Earlier than they turned well-known, many previous New York Metropolis mayors had colourful backgrounds — Fiorello LaGuardia was a translator on the Ellis Island Immigration Heart, John Lindsay was a “ski bum” and the scandal-plagued Jimmy Walker was a Broadway lyricist.
The 4 males working this November for what’s usually known as the second-toughest job in America additionally deliver distinctive experiences to the desk that will give voters a glimpse into their management model, and assist inform them of creating the best option to function mayor for the following 4 years.
The sector features a rapper-turned state lawmaker, a three-term former governor whose father held the identical place earlier than him, and an incumbent mayor who walked town streets as a cop for 20 years. These candidates are Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, and unbiased Democrats Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams. Additionally working is GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa, an activist who has patrolled town’s streets and subways because the Nineteen Seventies.
Jim Walden, a high-powered lawyer who has a historical past of representing highly effective politicians in authorized issues, shall be on the poll in November, however on Tuesday, he introduced he was terminating his marketing campaign. Walden had barely registered any help in current polls.
Beneath, New York News dives into the backgrounds and experiences of every remaining mayoral candidate.
Eric Adams
Mayor Eric AdamsPhoto by Lloyd Mitchell
Eric Adams has served as New York Metropolis’s a hundred and tenth mayor because the begin of 2022, after overcoming a crowded area of challengers within the 2021 Democratic major and blowing out Republican Curtis Sliwa in that 12 months’s common election. The 65-year-old Democrat is town’s second Black mayor.
Adams, like most mayors, lives within the mayor’s official residence at Gracie Mansion and owns a row home within the Bedford Stuyvesant part of Brooklyn. Nonetheless, questions have been raised about how a lot time he spends at a co-op he co-owns along with his long-time accomplice Tracey Collins in Fort Lee, NJ.
In 2006, he retired from the NYPD, ran for, and received a Brooklyn state Senate seat — a place he held for the almost a decade. He then efficiently ran for Brooklyn borough president in 2013 and served in that put up till he received the mayoralty in 2021.
He counts double-digit drops within the metropolis’s capturing and homicide charges, passing a large zoning overhaul often known as “City of Yes,” and launching a push to containerize town’s trash amongst his main accomplishments.
Adams introduced an enthusiasm and “swagger” to the mayoralty that enormously contrasted with the model of his predecessor, Invoice de Blasio. Almost day-after-day throughout Adams’ first two years in workplace, he boasted a packed public schedule, touring to all corners of town for ribbon cuttings, flag raisings, and the rollout of latest initiatives.
Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy earlier than Adams’ mayoralty was derailed by each exterior and inner challenges.
First, there was the migrant disaster, which instantly confronted Adams’ younger administration with a collection of logistical, monetary, and authorized challenges. He has usually cited the deluge of over 200,000 new arrivals as a motive for making steep finances cuts and stifling his agenda.
Second was a collection of corruption scandals that led lots of Adams’ prime aides to resign and culminated in his personal now-dismissed federal indictment final fall. The case concerned Adams allegedly recieving unlawful international marketing campaign donations and luxurious journey perks in alternate for official favors.
The fees have been dropped by a federal decide on the behest of President Trump’s administration earlier this 12 months — although the decide stated his choice was not primarily based on the case’s deserves. Whereas Adams has maintained the indictment was “lawfare,” the way by which it was dismissed led many to accuse him of securing Trump’s assist by pledging his help for the president’s mass deportation push.
Andrew Cuomo
Former Gov. Andrew CuomoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud
Andrew Cuomo, a 67-year-old Democrat, served as New York’s 56th governor from 2011 to 2021 earlier than resigning amid two huge scandals.
He lives within the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan. He moved again to town final September after residing in Westchester and Albany.
Cuomo’s almost decade-long tenure as governor was marked by vital coverage wins, comparable to legalizing homosexual marriage and elevating the statewide minimal wage to $15 an hour. He additionally accomplished a number of main infrastructure initiatives, together with the primary leg of the Second Avenue Subway, an overhaul of LaGuardia Airport, and Moynihan Prepare Corridor.
Cuomo drew the nationwide highlight throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for his day by day televised briefings, which sharply contrasted Trump’s dealing with of the disaster.
Nonetheless, many in state authorities who interacted with Cuomo’s bare-knuckle politics accused him of bullying and of working a poisonous work setting. In early 2021, Cuomo confronted the primary of two main scandals.
State Lawyer Common Letitia James’ workplace launched findings that Cuomo’s administration undercounted the variety of COVID-19 nursing dwelling deaths throughout New York, following his Well being Division’s closely criticized 2020 steerage that the amenities readmit hospital sufferers who examined optimistic for the virus. The previous governor has insisted his administration adopted all federal pointers.
Across the identical time, Cuomo was hit with a number of accusations of sexual harassment, lots of which got here from staffers, prompting him to enlist AG James’ workplace to research the alleged misconduct. That August, James’ workplace launched its report, which discovered that Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 girls. He stepped down as governor quickly after the report got here out.
In his resignation speech, Cuomo apologized to the ladies he “deeply offended,” however nonetheless denied the allegations and has continued to take action within the years since.
Cuomo’s common election marketing campaign is his second try at a political comeback after he misplaced the Democratic major to Mamdani, regardless of polling exhibiting him to be the frontrunner all through that contest. He has positioned himself as a average and the one candidate with the expertise to maintain town secure and deal with its affordability and housing crises.
Zohran Mamdani
Democratic mayoral nominee and Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, shocked the world along with his upset almost 13-point Democratic major victory over Cuomo in June. He has represented western Queens neighborhoods, together with Astoria and a part of Lengthy Island Metropolis, since 2021.
Mamdani grew up within the Morningside Heights part of Manhattan and attended the Bronx Excessive College of Science.
In accordance with his legislative web site, Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin Faculty in Maine in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Diploma in Africana Research. He co-founded the school’s chapter of College students for Justice in Palestine, which is a part of the historical past of pro-Palestinian activism.
After graduating from faculty, Mamdani labored as a housing foreclosures prevention counselor, serving to Queens residents combat eviction proceedings — the place he says impressed him to hunt public workplace. On the identical time, he pursued a side-hustle as a rapper named “Mr. Cardamom.”
Mamdani broke into native politics by engaged on a number of campaigns, together with managing freelance opinion columnist Ross Barkan’s failed 2018 state Senate bid. In accordance with a printed report, he joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) the earlier 12 months.
In 2020, Mamdani was elected as the primary South Asian man to serve in Albany’s decrease chamber, after narrowly defeating incumbent Aravella Simotas within the Democratic major with the backing of DSA. Since then, he has handily received reelection in 2022 and 2024.
Mamdani’s signature legislative accomplishment was passing an almost one-year pilot program making MTA bus routes in every of the 5 boroughs free. However whereas Mamdani has proposed 20 payments, his rivals have roundly criticized him for less than getting three of them over the end line throughout his 4 years in Albany.
The democratic socialist received the first with an affordability-focused platform that features proposals like making metropolis buses free, freezing hire will increase for town’s almost a million stabilized tenants, and implementing common free little one care. He proposes funding his costly platform by getting the state to boost taxes on millionaires and firms.
Nonetheless, all through each the first and the overall election, Mamdani has confronted a torrent of criticism from opponents and others over his relative lack of expertise, socialist ideology, ties to the DSA, and opposition to Israel. Cuomo and Adams have each argued that his platform is unrealistic and that he’s unprepared for the mayoralty after simply 4 years as a state lawmaker.
Detractors, together with Trump, have even gone as far as to falsely label Mamdani “a communist” and name him antisemitic.
Curtis Sliwa
Republican mayoral nominee Curtis SliwaPhoto by Dean Moses
Curtis Sliwa, a 71-year-old long-time activist and radio persona, is the Republican Occasion’s mayoral nominee. He lives on the Higher West Facet of Manhattan along with his spouse, Nancy Sliwa, and their cats.
Hardly ever seen with out his signature pink beret, Sliwa is thought for founding the vigilante group The Guardian Angels and his attention-grabbing stunts over the previous few many years. He was additionally the Republican nominee in 2021, however he soundly misplaced to Mayor Adams.
Through the years, Sliwa and the Guardian Angels drew consideration for flashy incidents each actual and faux, based on revealed experiences.
As an illustration, he was shot and almost killed by associates of the mob boss John Gotti Jr. within the early Nineteen Nineties. After that incident, Sliwa confessed to fabricating a number of tales about The Guardian Angels’ heroics with a view to burnish the group’s popularity, comparable to returning a pockets full of money to its proprietor and kicking a shotgun away from a person on the subway. A 1992 New York Instances piece additional accused Sliwa of exaggerating the group’s membership and fabricating different situations past the six he confessed.
Sliwa apologized for the falsehoods, saying he deeply regretted them.
Sliwa and his group have drawn accusations of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment through the years. He was a vocal critic of Mayor Adams’ administration’s efforts to shelter tens of 1000’s of migrants.
The Guardian Angels founder has additionally had a protracted and profitable profession as a chat radio host. He has primarily appeared on WABC 770, the community owned by conservative grocery store magnet John Catsimatidis.
Sliwa is working on rising the NYPD’s ranks by 7,000 officers and making a direct line of communication between the mayor’s workplace and the NYPD’s 78 precincts. He has additionally pledged to repeal Mayor Adams’ Metropolis of Sure zoning reforms, that are aimed toward making it simpler to construct housing within the metropolis.
