Why this progressive state senator wants to challenge Eric Adams

NEW YORK — Zellnor Myrie became a progressive political hero when he rode a national blue wave into office in 2018, unseating a Democratic state senator closely aligned with Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president at the time.

Now Myrie is gearing up for another challenge — this time running against Adams himself.

“For too long, Albany had not acted in the best interest of struggling New Yorkers,” Myrie said in an interview Wednesday with POLITICO. “I think we're faced with a similar situation here today. We are seeing inaction on the issues most pressing to New Yorkers, and I think what people are looking for is leadership and competence.”

Myrie filed a campaign committee Wednesday to run for mayor when Adams is up for reelection in 2025. And while he’s maintained his left-leaning bonafides in Albany, he has a tough road to hoe in taking on Adams.

Adams’ approval ratings have tanked; his 2021 campaign is mired in a federal investigation; and he is constantly at odds with left-leaning Democrats.

Nevertheless, he is an incumbent with all the structural benefits that it brings, and navigating a field of ambitious politicians who want to defeat him will require money and name recognition that Myrie so far lacks.

Myrie’s chance at success will depend on whether he can capture that same insurgent energy from his first state Senate campaign and expand it citywide.

He has begun to assemble a team, hiring consultants Monica Klein and Mark Guma.

Myrie is the second serious Democratic contender to file a committee, following former City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s January announcement of a potential run. Other contenders said to be eyeing a bid include City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sen. Jessica Ramos and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

During his unofficial campaign launch, first reported by The New York Times, he talked about competence and affordability. Polls show New Yorkers who are down on Adams are also concerned about the cost of housing and the management of the city. He has also bled Latino support, which he counted on to win in 2021.

But Adams has a base of Black Democrats his team expects him to hold onto — a base Myrie, a young Afro-Latino, will try to carve into.

Circumstances not yet determined — the city’s crime rate, who wins the presidential election — will dictate whether Adams is more vulnerable to a challenge from a progressive like Myrie or a management-focused candidate like Cuomo or former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, who nearly defeated Adams in 2021.

On Wednesday, Myrie shied away from naming his political lane.

“When I talk to everyday New Yorkers, their concern isn't whether I'm a progressive, a moderate or conservative,” he said. “Their concern is can I make the city more affordable? And can we run government in a competent way?”

Myrie pointed to Adams announcing across-the-board budget cuts last year and then partially walking them back amid political uproar.

“Whether this is political posturing, whether this is their actual governing philosophy, the end result is confusion and frustration amongst so many families in this city,” he said. “And I think we deserve better.”

An Adams adviser offered POLITICO a statement from one of his closest political allies — state Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who runs Brooklyn’s once-powerful Democratic Party.

"Mayor Adams has brought down crime on our streets and raised test scores in our schools while creating more jobs than New York has ever had, raising wages for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and lowering the Black unemployment rate — all while handling multiple crises, from Covid to migrants,” she said. “And that is why New Yorkers — especially working class New Yorkers — will be behind him for mayor."

At 37 years old, Myrie doesn’t have much management experience.

He has a staff of 10 in the state Senate and would be overseeing a city workforce of well over 300,000 people. He spent just over one year as an associate at law firm Davis Polk after graduating Cornell Law. Before that, he worked in city government for two years as an aide to former City Council Member Fernando Cabrera.

But he’s been the lead sponsor of major bills in the Legislature, implementing early voting and passing the Clean Slate Act, which partially sealed New Yorkers' criminal records to help them access jobs and housing.

And Myrie’s biography seems primed to cut into some of Adams’ base, while appealing to the wealthier, whiter parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn that vote in large numbers and have not embraced Adams.

Myrie represents the same Central Brooklyn district Adams did in the state Senate. He rents in Prospect Lefferts Gardens with his wife, former Assemblymember Diana Richardson. He grew up in that same neighborhood with parents who emigrated from Costa Rica and said he speaks Spanish “haltingly” but understands it well.

The city’s progressive movement failed to coalesce around a candidate in 2021, something its leaders have voiced regret over.

Myrie on Wednesday said he did not vote for Adams but declined to say who he did vote for.

As progressive leaders look for a standard bearer in 2025, some believe Myrie is their best shot.

“Zellnor has been great at building coalitions in the state Senate and making friends as a state senator,” said Cristina González, a progressive political organizer who’s been involved in efforts to recruit challengers to Adams. “I don’t see him as shutting out support from progressive organizations the way that other candidates might.”

If Myrie wants support against Adams, he’ll need to prove he can fundraise in the next two months, before campaign finance filings are due. Adams had $2.2 million on hand as of the latest filing.

“This is going to take a lot of money and early money,” González said. “If he shows up in July with less than $800,000 raised, I think it’s going to send people back to the drawing board.”