Zohran Mamdani's race for NYC mayor isn't over: He has to beat Eric Adams

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NEW YORK − Winning the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City is usually tantamount to winning the general election, but this year it won't be so simple.

Zohran Mamdani, anticipated upset winner of the June 24 primary, will face embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a fellow Democrat who dropped out of the race for his party's nomination to run as an independent. And even Mamdani's main rival in the primary, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is still mulling an independent bid.

So the intra-party battle continues between progressive backers of Mamdani, a 33-year-old state Assembly member and democratic socialist, and centrists such as Adams and Cuomo.

Minutes after Cuomo conceded his defeat, Adams − whose administration has been plagued by allegations of corruption and cozying up to the Trump administration − relaunched his campaign on X.

Like Cuomo, who resigned as governor amid multiple scandals, Adams, 64, is trying to revive his political career. And he is not taking the high-road of a comfortable incumbent.

“He’s a snake oil salesman,” Adams said of Mamdani on the conservative talk show "Fox & Friends." “He will say and do anything to get elected.”

There are others in the crowded race: Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, best known for wearing a beret while leading the Guardian Angels vigilante group; Cuomo, who could stay in the race on a third-party line; and former prosecutor Jim Walden, running as an independent.

On the steps of City Hall, Adams on June 26 relaunched his re-election campaign alongside a couple hundred supporters, including faith leaders. In the park nearby, protesters jeered at the mayor, with a few disrupting Adams’ speech at points.

Adams sought to paint Mamdani as an inexperienced politician who grew up with a silver spoon. Mamdani is the son of a Columbia professor and his mother Mira Nair is a filmmaker.

“If you want to be a mayor of people who are going through a lot, you must be a human being that has gone through a lot,” Adams said, as protesters blew whistles to interrupt him.

He also argued Mamdani’s policies, including free buses and rent freezes, weren’t what New Yorkers want.

“This is not a city of hand outs,” he said. “This is a city of hands up.”

Mamdani said in a statement that his campaign began to prevent Adams from a second term, on a promise to “end this era of corruption, incompetence and the betrayal of working class New Yorkers.”

“Today is no different,” he said. Just as voters chose in the primary, he said voters in November will again choose “a city they can afford and bringing an end to the politics, and politicians, of the past."

Adams: From 'Biden of Brooklyn' to cozying up to Trump

When Adams was elected in 2021, the former police captain called himself the “Biden of Brooklyn,” a nod to then-President Joe Biden, who also won as a moderate Democrat with a multiracial coalition in a party with an increasingly assertive left wing. Adams declared himself the face of the new Democratic Party.

Then came the influx of asylum seekers, prompting a city emergency and leading Adams to attack Democrats in Washington, D.C., for what he saw as lack of federal support to manage the crisis. Later, Adams faced federal corruption charges, accused of taking bribes from foreign governments.

Inside City Hall, his administration saw scores of resignations, indictments and raids of his senior staff for mostly unrelated corruption investigations, such as a bribery scheme involving his former police commissioner.

Adams claimed without evidence that his own indictment was retribution for his criticism of Biden.

After President Donald Trump was elected in 2024, Adams visited Mar-a-Lago, rubbed shoulders with senior administration officials, and appeared on conservative talk shows. The Justice Department dropped the corruption charges, with Trump officials saying the corruption case interfered with Adams’ ability to enact the Republican administration’s immigration enforcement and his ability to run for re-election. Adams has denied the charges.

His polling took a hit, dropping to all-time low of just 20%. Recognizing his unpopularity within his own party, Adams dropped out of the primary.

Free from federal charges, Adams is running on his record leading the city to lower crime, building housing and creating jobs.

At the same time, he seeks to paint Mamdani − who focused on affordability in a notoriously expensive city − as someone incapable of actually enacting his policy proposals around rent freezes, free buses and universal child care.

A cautionary tale from Buffalo

Adams may be looking to New York state's second-largest city for inspiration.

After India Walton, a democratic socialist and first-time candidate, beat Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the 2021 Democratic primary, Brown campaigned as a write-in candidate, with backing from business groups, Republicans and police. He won, before resigning in 2024 to run an off-track betting corporation.

Much of the Democratic Party establishment either backed Brown or stayed neutral, instead of sticking with their own party's nominee. Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, refused to endorse Walton. Jacobs, a White man, likened Walton, a Black woman, to David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He apologized for the remarks.

Adams is on the ballot, which is more straightforward than needing voters to write his name in.

How Adams will try to win

Adams would have to reconfigure his multiracial base of working-class New Yorkers in the city’s outer boroughs. 

Mamdani won on proposals to help those struggling with skyrocketing costs of housing and income inequality. Despite Mamdani’s message, voters in mostly Black areas stayed with Cuomo, whose father Mario also served three terms as governor.

Recent primary turnout also appears to have been lower in Black-majority parts of the city than it was in 2021, when Adams was on the ballot. To win, Adams would need to boost Black turnout in the fall.

Walton, who is now a strategic organizer at progressive advocacy organization Roots Action, said Adams will likely try to rely on Black churchgoers, who tend to vote at high rates, pointing to her Buffalo race. Some voters might still see Adams, like Brown, as "the devil I know," she said.

She added the challenge for Mamdani is to reach out to Black voters, speak with influential clergy and addressing their wants and needs.

Some observers are more skeptical of Adams' viability. Many of the mainstream Democratic voters who ranked Cuomo first will likely stay with the Democratic line and vote for Mamdani in the fall, said Basil Smikle, a New York City-based political consultant and professor at Columbia University. 

But the Democratic coalition has largely collapsed, in part due to generational changes with younger voters not as connected to political clubs or the traditional party machine, said Smikle, who once ran the state Democratic Party. It may take time for Mamdani to build support in Black communities that are the core of the Democratic base.

“There are real questions about, ‘Are you disrupting my ability to be successful, take care of my family?’” Smikle said. “With that in mind, there is probably some skepticism there, so (Mamdani) has a lot of work to to make up some of that ground in the Black community.”

Others key members of the local Democratic machine, though, appear to have already embraced Mamdani.

After Mamdani won, state Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, encouraged Democrats to back him, even those who had reservations. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of Brooklyn, applauded Mamdani's win, but stopped short of a full endorsement of the presumptive nominee.

Another question is whether the scandal-plagued incumbent can raise enough money to compete with Mamdani's army of enthusiastic small donors. Adams faces debt from his legal fees, as The CITY, a nonprofit news outlet, reported.

Fix the City, a Super PAC funded in part by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and several Trump mega-donors, contributed $24 million to elect Cuomo against Mamdani, seeking to paint the young upstart as radical and antisemitic.

In an email, a spokesperson for Fix the City said the group was assessing the landscape and its options. There are donors who are interested in staying engaged in the race, the spokesperson said.

Ana María Archila, co-director of the New York Working Families Party, which endorsed Mamdani and a slate of other left-leaning candidates, said they expect the same monied interests that backed Cuomo to move to Adams in the general election.

“They only know one approach and that is to overwhelm their opposition with money,” she said. “That is not going to slow us down.”

In the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, both Cuomo and Adams have run for office purportedly to fight the rise of antisemitism. Adams is considering running on lines called “Safe&Affordable” and “EndAntisemitism.” 

Cuomo sought to paint Mamdani as antisemitic because he does not endorse Israel's existence as a Jewish state. Adams is sure to do the same against Mamdani, who is Muslim and has faced islamophobic attacks in the race, But while Adams appeals to Jewish voters who are staunchly pro-Israel, results suggest many progressive Jews in Manhattan and Brooklyn voted for Mamdani in the primary.

Less than 24 hours after polls closed on June 24, the New York Post, Trump’s conservative hometown newspaper, editorial board declared: “Eric Adams has a real chance to stop Mamdani.”

What followed was more important: Cuomo needs to drop out, the newspaper declared. They also hinted Sliwa might need to step aside so Republicans can also unite behind a candidate who can fight the “socialist threat from Mamdani.”

The Post acknowledged Adams has had his problems. But, the editorial said, he’s got a real chance now.

This story was update to include a statement from Zohran Mamdani.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.