Adrienne Adams takes first step toward NYC mayoral run. Will voters buy in?

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams made her first official move toward a 2025 mayoral run on Wednesday, filing paperwork with New York City’s Campaign Finance Board to form a campaign committee.

“ We currently have chaos and diminished trust in the other side of City Hall,” Adams, a Democrat, told Gothamist in an interview. “That’s why I’m seriously considering a campaign to become the first woman mayor of New York City.”

If elected, Adams would be the first woman, the first Black woman and the first City Council speaker to become mayor of New York City – a triple milestone.

To break those barriers, Adams faces a series of daunting obstacles including a crowded field of Democrats who have already spent months campaigning and fundraising. She also needs a successful organizing sprint to ramp up a campaign operation and begin delivering a message to voters.

This all comes as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo stands poised to add his own heavyweight candidacy to the race.

Like Cuomo, Adams is making calls to gauge interest and potential support from other elected officials and faith leaders. She said it was through those calls, and the support she heard in those conversations, that she felt motivated her to take this next step. Forming a campaign committee allows her to raise and spend money on her candidacy.

“ We have an urgency in this moment and the need for restored integrity and steady leadership that puts our New Yorkers first and fights for our city,” Adams said.

The speaker has long sparred with the mayor over policy differences, but she refrained from calling for his resignation over his criminal indictment in September – until last week.

She changed her tune after four deputy mayors suddenly resigned, shortly after the Justice Department ordered the Southern District of New York to drop the federal case against the mayor. The DOJ memo suggested the mayor would be better positioned to support the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration and deportation efforts if he was unencumbered by the charges, at least through November.

“It has become clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff,” Adams said in a statement calling for his resignation.

Speaking to Gothamist, she said the mayor should have been doing more to push back on what she called the chaos out of Washington, citing the mass firings impacting federal agencies and the appointments to leadership positions of people without skills and experience.

“ We have an anti-woman tyrant in the White House, who's creating chaos on a federal level and it's making life less affordable and stable for working families,” Adams said, adding that it was important for women like her to get involved. “I’m fighting for the soul of the city right now.”

Adams is assembling her campaign team and preparing to hit the ground with petitioning efforts. Candidates began circulating petitions on Tuesday and have until April 3 to file them with the New York City Board of Elections to qualify for the June 24th primary election.

Queens Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson, who has spoken with Adams about her potential run, said he’s keeping an open mind. He said he’s looking for a candidate who could offer real solutions to the daunting challenges faced by his constituents, including some of the longest commute times in the city, food insecurity and deep poverty.

“Whoever is a mayor who's going to come up and lead in this moment to provide innovative ways in which we can solve the crises of today is who I'm looking at,” Anderson said.

Adams, 64, who will be term-limited out of her Council seat at the end of the year, currently represents several neighborhoods in the vote-rich Democratic bastion of southeast Queens, including Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, and South Ozone Park.

She was elected to the Council in a 2017 special election and prior to that served as the chair of Community Board 12. Adams also worked in the private sector in executive management training.

She is a graduate of Spelman College, a historically Black college for women in Atlanta, Georgia and is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

She will have to compete against a crop of serious contenders, including city Comptroller Brad Lander and his predecessor Scott Stringer, along with several state legislators, including Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, plus Mayor Adams and Cuomo.

Maya Wiley, who ran for mayor in 2021 and is currently the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said she saw a lot of opportunity for Speaker Adams in the mayor’s race. She said it’s critical that voters find someone who understands how to do the hard work of running the city.

“ I think the importance is governing this city and delivering for its people. I think those are the questions we should be asking,” Wiley said.

As someone who faced the harsh spotlight of a mayoral campaign, finishing in third place in the ranked-choice primary, Wiley also offered a cautionary note about only emphasizing the history-making nature of a potential Adams’ campaign.

“ Don't reduce her,” Wiley said. “Don't do that to any of the candidates, and don't give a candidate a pass because they've had higher office. I mean, it's really that simple – really look under the hood.”