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 document 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 the town of New York, I’m looking for reelection to be your mayor for the 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 expenses of accepting unlawful presents, together with aircraft upgrades and resort stays, from Turkish businessmen and officers in alternate for preferential therapy. Some Democrats additionally criticized Adams for assembly with Trump administration officers on immigration enforcement after federal prosecutors beneath the brand new administration dismissed the corruption expenses in opposition to him.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams proclaims his re-election marketing campaign as an impartial after leaving the Democratic Get together, 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 impartial 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 within the Democratic main, upsetting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from workplace in 2021 after a collection of ladies accused him of sexual harassment, expenses he has denied.
On Thursday, Adams solely targeted 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 selection between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a … silver spoon, a selection between soiled fingernails and manicured nails, a selection between somebody who delivered decrease crime, essentially the most jobs in historical past, essentially the most new housing in-built a long time 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 selection between actual progress and empty guarantees.”
“This election is a selection between those that consider on this metropolis and people who do not,” Adams stated.
Adams additionally famous that Mamdani calls himself a Democratic socialist.
“Let me let you know one thing, this can be a metropolis not of socialism,” Adams stated. “I have been to socialist nations. It is a metropolis the place you possibly can come as a dishwasher, and you may personal a series of eating places. It is a metropolis the place you could possibly be a cab driver after which grow to be a health care provider. It is a metropolis the place you could possibly 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 a long time 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 youngsters on this nation. And it will get to the guts 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 concentrate on 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 proclaims his re-election marketing campaign as an impartial after leaving the Democratic Get together, 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 “felony.”
“Pay attention, 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 targeted, no distractions and grind.”
Adams recounted his rise from a poor youngster raised in Brooklyn by a single mom to turning into a captain within the New York Police Division, then being elected a state senator, Brooklyn borough president and, in November 2021, the town’s a hundred and tenth mayor.
Referring to his personal background, Adams stated, “It is a metropolis the place you could possibly be an adolescent who’s dyslexic, an adolescent who’s rejected and finally be elected to be the mayor of the 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 means of the pandemic and that beneath 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 wished to extend fuel and electrical payments by $65 a month,” Mamdani stated. “That is somebody who has put his thumb on the size in opposition to working, middle-class New Yorkers. We want somebody who will really use each software to supply 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 cloth 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 reaching,” Adams stated. “Let me be clear: They’ve a document of tweets; I’ve a document on these streets — a document of outcomes. They discuss issues, I repair them.”
