A whole lot of elected officials showed up at Adrienne Adams’ campaign launch

Just a few days into her mayoral campaign, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams pulled together a strong showing of early institutional support that could help her down-to-the-wire candidacy catch on mere months away from the Democratic primary. 

Elected officials who showed up at her first campaign event Saturday and endorsed her included state Sen. James Sanders and Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi of Queens, former Queens Council Member I. Daneek Miller, former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, and fellow City Council Members Yusef Salaam, Kevin Riley, Althea Stevens, Chris Banks, Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala and Majority Leader Amanda Farías. City Council Member Sandy Nurse also endorsed her, but was unable to attend the Saturday rally at Rochdale Village Shopping Center.

“It was a strong showing – both from an institutional perspective as well as a community perspective. You had all different kinds of folks come out,” said Yvette Buckner, Democratic strategist and co-chair of the New Majority NYC, which organized around achieving the first majority woman City Council. “I thought it was a real home run for her first coming out.”

The City Council speaker held her campaign launch event a week after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo held his. Her campaign launch was rapidly assembled. His was months in the making. Hers took place in a shopping center in Southeast Queens, his took place in a Manhattan union hall. Many of his supporters were reportedly bussed in, while hers by and large showed up organically. Attendees – seniors and youth, southeast Queens locals and other borough residents alike – spilled out beyond the rows of chairs. “Divine Nine” member organization Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority – of which the speaker is an active member – showed up in force.

Cuomo, in an attempt to create a sense of inevitability around his campaign, has kept up a steady drumbeat of support, rolling out endorsements from several labor unions, political organizations and nine elected officials, including Rep. Ritchie Torres, Assembly Members Eddie Gibbs, Yudelka Tapia, Charles Fall, Jordan Wright and Latrice Walker, and City Council Members Kamillah Hanks, Darlene Mealy and Farah Louis. Despite only announcing her campaign late last week, Speaker Adams has solidified endorsements from a comparable number of elected officials. There were more at her Saturday launch event than there were at the former governor’s. And unlike Cuomo, who had months to build support behind the scenes as he weighed whether or not to enter the race, Speaker Adams had only a few weeks to pull the threads of her campaign together. 

“Adrienne had not been publicly floating the idea that she was going to run for mayor until these last couple weeks,” said Democratic strategist Trip Yang. “With that context in mind, her political endorsements are even more impressive.”

While Speaker Adams no doubt faces a tough path amid a crowded field of candidates, a narrow fundraising window, and limited name recognition, the success of her launch event sets her up as a viable challenger to New York City Mayor Eric Adams – and also perhaps the strongest competitor to Cuomo, who currently leads the field per early polling. Speaker Adams and Cuomo have both amassed some weighty institutional support despite their respective late entries into the race. At this point in time – some 100 days out from the June 24 Democratic primary – those institutional endorsements from elected officials and labor unions seem likely to continue drifting in their direction, according to Yang. 

“It is remarkable that in a primary race with a sitting incumbent mayor and with multiple candidates that have been running in this race for over a year, that the two candidates gobbling up the endorsements – and are likely to gobble up the majority of the remaining endorsements – just announced,” Yang said.

Still, there were some notable absences. State Attorney General Letitia James, who has encouraged Speaker Adams to run and has worked to build support for her, was not there. James' law enforcement role may complicate her involvement with the campaign. There was no appearance from DC 37, the politically powerful municipal employees union that has reportedly also been supportive of the speaker’s run. Also absent were any current members of the City Council from Queens aside from Council Member Julie Won, who attended but has not endorsed. Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers could not be reached due to a death in the family, her staffer told City & State. 

Also absent were several members of City Council leadership, including Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan, Land Use Committee Chair Rafael Salamanca and Rules Committee Chair Keith Powers. All three are running their own races for higher office. 

Ayala said she believes more City Council members will come out in support of Speaker Adams in the weeks to come – especially once she proves she’s able to amass the sort of fundraising needed to be truly competitive.

“There’s a lot of really positive energy around this campaign and I really think it’s doable. It’s going to take work to get name recognition in the other boroughs, but that’s what the rest of us are for,” Ayala told City & State Saturday. “Those of us that are supporting her will be out here ensuring that every New Yorker knows who Adrienne Adams is.”