NYC Mayor Faces Likely Primary Challenge From Ex-Comptroller

Laura Nahmias
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said he’s creating a campaign committee to raise money for a possible 2025 primary challenge to Mayor Eric Adams.

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He’s among almost a dozen Democrats weighing a run against Adams, whose approval rating has plummeted in the wake of the migrant crisis, budget cuts and a federal criminal investigation into his fundraising. Stringer’s announcement Thursday of plans to form a campaign committee makes him the first candidate to take a concrete step toward trying to unseat Adams, who is seeking reelection.

“For the last two years this ship has been heading straight for an iceberg,” Stringer said in an interview. “We need a new captain to right the ship. I can’t stand by and watch our city devolve into chaos.”

Stringer, 63, served two terms as comptroller from 2014 to 2021, where he oversaw the city’s pension funds. He also held roles as Manhattan borough president and was a member of the state Assembly for 12 years.

He was among several Democrats who ran for mayor in 2021 in the race won by Adams. Though never a frontrunner in early polls, Stringer was positioned to perform well in the June primary after raising more than $10.2 million and earning coveted endorsements from the 200,000-member United Federation of Teachers, the 20,000-member grocery store workers’ union and the left-leaning Working Families Party.

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But his bid was derailed in late April of that year when a woman who worked on one of his political campaigns two decades earlier accused him of sexual harassment, alleging Stringer groped her and kissed her without consent during his 2001 campaign for New York City public advocate. Stringer denied the allegations.

The Working Families Party and several influential young progressive lawmakers rescinded their endorsements in response to the allegations, and Stringer’s poll numbers plunged. He ultimately came in fifth in the primary, earning just 5.5% of the votes in the first round of the city’s ranked-choice voting system.

(Updates with comment from Stringer in third paragraph)

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