After months of mulling a campaign launch, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos announced Friday she’s going to challenge Mayor Adams in next year’s Democratic primary election, becoming the first woman to join the increasingly crowded race.
“I love my city, I want my children to love my city, and I want the city to be the best that it can be,” Ramos said in an interview about her nascent 2025 bid. “This campaign is my love letter to the city.”
Ramos has publicly floated the possibility of a mayoral run since late last year, and her official entry into the 2025 race comes as Adams is at his most politically vulnerable since taking office.
The mayor, who’s already facing three other 2025 challengers besides Ramos, is battling a growing swirl of internal chaos at City Hall. In the last week, he saw five of his most senior officials, including NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and Schools Chancellor David Banks, have their homes raided and electronics seized by federal authorities as part of two sprawling public corruption investigations. Caban resigned Thursday, saying he didn’t want to become a “distraction” for the NYPD amid the probes.
Those probes come as federal prosecutors in New York are separately investigating the mayor’s 2021 campaign over alleged ties to the Turkey. He hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.
Speaking to the Daily News after the latest raids, Ramos said the timing of her campaign launch is unrelated to the new federal probes and that “conversations with both my loved ones and supporters” influenced her move. But she said she believes Adams isn’t fit for the job anymore due to the swirling law enforcement activity around his inner circle.
“I believe he has been highly distracted for the past few years and he has made poor management decisions, the consequences of those have been detrimental to New York’s working families, and we deserve better,” she said. “He has hired people with checkered pasts; there are too many government officials surrounding him who are under investigation, serious investigation, and it feels like that’s becoming the focus instead of what it’s supposed to be: Policy making and governing the city.”
Adams has repeatedly said he plans to press on doing his job as mayor amid the probes, and has pointed to a number of key benchmarks — including a declining crime rate — as signs his administration is addressing the issues of most concern to New Yorkers.
Ramos, who represents a section of eastern Queens that includes Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst, aligns herself with the Democratic Party’s progressive flank, making her a natural foil against the more centrist mayor.
But she’s not the only progressive putting up a 2025 fight against Adams, who’s expected to be first incumbent mayor to face a credible primary challenge since Mayor Ed Koch in 1989.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, a fellow left-wing Democrat, launched a campaign against Adams in late July and has been raising money for his bid ever since. Former Comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie have also for months raised money for potential 2025 challenges against Adams, though, unlike Ramos and Lander, they haven’t yet said they are absolutely committed to running.
On policy, Ramos talked in her interview with The News about many of the same issues Stringer and Myrie did in their 2025 announcements, including the need to make the city less expensive, increase its affordable housing stock and invest more public funds in early childhood education programs.
Ramos, though, stood out in saying she’d as mayor be willing to entertain the notion of raising city taxes on wealthier New Yorkers in order to fund such investments.
“I do think there is a conversation to be had about property tax equity. Particularly in working class communities, there are people paying more than in affluent communities,” said Ramos, who has also pushed for tax hikes on the rich on the state level as an Albany legislator.
Despite the various investigations looming over him, Adams’ formidable fundraising machinery and the power of incumbency will make him a difficult opponent for his challengers.
The mayor has already raised more than $4 million for his reelection bid, giving him a significant jump start in the money battle.
Ramos said she plans to start raising money immediately for her 2025 bid.
“I’m going to start hitting the streets, start talking to folks in their living rooms and hopefully my message convinces as many New Yorkers as possible to contribute to my campaign,” she said.