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Adrienne Adams hasn’t shown public support for Mamdani, resisting a progressive strategy
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 21, 2025
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Elizabeth Kim / Gothamist
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 21, 2025
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City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams once again declined to voice support for a coalition of left-leaning candidates during a Saturday speech at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in Harlem.
“I need you to rank Adrienne Adams as your number one candidate in ranked choice voting,” she told the audience, and made no mention of two candidates sitting behind her, Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander. All three are backed by the Working Families Party.
Coming in the final stretch of the June 24th primary, her remarks came one day after she issued a statement saying she’d support the Working Families Party’s slate of candidates. But her failure to do so at a public event underscores the limits of the left’s strategy to unify a group of candidates willing to cross-endorse each other to defeat the moderate frontrunner Andrew Cuomo. Adams, who represents moderate Black voters in southeast Queens, has struggled to support Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the leading progressive in the race.
The division could cost progressives should Adams’ voters also rank Cuomo. The former governor is benefitting from a super PAC called Fix the City that has raised an unprecedented $24 million, much of which is being spent on attack ads against Mamdani. Cuomo has argued that his experience makes him best suited to managing the city and thwarting off damaging policies from President Donald Trump. A recent Marist poll shows a tightening two-man race between Cuomo and Mamdani.
Adams has attacked Cuomo for policies, including his management of the pandemic, that she said hurt Black New Yorkers. Cuomo’s campaign has called such criticisms “efforts to rewrite history.”
More controversially, she has also criticized Mamdani, both directly and indirectly.
“I don't come here with you with policies that are pie in the sky,” Adams said Saturday, in what appeared to be a dig at Mamdani.
Mamdani, an assemblymember from Queens, has pitched ideas like free buses and government-run grocery stores that some have said are unrealistic and too costly.
Asked about her remarks after the event, the speaker denied that she had intentionally left out any mention of Lander and Mamdani.
“I was in the moment,” she told reporters. “But it was certainly not to slight the slate at all.”
Mamdani declined to take questions after the event, but later praised Adams on social media as having “served this city with integrity and consistency.”
A spokesperson for the Working Families Party declined to comment.
Under ranked choice voting, cross-endorsements can help politically aligned candidates topple a polarizing frontrunner by encouraging a broader coalition of voters to support them and not their main opponent. However, the city’s mayoral candidates have been slow to embrace the tactic. Mamdani and Lander, who are polling in second and third place respectively, cross-endorsed one another last Friday.
Adams, who entered the race late, has struggled to fundraise and breakthrough. At the same time, she has been reluctant to help Mamdani, who helped her fundraise and qualify for public matching funds. She recently criticized Mamdani on social media for supporting abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, and then later took the post down.
During the final debate, she asked Mamdani whether he thought he was more qualified than she is to be mayor. And when reporters on Wednesday asked her to share her ballot after she voted, she declined to do so.
The next day, Adams announced in a statement that she would not be cross-endorsing anyone in the race. She suggested that she was being used by progressives to secure Black votes, which are considered crucial to winning citywide elections.
“Black, working-class communities like mine have long been the backbone of the Democratic Party. We show up, we organize, we vote. But too often, we’re seen only for our political value, not for our leadership,” she said, adding, “I won’t reinforce a pattern that has pushed my community to the sidelines for generations.”
At the same time, she did encourage voters to “rank the full slate of Working Families Party candidates,” and called them “principled.”
But her comments on Saturday suggested she may not be willing to express those views in public.
During his remarks, Mandani quoted Sharpton talking about the Democratic party moving to the right at the expense of progressives and people of color. Sharpton seemed to enjoy the moment and quipped, “That was a chess move there.”
Taking the podium immediately after him, Adams said, “Zohran, you quoted him, but I marched with him.”
Mamdani’s own speech centered on his own candidacy as well as attacking billionaire Bill Ackman who has donated to the group Fix the City. Like Adams, he did not mention Cuomo.
Lander, who spoke first, delivered the harshest condemnation of Cuomo, who spoke at the same venue last weekend.
“Andrew Cuomo is not the candidate of civil rights,” he said. “Andrew Cuomo is the candidate of the enemies of civil rights.”
He urged voters to cast their ballots for himself, Mamdani, Adams and Jumaane Williams, who is running for public advocate. Williams, who also spoke at the event, has been imploring voters to get behind progressives’ primary strategy.
“Please rank all these people behind me,” he said. “I beg of you, do not even think of Andrew Cuomo when you walk in that booth.”
This story has been updated to include a comment from Zohran Mamdani.
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Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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