‘Not the Eric show’: Eric Adams on his low-profile DNC trip

The man with the second toughest job in America, a Black moderate Democrat leading the nation’s largest city, who has referred to himself as the “Biden of Brooklyn” and once declared himself the “face of the new Democratic Party,” will have a relatively muted role in Chicago this week, where Democrats across the country are convening for their national convention.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged that he won’t have a speaking slot at the convention this week in Chicago, where he’s headed on Wednesday to act as a “soldier” on a mission to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris as president, as he described it. “I’m going to the DNC to get my assignment,” he said Tuesday. “We’re huddling, and we’re going to come out and go to the line of scrimmage and execute the play to get the ball down the field, so we can get this championship ring called the presidency.”

Adams’ role at the convention is in some ways clear and straightforward; he’s a Democratic delegate, there with the many others from New York to celebrate the Harris-Walz ticket, even though Harris and Walz have already secured the party’s nomination. Adams has said that he’ll be in meetings throughout the day and expects to do media hits.

But his broader stature within the national party is less well-defined. In the three years since he became the presumptive mayor after winning the Democratic primary in 2021 – when he was comparing himself to Biden and calling himself the face of the party’s future – Adams’ position and influence within the Democratic Party, and with the current occupants of the White House, seems to have shifted. Even his self-appointed old moniker “the Biden of Brooklyn” no longer packs the same punch since Biden will soon cease to be the leader of the party.

If not the “Biden of Brooklyn,” then what is the mayor’s position in the national Democratic Party? “Nonexistent,” one labor source quipped. Some observers suggested that the mayor’s well-documented criticisms of the Biden administration on immigration has hurt his position and influence in the national party, as have the legal investigations and lawsuits his campaign, and those in his orbit, have faced.

Adams, unsurprisingly, would disagree that his role is so diminished. But rather than anoint himself the “Kamala of Kings County,” Adams has referred to himself as a loyal soldier. At another point on Tuesday, he compared himself to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a reported finalist for Harris’ vice presidential pick before Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz got the nod.

When asked to describe his role and influence in the party, Adams said he has proven that he has his finger on the pulse of what everyday people need. That includes putting an emphasis on crime – a major part of his 2021 platform – as well as migrants and asylum-seekers, a focus over the past few years. Recent polling shows New Yorkers remain concerned about both issues.

Recent congressional elections that have seen the election of moderates have borne that out, he said, though he didn’t specify to which elections he was referring. “New Yorkers don’t want the extremes in their policymakers anymore. They want a commonsense approach to dealing with bread-and-butter issues,” he said. Though he said that his speaking up on the issues of crime and the migrant influx has resonated throughout the country, he claimed he’s not looking for credit. “I’m looking to help working-class people in this city and country. I don’t need to stand up and say, ‘Look at what I did.’ I’m like Josh Shapiro, how he’s getting stuff done.”

As mayor of the nation’s largest city, Adams is by virtue of his office a prominent Democrat, and one of the more visible Black elected officials in the country. “Inherently, he’s an important voice in the Democratic Party,” said Democratic political consultant Evan Stavisky. “The policy conversations that take place in New York inherently have ripples throughout the country. Because in addition to being the largest city in the country, New York is obviously the media capital and the financial capital of the Western Hemisphere.”

Adams brushed off questions about whether not having a speaking role at the convention was a slight to him, or a slight to New York City, reflecting its needs being overlooked by the national party at large. “I’m not on an ego trip that I have this role or that role. I’m the mayor of the city of New York,” Adams said Tuesday. “This is the greatest city on the globe. That is the role.”

But some have read the mayor’s lack of a speaking slot at the DNC as a snub. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke at the 2016 Democratic convention and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke at the 2016 and 2020 conventions. This year, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got primetime speaking slots on the first night of the convention, and City Council Member Yusef Salaam, elected to office last year and a member of the Exonerated Five, is expected to speak on Thursday. Adams being left off the then-Biden-Harris campaign’s national leadership advisory team last year was also read by some as a snub.

After having a “honeymoon period” following his June 2021 primary victory, Democratic strategist Trip Yang said the mayor’s repeated criticisms of the Biden administration over their handling of the influx of migrants to the city sent the relationship downhill. “Eric is probably right that the federal government needed to alleviate the burden on cities and states, because the funding has to come from the federal level,” Yang said. “But the antagonistic public approach did not win him many friends in the Biden-Harris administration, as well as in the Biden-Harris campaign.”

Whether Adams has an opportunity to build a stronger relationship with Harris if she is elected remains to be seen. Adams announced his support for Harris as the presidential nominee the morning after Biden stepped down. Asked about his role on the Harris campaign, Adams said, “I am taking an extremely prominent role,” adding that he’s doing a series of events in New York, including engaging Black men to vote for Harris.

Bristling a bit at the question – which also garnered an odd warning from City Hall’s chief counsel about reporters asking campaign-related questions at a city press conference – Adams said again that it’s not about his ego. “(Harris is) running for president. And it is not my job to try to supersede her running for president,” he said. “This is not the Eric show. This is her show. And that’s what I’m going to support.”

– additional reporting by Sahalie Donaldson