It’s election season again in New York City! After the bitter and tense 2024 presidential election, it is time for New Yorkers to vote for a mayor who will also have a large impact on their day-to-day lives.
Despite incumbent Mayor Eric Adams seeking re-election, this upcoming mayoral election has been one of the most intense elections in recent history. Mayor Adams has faced a host of controversies surrounding him and his campaign. In September 2024, he was indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. While corruption is on par with New York City politics, the extent of Adams’ misconduct has frustrated many Democrats. As a result, many other Democratic candidates have announced bids for New York City mayor. In response to Democratic backlash along with time spent fighting his corruption case, Adams has officially left the Democratic primary field and announced he will run as an independent, bypassing the primary process.
All of the Democratic candidates have made a careful effort to appeal to a wide demographic of voters following New York City’s large Republican shift in the 2024 presidential election, likely fueled by anger over crime, affordability, the economy, homelessness, and immigration.
Early polling data reveals that crime is the biggest concern for New Yorkers in this election. While crime has slightly declined over the last few years, many New Yorkers believe Mayor Adams has insufficiently addressed the issue despite running on it four years ago. Other major issues include the economy, the cost of living, and immigration.
The Democratic field is filled with candidates all across the ideological spectrum. There are moderate Democrats such as former governor Andrew Cuomo, progressive Democrats such as city comptroller Brad Lander, and Democratic socialists such as assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (a Bronx Science graduate, Class of 2010).
Past races have shown that New Yorkers often vote for candidates across the ideological spectrum. For example, in 2021, New Yorkers elected Mayor Adams, who ran on a more moderate, centrist platform focusing on supporting the NYPD. However, in the 2013 and 2017 elections, New Yorkers elected former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ran on a progressive platform advocating for changes such as universal preschool, universal free school meals, and prioritizing social justice and systemic racism when addressing crime and community safety.
Prior to de Blasio, New Yorkers elected former Mayors Bloomberg and Giuliani, who ran on more visionary conservative platforms focused on increasing police activity to reduce crime, bolstering efforts to clean the city’s streets, and funding projects to build more parks and recreational activities in neighborhoods. Giuliani in particular, is known for transforming Times Square, along with most of midtown and downtown Manhattan. Bloomberg is well known for his advocacy in creating more bike and pedestrian lanes, planting one million trees to make the city more green, and building parks to increase access to nature and green spaces.
This upcoming election will reveal New Yorkers’ visions for future leadership and whether they want to continue the moderate liberal leadership similar to Mayor Adams, pursue a more left-wing government with ambitious policies, or move towards a more right-wing government focusing on issues such as crime and immigration.
After resigning from New York State governorship in August 2021 and multiple women accusing him of sexual harassment, former governor Cuomo has been eyeing a political comeback. After months of speculation, Cuomo formally joined the race on March 1st, 2025. In his first campaign video, he addressed issues New Yorkers were highly concerned about, including public safety and crime, housing, and public education. He has also been a vocal supporter of Israel and has made addressing antisemitism a critical part of his campaign.
Cuomo has portrayed New York City’s condition as grim and dire, claiming that his leadership is needed to pave the way for a thriving New York City. He has pointed to accomplishments as governor, such as being the first state to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, establishing paid sick leave and paid family leave, legalizing marijuana, and guiding New York through the COVID-19 pandemic with his daily briefings.
However, his opponents have slammed Cuomo for prioritizing his interests over the interests of New Yorkers, arguing that a big reason why New York City is in a dire situation is due to the negligence of his own administration. They have criticized him for moving Andy Byford, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) president, out of his position as he was working to reform the agency. They have also accused him of removing funds from the MTA, leaving the agency in a crisis in 2017. In addition, they have accused him of undermining unions and unionized workers, especially in Upstate New York.
As of April 2025, Cuomo is currently leading in the Democratic primary polls. However, this does not mean that he is guaranteed to win. Past mayoral primaries have shown that the candidate who initially leads in polling data often ends up falling short of being nominated (for example, despite entrepreneur Andrew Yang leading the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primaries, he ultimately ended up in 4th place among all candidates, winning just 12% of the vote). In addition, New York City has adopted rank choice voting for primary elections, meaning that candidates can no longer win with just a plurality of votes (Cuomo is struggling to reach 40% as of March 2025).
In an attempt to break from the centrist campaigns run by Adams and Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, a New York State Assemblymember, has launched the most left-wing mayoral campaign in this Democratic primary. Branding himself as a democratic socialist, Mamdani has proposed many changes for New York City, including freezing rent for rent-stabilized apartments, building 200,000 new apartments with union workers, making MTA buses free and frequent, implementing universal childcare, raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030, opening city-owned grocery stores, offering free baby products, cracking down on landlords, and more.
As assemblymember, Mamdani successfully advocated for a free fare pilot program for five New York City bus lines. He has proposed raising the corporate tax rate by 1.25% (to bring it to New Jersey’s tax rate) to raise $2 billion to fund universal childcare.
Mamdani has also advocated for community based solutions to address crime, arguing that heavy policing and mass incarceration has been unsuccessful and has harmed people of color. He is in favor of creating a Department of Community Safety rather than increasing the NYPD force. This separates him from most of the other candidates running for mayor, most of who have instead advocated for increasing police presence.
While far less known than other prominent Democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), his policies and rhetoric closely mimic theirs.
While he has received endorsements from left wing organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), United Auto Workers union, Jewish Voices for Peace, and many more, he has received criticism from the more moderate wing of the Democratic party for being “soft” on crime, not addressing antisemitism enough, and more. For instance, the American Jewish Congress, a nonpartisan organization, ripped Mamdani for not being vocal against anti-semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric.
In addition, his opponents have also argued that many of his policies seem unrealistic to them, arguing that free MTA buses would cost upwards of $800 million a year. They have also argued that rent freezes do not help address the root cause of unaffordable housing, which is the lack of supply. His critics have also argued he lacks authority with regard to making MTA buses free as the MTA is a state run agency (though the mayor does appoint some members to the board of the MTA).
Despite the criticism, Mamdani, a Bronx Science graduate (Class of 2010), has surged in polling and fundraising, finishing second behind Cuomo in latest fundraising data. He was also the first candidate to hit the fundraising cap of around $8 million. He has also surged in the polls, consistently finishing in second place.
Brad Lander, the current New York City comptroller, is also running on a progressive platform. In fact, he has been labelled as one of the most progressive members in New York City government. While running for comptroller, he received endorsement from major progressive politicians including Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Lander is running on ambitious policies including building one million new homes, funding child care to make it free, accelerating investment into solar and other renewable energy sources, making higher education (CUNY) affordable, and more.
Lander is especially running on his background and experience as a politician. He has highlighted successful policies which he championed and helped pass, including the ban on plastic bags and styrofoam, investigations into Mayor Adams’ record on protecting New York City from climate change, advocating for legislation regarding employee wages and protections, and more. He is marketing himself as an ambitious and experienced leader, highlighting his experience in government, which Cuomo has, along with his ambitious agenda similar to Mamdani.
Lander has attempted to appeal to more moderate voters, talking about the importance of addressing crime and public safety, the most prevalent issue among New Yorkers. He has emphasized the role of the NYPD in keeping the city safe while also emphasizing the importance of holding officers accountable and community policing. While a progressive, he has not made the same specific campaign promises אישא Mamdani has made, focusing more on general policy proposals such as funding childcare and CUNY colleges.
The current speaker of the New York City Council, Adams launched her campaign relatively late into the election season (in March 2025). In addition, she has struggled to gain name recognition and her current fundraising numbers have fallen flat.
Despite these setbacks, Adams is running on her experience as speaker of the City Council, highlighting her more moderate and practical stances, along with her willingness to compromise. In particular, she is focusing on her work in the City Council to spearhead programs supporting working mothers and adult learners, which is connected to the major issue of childcare. She also pushed back against budget cuts proposed by Mayor Eric Adams, which have been deeply unpopular.
Adams has highlighted her accomplishments, including establishing the CUNY Reconnect program, trauma recovery centers, and anti-poverty guaranteed income programs.
Despite sharing the same last name, Adrianne Adams is not related to current Mayor Eric Adams.
(Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
A New York State senator representing the Queens neighborhoods of Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights,, Ramos is running a populist, progressive campaign, focusing on labor rights and unions. She has highlighted her progress regarding labor rights, including cracking down on wage theft, passing paid sick leave for domestic workers, enacting new protections for farmers, along with workers at nail salons and distribution warehouses.
She is known as a tough and effective leader and has been a vocal critic of the Adams’ administration, especially regarding the migrant crisis. She is backed by the Working Families Party, United Auto Workers (along with Mamdani and Lander), Teamsters Union, and Downtown Women for Change.
Her proposed policies include expanding child care access, building affordable housing, and expanding access to mental health care services. These touch the three biggest issues for New Yorkers this election: childcare, crime/public safety/quality of life, and the cost of living.
A New York State senator representing Brooklyn, Myrie has been running on a progressive, ambitious campaign. In particular, he has focused extensively on real-estate, highlighting the importance of housing. He has pledged to build 1 million new housing units during his term as mayor.
This focus on housing makes him stand out among the other candidates in the campaign, who have made more general campaign promises. Despite his ambitious agenda–addressing one of the most important issues facing New Yorkers—-he has struggled to gain much name recognition and has lagged behind his peers in raising donations.
(Photo Credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
The former comptroller of New York City , Stringer is launching his second consecutive mayoral campaign. In 2021 he ran as a progressive candidate and was initially receiving lots of support in polling data, often in second or third place. However, sexual harassment allegations against him, combined with the surge in popularity among other candidates resulted in him finishing in fifth place, receiving just 5.5% of the vote.
Stringer is attempting to revive his political career with a new platform. He is running on a more moderate, but still liberal campaign, focusing on crime and cost of living.
The founder and CEO of Kairo’s Democracy Project, a political consultant, associate pastor, Vice Chair of the DNC (2017-2021), and NY Assemblymember from the 79th District (2015-2021), Blake has a long history of running for office. He is running as a moderate Democrat and often attempts to campaign and govern in the style of Barack Obama. He supports implementing universal child care, tax breaks for middle class homeowners, and funding nonprofit organizations.
Despite his ambitious platform, Blake suffers from lack of media attention, name recognition, and prior electoral victories. He is in danger of becoming a perennial candidate if he loses this election. In addition, his fundraising numbers are trailing behind more prominent candidates such as Cuomo and Mamdani.
An investor, editor, and hedge fund manager at Stansberry Research, Tilson is running on a moderate platform. His platform includes increased funding and support for charter schools, cracking down on crime, tackling quality of life issues (including removing homeless people from the streets and subways), reducing city government spending, focusing on economic growth, and reducing the cost of living.
While he is not a billionaire, Tilson is often compared to former mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is known for advocating for similar policies. Bloomberg was a relatively popular mayor and more New Yorkers today view him favorably. Tilson is attempting to capitalize on this by running on a similar style and platform.
Despite his efforts, Tilson suffers from lack of name recognition and media attention. He has also mostly self-funded his campaign and has not yet qualified for matching funds. In addition, many progressive and leftist voters do not appear to be enthusiastic about voting for a hedge fund manager and moderate voters seem to be coalescing around Cuomo. Tilson will need more name recognition to make inroads in the primary.
The Democratic Party currently contains at least nine candidates. In addition, there seems to be a lot of overlap in ideology and policy among the candidates. As a result, some fear that the large number of candidates may split the vote, resulting in a candidate with more name recognition such as Cuomo winning.
While New York City is a very Democratic leaning city, Republicans have been making inroads in the city, especially following the 2024 presidential election. The Republican primary currently contains three candidates, far fewer than the Democratic primary. Despite this, there is a highly notable candidate running in the Republican primary.
Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, an anti-crime and nonprofit organization where volunteers attempt to combat crime and promote community safety in New York City They were prominent in the 1980s and 90s when crime rates peaked in New York City (homicides in 1990 were almost eight times higher than in 2024, 2245 vs 377, respectively). They often patrol subways and streets and respond to instances of crime and other issues. Sliwa is also a radio host for WABC.
Sliwa is probably the only prominent Republican candidate in the 2025 mayoral primary as he, by far, has the most name recognition. This is due to his involvement in the Guardian Angels, hosting a radio show, and his previous mayoral race in 2021 (in which he lost to Mayor Adams). He is running on a platform championing compassionate conservatism, using his conservative views to help marginalized communities. Some of his policies include bringing back “tough-on-crime” initiatives implemented during the Giuliani and Bloomberg years, expanding access to education, protecting the homeless, universal basic income, and animal welfare. He has also discussed increasing the use of plainclothes “anti-crime” units, which were disbanded under Mayor de Blasio but brought back under Mayor Adams, cracking down on gun violence, increasing police presence on the subway, and using methods similar to stop-and-frisk (which was ruled unconstitutional by a judge in 2013).
While Sliwa has lots of name recognition, he suffers from running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic leaning city. In the 2021 mayoral election, Sliwa won just under 28% of the vote (compared to Adams’ 67%). Even in the 2024 presidential election, when New York City saw a significant shift towards the Republican Party, President Trump managed to win just 30% of the vote. In addition, Sliwa’s fundraising numbers are much lower compared to many Democratic candidates. Despite these obstacles, Sliwa and his supporters are optimistic about their chances as New York Citycontinues to shift towards the Republican Party in light of Mayor Adams’ abysmal approval rating.
Aquino is the CEO of Advocates for Disabled Americans, Veterans, Police, Firemen, & Families (ADA VETs). He is a 9/11 survivor and is a disabled American. He focuses on his record of advocating for the disabled in Congress before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. He is an advocate for people with disabilities and ensuring they are included in society and not discriminated against.
Aquino is running on a conservative platform that mirrors much of President Trump’s agenda. Some specific policies include fighting corruption, “cleaning up the city,” removing immigrants who are here illegally, providing support for legal immigrants to be naturalized, increasing NYPD size and funding, expanding gun access/gun rights, and more. He advocates New York City to be run by a “superhero,” not another career politician.
Rem is another conservative champion running for mayor. He also shares similar policies to Aquino in advocating for a crackdown on crime, ending housing undocumented immigrants at hotels, and supporting workers who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Rem is an advocate for school choice, expanding access to charter schools, and “holding the public school system accountable for not preparing students for higher education.” Rem is also running on increasing transparency in New York City government following the scandals of the Adams administration.
Rem is also supportive of introducing vocational studies to public schools, expanding access to trade schools following high school graduation, enhancing the NYPD to improve relations between police officers and their communities, eliminating New York City’s “sanctuary city” status, and reducing homelessness, especially for seniors and veterans.
In recent weeks, there has been much news pertaIning to independent candidates running for mayor. Many of these candidates are highly critical of both the Democratic and Republican parties and offer their own vision for the city.
Mayor Adams is probably the most notable independent running. He is currently seeking re-election amid numerous scandals, including his federal indictment. His approval rating has dropped to a record low (28%) in 2024. New Yorkers were especially critical of Adams’ handling of crime, public education, immigration, city budget, and homelessness. In fact, 53% of New Yorkers want Adams to resign. However, he is holding firm and has refused resignation.
In an attempt to improve his public image, Adams is pointing to some of his accomplishments as mayor, including the passage of City of Yes, which would change zoning laws to allow for more housing development. He is also touting NYPD statistics revealing violent crime has been on the decline in New York City, with shootings in February 2025 at a 30-year low. His administration has also successfully begun cracking down on illegal smoke shops, closing over 75 illegally operated smoke shops and cannabis shops, issuing $6 million in penalties, and issuing over 3,800 counts of violations. He is running on a centrist, tough-on-crime platform, in addition to focusing on making NYC a “safer, more affordable” city.
On April 3rd, 2025, Adams announced he would skip the Democratic primary and run for re-election as an independent, criticizing the far-left and far-right in government. This would allow him to skip the primary election, and provide him with more time to campaign. However, some of his opponents have accused him of “flip-flopping” on his views to suit what he finds most convenient.
Walden is an antitrust and government law attorney and a former U.S. assistant attorney. He is running on a centrist, pragmatic platform. He is capitalizing on his record as an attorney, highlighting his fights against corruption, for public housing tenants, and securing equal justice for the vulnerable and marginalized communities. In particular, he has discussed his success in securing better housing conditions for over 400,000 public housing tenants, holding corporations and government agencies accountable, or pushing for landmark legislation.
He is running on some of the most prevalent issues New Yorkers are prioritizing this election. For example, he is running on increasing the size of the NYPD, enhancing NYPD training, improving community relations with the NYPD, and re-allocating NYPD presence to ensure equal protection/policing in each neighborhood. He is a critic of the “City of Yes” plan which passed through the city council, arguing that it is too costly, does not produce adequate housing, fails to hold landlords accountable, and puts disproportionate burdens on lower income neighborhoods. He is also championing investing in private businesses to boost innovation and grow the city’s economy.
He is also capitalizing on the corruption scandals of the Adams’ administration, announcing his support of a zero-tolerance policy for corruption. He also wants to invest in private and union jobs, along with small businesses. He is advocating for building more bike lanes, investing in clean infrastructure, creating renewable energy projects in all five boroughs, expanding public transportation, and working with private businesses to accelerate clean energy projects to make New York City carbon neutral.
Given the immense number of candidates running for mayor across both political parties and independents, this election is likely one of the most significant in modern New York City history. Given the many issues that New Yorkers are concerned about, including crime and the cost of living, candidates will likely need to run a convincing campaign to win the primary and general elections. While there appears to be a likely favorite in the Democratic primary and the general election, past mayoral elections have shown that the initial frontrunner often ends up not being victorious on election day. As the June 24th, 2025 primary and the November 4th, 2025 general election loom, all of the candidates have been ramping up their campaigns, launching attacks at their opposition, releasing commercials, holding town halls, and more.
With campaigns intensifying and voter dynamics still shifting, the outcome of both the primary and general elections remains unpredictable.
This upcoming election will reveal New Yorkers’ visions for future leadership and whether they want to continue the moderate liberal leadership similar to Mayor Adams, pursue a more left-wing government with ambitious policies, or move towards a more right-wing government focusing on issues such as crime and immigration.