Seeking to give Adrienne Adams a boost in the 2025 NYC mayor’s race, state Attorney General Letitia James and the leaders of three prominent unions on Wednesday rallied to trumpet the City Council speaker as the best mayoral candidate to take on President Trump and block former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s path to City Hall.
James, District Council 37 (DC37) Executive Director Henry Garrido, CWA Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton, and UNITE HERE Local 100 President José Maldonado gathered at DC 37’s Lower Manhattan headquarters on April 23 to endorse Speaker Adams in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary. They sold the speaker as a “no drama” leader who would defend the city from Trump’s deep cuts to the social safety net.
“At a time when we are dealing with bullies in Washington, we need a mayor who puts people first and individuals who can speak loudly about the challenges facing our city and the attacks on our residents, our neighbors,” said James, who has had many of her own battles with Trump over the past few years.
Speaker Adams has been far more vocal about countering Trump’s funding cuts and targeting of undocumented immigrants than Mayor Eric Adams, who has instead refrained from criticizing the president publicly.
While Cuomo, the front-runner in the mayoral race, has cast Trump as an “existential threat” to the city, the former governor has offered few specifics on how he would fight the president’s attacks.
The speaker herself charged that Cuomo would not act as a bulwark against Trump if he won because he had not criticized the president sharply enough since launching his campaign in early March. She also railed against him for receiving contributions from Trump donors both through his campaign and a super PAC supporting his candidacy.
“When people tell you that they’re going to stand up to Donald Trump yet you don’t hear a whisper from them, what does that tell you about someone who is trying to reinvent themselves as a strong man who will save the city of New York but did nothing to save the state of New York?” the speaker said.
Cuomo’s campaign declined to comment. In the past, they have argued he is the candidate best positioned to go head-to-head with Trump because he did so as governor for four years.
James framed Speaker Adams as a powerful counterweight to Cuomo, whom she painted as a figure of the past, solely running to redeem his reputation rather than improve the city.
“She’s stepping up at a time of chaos and confusion, not out of political motivation or political revenge or even redemption, but a commitment to proudly state and proudly defend out loud, this city, its residents, and all of the programs and services that it offers,” James said. “I’m looking forward to someone who’s going to put confidence over chaos and results over ego, people over politics.”
Cuomo’s mayoral campaign marks his return to politics after resigning amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment in 2021, which he denies. His resignation came shortly after James released a report finding 11 of the accusations against him credible — findings that Cuomo’s team argues have been discredited in the courts.
Despite Cuomo’s commanding lead, Garrido said he believes Speaker Adams can overcome the former governor both with the backing of DC 37, which represents 150,000 municipal workers and 87,000 retirees, and by utilizing the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
The union also endorsed Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) as candidates voters should rank second and third, respectively.
The speaker has struggled to gain momentum after entering the race late and is behind Mamdani and city Comptroller Brad Lander in the polls.
Garrido said the union’s membership rejected Cuomo after he applied for its backing mainly because of changes he made to the state pension system as governor known as Tier 6, which raised the retirement age and cut benefits. Cuomo pitched the reform as a necessary cost-saving measure for the state at the time.
“Tier 6 was fresh on the minds of so many workers,” Garrido said. “Part of the reason we believe we’ve had such a tough time recruiting and retaining young workers in particular is because of the changes into our pensions of Tier 6 that we’ve been trying for the last two legislative sessions to fix…We don’t forget that.”
