Adrienne Adams, the Reluctant Candidate, Hoping to 'Peak' at the Right Time
In her first televised campaign ad, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, from a church pulpit in Bushwick, proclaims her no-drama management style — which she calls a rarity in a city rife with scammers and scandals.
“In New York City, we know drama. But as City Council speaker, I rise above it,” she says, noting the legislative body fought the mayor’s cuts to pre-K and libraries and filed an ongoing lawsuit to keep ICE off of Rikers Island.
She says she wants to be mayor “not for power or praise, but for my children and for yours.”
Adams paints herself as a low-key and reluctant politician, emphasizing during both Democratic candidate debates in the imminent primary for mayor that she’s already doing much of the work she would as mayor — just down the hall. At Thursday night’s final debate, co-sponsored by THE CITY, she stood as the only female candidate and declared she was “the adult on the stage with experience — not scandal.”
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/16/adrienne-adams-reluctant-candidate-mayoral-primary-election/