Blue collars and manicured nails: How New York Mayor Eric Adams is campaigning against Zohran Mamdani

By Gloria Pazmino, CNN

New York (CNN) — Eric Adams was once a rising star in the Democratic Party. His reelection will hinge on taking down the newest one.

Hours after Zohran Mamdani’s performance in New York City’s Democratic primary electrified national politics, Adams painted the 33-year-old democratic socialist as an entitled and inexperienced lawmaker trying to hoodwink New Yorkers with unrealistic campaign proposals.

“This is a city not of socialism,” Adams said.

Speaking Thursday on the steps of City Hall, Adams pitched himself as a tested, working-class leader focused on public safety and economic recovery who wants to complete the job he set out to do nearly four years ago. He signaled that he intends to paint Mamdani as elitist and out of touch with the needs of Black and Latino communities.

“This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a suit and silver spoon – a choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails,” Adams said. “It’s a choice between real progress and empty promises.”

Mamdani was shown Adams’ comments on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” He smiled and held his hands up to the camera.

“They’re not looking that great right now,” he said.

Adams is a 64-year-old retired police captain who later became a state senator and Brooklyn borough president. Having run a law-and-order focused campaign four years ago, he highlighted his administration’s work overseeing a steady drop in overall crime, a record increase in jobs and tourism, and a push to approve and build more affordable housing.

Not mentioned: His relationship with President Trump. Adams declined to run in the Democratic primary this year after the Trump-led Department of Justice ordered corruption charges against Adams to be dropped. Adams is now mounting an independent bid.

His campaign launch came three days after Mamdani shocked former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with a campaign focused on making one of the world’s most expensive cities affordable for its working-class residents.

Adams will try to appeal to the same voters Cuomo’s campaign targeted: Moderate Democrats who fear the prospect of a Mamdani administration, Black voters who have historically supported both Adams and Cuomo, and the city’s real estate and business leaders who see Mamdani’s ideas for a rent freeze and a tax increase on millionaires as an existential threat.

“This is not a city where you use idealism to state you’re giving everything to everyone for free,” Adams said.

“There’s no dignity in someone giving you everything for free. There’s dignity in giving you a job so you can provide for your family and the opportunities that you deserve,” Adams said.

Mamdani told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Adams was trying to distract from rent hikes and increased utility costs enacted during his term.

“I understand what he’s doing,” Mamdani said. “I would much rather talk about me than I would about his record if I was him. And so that’s what he’s going to be doing over the next few months, and we will continue to remind New Yorkers what’s on the ballot. It’s affordability.”

Adams was surrounded by a diverse crowd, including members of the city’s Black clergy, Latino pastors and Jewish faith leaders – part of a key coalition that helped Adams secure his first win in 2022.

There was also a who’s who of controversial characters from New York’s political sphere, including former State Senator Malcolm Smith, who was convicted of bribing New York City Republican Party leaders, and two members of Adams’ inner circle, Brianna Suggs and Winne Greco, whose homes were raided by the FBI as part of two separate investigations, including one focused on the mayor’s fundraising practices also joined the campaign launch.

Suggs and Greco could be seen passing out campaign signs to supporters, corralling the crowd and distributing handheld fans reading “Re-elect Eric for Mayor,” a QR code on the back landed users on the campaign website.

Several City Hall aides, technically forbidden from doing political work while on the job, said they had “clocked out” to help with the rally.

Despite the advantages of incumbency, Adams has a steep hill to climb. His approval rating was 20% in March, according to one poll.

Adams, a former registered Republican, has embraced the Trump administration while refusing to criticize the president after his charges were dropped. Many New York Democrats, who vastly outnumber GOP voters in the nation’s largest city, see that an affront.

Their anger was on display Thursday as Adams delivered his speech when a protester shouted over him calling him “a criminal” and accusing him of “selling” New Yorkers out to Trump.

Despite the challenges, Adams does have some advantages: a daily bully pulpit covered by the largest media market in the country, near-universal name recognition and a cadre of aides ready to deploy a Rose Garden strategy to showcase the work of his administration.

Adams does not have the Gen Z know-how of social media that helped catapult Mamdani to stardom in a matter of weeks – a recent Adams “get ready with me” video has been widely ridiculed online. But he is a charismatic and talented campaigner in his own right who once successfully connected with New Yorkers that identified with his life story and working-class background.

What is less clear is whether they would identify with him again.

For now, Adams is trying to ridicule Mamdani’s social media game, though one of his jabs referenced a social media platform Elon Musk renamed X in 2023.

“They have a record of tweets,” he said. “I have a record on the streets.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.