Adrienne Adams hasn't shown public support for Mamdani, resisting a progressive strategy

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams once again declined to voice support for a coalition of left-leaning candidates during a Saturday speech at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in Harlem.

“I need you to rank Adrienne Adams as your number one candidate in ranked choice voting,” she told the audience, and made no mention of two candidates sitting behind her, Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander. All three are backed by the Working Families Party.

Coming in the final stretch of the June 24th primary, her remarks came one day after she issued a statement saying she’d support the Working Families Party’s slate of candidates. But her failure to do so at a public event underscores the limits of the left’s strategy to unify a group of candidates willing to cross-endorse each other to defeat the moderate frontrunner Andrew Cuomo. Adams, who represents moderate Black voters in southeast Queens, has struggled to support Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the leading progressive in the race.

The division could cost progressives should Adams’ voters also rank Cuomo. The former governor is benefitting from a super PAC called Fix the City that has raised an unprecedented $24 million, much of which is being spent on attack ads against Mamdani. Cuomo has argued that his experience makes him best suited to managing the city and thwarting off damaging policies from President Donald Trump. A recent Marist poll shows a tightening two-man race between Cuomo and Mamdani.


https://gothamist.com/news/adrienne-adams-hasnt-shown-public-support-for-mamdani-resisting-a-progressive-strategy