With supporters waving marketing campaign indicators and chanting “4 extra years,” New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams formally launched his re-election bid on Thursday from the steps of Metropolis Corridor, framing himself as a blue collar candidate with a file of feat and his upstart chief rival, Zohran Mamdani, as an inexperienced opponent making “empty guarantees.”
“I am so proud to be right here to say to the individuals of town of New York, I’m in search of reelection to be your mayor for town of New York,” Adams stated amid loud applause from an enthusiastic group of supporters standing behind him.
The 64-year-old Adams’ first time period in workplace was hounded by federal charges of accepting unlawful items, together with airplane upgrades and lodge stays, from Turkish businessmen and officers in alternate for preferential remedy. Some Democrats additionally criticized Adams for assembly with Trump administration officers on immigration enforcement after federal prosecutors below the brand new administration dismissed the corruption prices towards him.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams declares his re-election marketing campaign as an impartial after leaving the Democratic Occasion, at Metropolis Corridor in New York Metropolis, June 26, 2025.
ABC Information
Adams introduced in April that he was switching from being a Democrat to an independent to run within the common election.
On Tuesday, 33-year-old Mamdani, a member of the New York State Meeting and self-described Democratic socialist, declared victory in the Democratic primary, upsetting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from workplace in 2021 after a sequence of ladies accused him of sexual harassment, prices he has denied.
On Thursday, Adams solely centered on his accomplishments as mayor, whereas casting Mamdani as somebody from a privileged background whom he stated has completed little as a state lawmaker.
“This election is a alternative between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a … silver spoon, a alternative between soiled fingernails and manicured nails, a alternative between somebody who delivered decrease crime, probably the most jobs in historical past, probably the most new housing in-built many years and an meeting member who didn’t go a invoice,” Adams stated.
Referring to Mamdani’s marketing campaign guarantees to make New York Metropolis extra inexpensive by freezing rents on stabilized flats, making city-run buses sooner and free, creating city-run grocery shops to drive down meals costs and elevating the minimal wage to $30 an hour, Adams stated the election poses “a alternative between actual progress and empty guarantees.”
“This election is a alternative between those that consider on this metropolis and those that do not,” Adams stated.
Adams additionally famous that Mamdani calls himself a Democratic socialist.
“Let me let you know one thing, it is a metropolis not of socialism,” Adams stated. “I have been to socialist nations. This can be a metropolis the place you possibly can come as a dishwasher, and you’ll personal a series of eating places. This can be a metropolis the place you would be a cab driver after which turn out to be a physician. This can be a metropolis the place you would go from homelessness to constructing housing.”
In an interview on Wednesday with ABC New York station WABC’s anchor Invoice Ritter, Mamdani was requested to outline being a Democratic socialist.
“I consider Dr. King, who many years in the past stated, ‘Name it democracy or name it democratic socialism.’ There have to be a greater distribution of wealth for all of God’s kids on this nation. And it will get to the center of the matter, which is inequality, and my perception that each New Yorker ought to have what they should stay a dignified life,” Mamdani stated. “It should not be one thing that they are often priced out of. And that is why, on the coronary heart of our marketing campaign is that this give attention to freezing the lease for greater than 2 million rent-stabilized tenants, making the slowest buses within the nation quick.”
Moreover Mamdani, Adams will face Republican Curtis Sliwa, founding father of the Guardian Angels crime prevention group, within the common election in November. Cuomo stated he’s weighing a choice to run within the common election as an impartial.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams declares his re-election marketing campaign as an impartial after leaving the Democratic Occasion, at Metropolis Corridor in New York Metropolis, June 26, 2025.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
At instances throughout his speech, Adams was interrupted by hecklers who blew whistles and one who yelled an expletive and known as him a “legal.”
“Hear, discover how we make the most of the letter F,” Adams informed his supporters in response to the badgering. “We make the most of the letter F for religion. Our opponents use the letter F for profanity. So, we have to keep centered, no distractions and grind.”
Adams recounted his rise from a poor baby raised in Brooklyn by a single mom to changing into a captain within the New York Police Division, then being elected a state senator, Brooklyn borough president and, in November 2021, town’s a hundred and tenth mayor.
Referring to his personal background, Adams stated, “This can be a metropolis the place you would be a teenager who’s dyslexic, a teenager who’s rejected and ultimately be elected to be the mayor of town of New York.”
He added, “I wasn’t born into energy and privilege; I grew up in battle,” Adams stated, apparently referring to Mamdani, whose mom, Mira Nair, is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and whose father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Columbia College professor.
Adams stated that as mayor he helped lead New York by the pandemic and that below his management, violent crime within the metropolis has fallen to historic ranges. Based on Adams, 500,000 new jobs have been created and inexpensive housing has been expanded by turning unused buildings into houses. He even boasted that Broadway simply had its finest 12 months in recorded historical past.
However in his interview with WABC, Mandami stated that Adams has “exacerbated a cost-of-living disaster.”
“He raised the lease on greater than 2 million New Yorkers by 9%. He elevated water payments to the very best they have been in 13 years, and he sided with Con Edison after they needed to extend fuel and electrical payments by $65 a month,” Mamdani stated. “That is somebody who has put his thumb on the dimensions towards working, middle-class New Yorkers. We’d like somebody who will really use each instrument to offer aid to those self same New Yorkers.”
Mandani additionally stated he is not going to draw back from battling the Trump administration’s insurance policies that “assault the very material of what makes so many people proud as New Yorkers.”
Throughout his speech on Thursday, Adams did not point out Trump.
“There’s some critics who spend extra time attacking than attaining,” Adams stated. “Let me be clear: They’ve a file of tweets; I’ve a file on these streets — a file of outcomes. They discuss issues, I repair them.”
