both joined the Working Families Party’s endorsed slate of four candidates in an effort to defeat the former governor. But she never formally cross-endorsed Mamdani and released a statement saying she didn’t want Black voters to be taken for granted.

Adams is Black, and Mamdani was eager to build support among Black voters, which polling and election results show was his weakest demographic.

“I stood up for what I believed in,” Adams said Monday, when asked if she had second thoughts, after seeing fellow mayoral candidate Brad Lander hailed for cross-endorsing Mamdani and campaigning alongside him. “I was true to who I am, true to my community.”

Mamdani is all but guaranteed to be the Democratic nominee after the ranked-choice votes are tabulated and released Tuesday, and the primary result is expected to be certified in mid-July. Cuomo already conceded to Mamdani on election night after preliminary results showed Mamdani with a 45.3 to 36.4 percent lead in voters’ top picks.

Adams was a distant fourth, winning about 4 percent of votes.

Adams was recruited to run for mayor just weeks before the filing deadline by state Attorney General Letitia James and other leaders to be a bulwark against Cuomo with Black voters. But even with the disappointing result, she said she was glad to have run.

“This has been the most meaningful experience of a lifetime, and I have no regrets at all. I am so grateful for my journey,” she said.

Mamdani could face a competitive general election. Incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams opted out of the primary and is seeking reelection on an independent line. Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden are also running. And Cuomo’s name is expected to be on the ballot after he secured an independent line of his own, though he hasn’t announced whether he’ll mount a campaign.

Mamdani garnered the endorsement Monday of the New York City Central Labor Council, an umbrella group for unions. That’s the latest success in his effort to expand his coalition for the general election, following key endorsements from labor unions such as the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council and elected officials such as Rep. Jerry Nadler.

The democratic socialist assemblymember still faces some hesitation from key members of the Democratic establishment, such as Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said last week that there were “areas of difference in our positions.”

Adrienne Adams endorsed Eric Adams in the 2021 mayoral primary, but their relationship soured. The City Council has consistently battled with the mayor to restore budget cuts, enact police accountability legislation and limit cooperation with ICE under President Donald Trump’s administration. On Friday, however, the Council reached a deal with the mayoral administration to boost legal defense funding for immigrants in the city budget.

“There has been resistance, particularly with immigration issues, when it comes to the mayor because of his relationship with the Trump administration,” Adrienne Adams said Monday. “However, he still has to be the mayor for all people in the city, and realizing that he is also a mayor for our immigrant New Yorkers, I believe that he thought he had to come around. And I'm really, really glad that he did.”