Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams scored big money from real estate backers this month for his reelection bid, which is unsurprising since the city’s self-proclaimed “most pro-housing” mayor in history.
Adams is running as an Independent candidate in the general election coming up in November. His opponents are Queens Assemblymember Zohran K. Mamdani, this year’s Democratic mayoral nominee; Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and another Independent candidate; and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.
According to the New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB), his latest filings show Adams has raised about $6.3 million ($6,384,487) in private funds. About $3.4 million of those donations came from New York City residents, while $2.9 million in donations are from outside the city. Adams has almost $4.3 million ($4,270,771) cash on hand.
Adams struggled with raising money amid a federal investigation into his campaign finances and an indictment (now dropped charges) from last year. From July 2024 to October 2024, he raised roughly $146,000 in donations.
Some noteworthy standouts on Adams’s NYCCFB donor list in 2024 include various NYPD officers, a slew of retirees and “unemployed” individuals, a Queens driver who donated $1 about 28 times, a Bronx broker at Trump Realty Inc who gave $1,000, and several donations from the SL Green Realty Corp. — Manhattan’s largest office landlord.
Adams has constantly been denied public matching funds by NYCCFB since last year. This May, Adams clapped back with a lawsuit against the NYCCFB but it was dismissed by the court. However, the court called into question NYCCFB’s “reliance on the indictment of Mayor Adams as a basis for its reason to believe the Adams campaign violated the law.” A federal judge controversially moved to dismiss Adams’s corruption case in April 2025.
The NYCCFB said that Adams’s campaign has continued to not demonstrate eligibility to receive a public funds payment. “On December 16, 2024, after reviewing all available information, including details of the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams, the Board determined there is reason to believe the Adams campaign engaged in conduct detrimental to the matching funds program, in violation of law,” said the NYCCFB in a statement. “Subsequently the Board has continued to deny Mayor Adams public funds for these reasons, as well as for his failure to timely file Conflicts of Interest Board disclosure.”
Adams made up the slack in his matching campaign funds by raising about $1.5 million from June to July 2025 with substantial donations from real estate companies and appearing at a fundraiser in Florida for young Republicans.
His other major donations come from employees at companies such as SL Green Realty, which in particular has contributed a total of $95,901 to Adams’s campaign since 2022, and real estate investors Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL); Newmark, a commercial real estate advisor company; CBRE Inc., a global leader in commercial real estate services and investments; the Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP law firm; the Greenberg Traurig law firm; JT Magen & Co., a major leader in the construction industry; Cushman & Wakefield, another real estate company; Alliance Building Services, a building maintenance and security services company; Alder & Stachenfeld, a real estate law firm; InTandem Capital, a private equity firm; and James E Fitzgerald, construction management and general contracting.
The Amsterdam News reached out to these companies for comment, but many either declined or weren’t able to respond by post time.
Adams also had a singular $2,100 donation from real estate mogul Bruce Teitelbaum, who has been pushing to build his One45 housing development project in Harlem for years and finally received City Council approval just last week.
“Eric Adams is not a pro-housing mayor,” said Cea Weaver, coalition director for Housing Justice for All. “In NYC, being a pro-housing mayor means governing for the tenant majority — not the real estate developers who bankroll your campaign. It means fully funding code enforcement, building truly affordable housing, and delivering a rent freeze for the millions of rent-stabilized tenants who call New York home.”
Meanwhile, Mamdani and Cuomo are campaigning hard to stay ahead in the mayor’s race.
Mamdani has raised about $2.5 million ($2,562,307) in private funds and received a whopping $8.1 million ($8,148,070) in matching funds from the city. In the latest round, the NYCCFB said Mamdani had 78.8% in-district donors and 96% small donors.
Cuomo has about $4 million ($4,073,897) in private funds and received $4.2 million ($4,255,530) in public matching funds so far. He didn’t get any matching funds in July’s payout from the city, though. He has 63% in-district donors and 52% small donors. His campaign has about $1.1 million ($1,170,628) cash on hand.