After months of speculation, Senator Zellnor Myrie launched an exploratory committee last week to begin raising funds for a mayoral campaign against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in 2025.
“We need leadership and leaders who are competent and understand the nuts and bolts of government, and has [sic] the ability to execute on a vision for the city,” said Myrie about why he’s running.
The exploratory committee does not formally declare Myrie’s candidacy, but will measure if he has the ability to garner support from voters. Over the next few weeks, Myrie will solicit small donations and rely on the public matching funds system for initial rounds of raising campaign cash.
Former mayoral candidate and City Comptroller Scott Stringer also launched an exploratory committee for another bid at mayor, while it was rumored that fellow Sen. Jessica Ramos and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo may run as well.
Should Myrie and Adams square off in the 2025 race, it would be a face-off between a representative of NYC’s political old-guard and a millennial up-and-comer.
Adams, 63, and Myrie, 38, are both Black men with an outward love for the borough of Brooklyn and held office in the Senate. That’s where the similarities end, as their ideologies and political reputation, both reflective of their generational standing, are in stark contrast.
Adams is the city’s 110th Mayor and only the second Black man to earn that title, following the late David Dinkins who held the seat from 1990 to 1993. He calls himself a “Mayor of the people” with a working class background and experiences. As a former transit police officer and captain, Adams has taken a more conservative-leaning stance on public safety issues and budgeting while maintaining a “common sense” Democrat approach in other areas. He has often said that it was divinely written that he became Mayor.
But Adams, whose campaign was dogged with questions over whether he actually lived in Brooklyn, has essentially faced criticism since day one. He’s since faced an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers and migrants, which has cut into the controversial partying of his early days in office but he still manages to travel, having just returned from a trip to Rome this week. Members of his inner circle also continue to be at the center of an FBI investigation into his campaign finances from last year.
“I think my experience as a Black man in this city is a positive for this campaign,” said Myrie, not worried about being compared to Adams because of his race. “That’s encountered law enforcement, seen my mom struggle to keep housing, and has unfortunately seen too many instances of violence up close. That’s an experience many Black men can relate to in this city.”
Adams has repeatedly talked about “staying focused and grinding” into his second term, already having raised nearly $3 million for his re-election campaign.
“Listen, we’re a year and some change away,” said Adams at his in-person conference on Tuesday about Myrie’s announcement. “If you go look at what Eric ran on and we look at what we have accomplished, it is very impressive. Decreasing crime, more jobs in the city’s history, what we’ve done around housing, how we took some of these projects that have become part of a graveyard and we bred life into them again. People are going to run.”
Myrie said, “This city has made me who I am today. It’s the promise and opportunity that brought my parents here close to 50 years ago.” He added, “It’s what allowed me to go to public schools in this city, eventually go to law school, and become a state senator representing the very neighborhoods I was born and raised in.”
A Brooklyn native, Myrie grew up in the East Flatbush and Flatbush neighborhoods. His parents are from Costa Rica. Since 2019, he’s represented the 20th Senate District, which covers Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Windsor Terrace. He has also chaired the elections committee and been an outspoken liberal Democrat in areas of elections reform, affordable housing, and criminal justice reform.
Myrie has gained positive notoriety in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is the author of the John R. Lewis New York Voting Rights Act of 2021, and more recently, the Dr. John L. Flateau Voting and Elections Database and Academic Center of New York Act, honoring two “titans of democracy.”
Myrie attended many Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, one of which he was pepper sprayed and arrested at, where he spoke about the impacts of structural racism and police brutality. Myrie later sued the city and received a settlement. He also worked tirelessly to get the Clean Slate Act passed to give formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with old convictions on their records a chance at qualifying for housing, educational opportunities, and jobs. The governor signed the bill into law in 2023.
“I view my successes in reforming the criminal legal system as something based in coalition building and listening to stakeholders, even when they have competing interests,” Myrie said.
And despite immense opposition, Myrie and several Brooklyn lawmakers banded together to fight for adequate funding for State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Hospital, which was facing a restructuring and closure this year because of financial debts. Several allocations were made in the state budget to keep the hospital open as a result. “This was one of the most important fights I’ve been involved in for a number of reasons,” said Myrie. “Unfortunately, in Black communities the provision of healthcare has been lackluster. We’ve seen systemic ways of divesting from our communities.”
By most accounts, Myrie is already an effective senator and running for mayor is more of a calculated risk than a necessity.
He feels the city has become unaffordable and lacking in opportunities for Black and Brown families under Adam’s current leadership. He made light of Adams’ reliance on “showmanship.” He vowed to not make cuts to critical city resources like libraries, early education programs, and asylum seeker services.
Myrie recently married former Assembly Member Diana Richardson, who briefly served as Deputy Brooklyn Borough President. He proposed in Puerto Rico at a SOMOS political retreat in 2022, and they wed in 2023.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
