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MAYOR ADAMS’S LONG DANCE WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY  
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Ariama C. Long
January 30, 2025
Amsterdam News
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_ At the beginning of his mayoralty, New York City Mayor Eric Adams
was no stranger to critics calling him a “Republican,” among other
things. Plot twist: They might have had a point. _

Image credit: Amsterdam News,

 

At the beginning of his mayoralty, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was
no stranger to critics calling him a “Republican,”
[[link removed]] among
other things.

Plot twist: They might have had a point.

There are, of course, a number of reasons for why people are
denouncing the Democratic mayor as a “sellout Republican,” but
most recently, it’s the assumption that Adams is seeking a
presidential pardon from President Donald J. Trump for his federal
indictment on campaign fraud and bribery charges
[[link removed]],
which could yield jail time if he’s convicted.

Trump has pardoned rap stars
[[link removed]] like Lil’
Wayne and Kodak Black in the past. In a statement after a meeting in
Florida with Trump, Adams said that they have not discussed his legal
case and he has repeated that he doesn’t want to go to “war”
with Trump.

Adams attended the second inauguration of Trump on Jan. 20, where he
was “relegated to the overflow room with the likes of Jake Paul and
Conor McGregor
[[link removed]].”
The next day, on Jan. 21, he sat for a lengthy interview
[[link removed]] at Gracie Mansion with
former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson. The conversation covered
immigration, Adams feeling like he was abandoned by the Democratic
party, the state of the city’s mentally ill and unhoused, and
Adams’s indictment, none of which painted the Mayor as a loyal
Democrat.

The _Amsterdam News_ contacted electeds, analysts, and advocates in
an attempt to understand Adams and his relationship with the
Republican party better as he is set to go to trial in April. Raising
the stakes this year are citywide elections, where the mayor’s job
will be on the chopping block in the June primary.

 
New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivers his fourth State of the City
address at Apollo Theater in Harlem on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.
(Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.)
WHO ADAMS WAS

It’s well known that Adams was a New York City Police Department
(NYPD) officer, supervisor, and advocate who co-founded 100 Blacks in
Law Enforcement Who Care 
[[link removed]](100
Blacks) in 1995. Following in the footsteps of his mentors, he was
outspoken about issues important to the Black community, including
civil rights, social justice, and police brutality and killings.
Adams’s organization was central to the 1999 protests over
the shooting of Amadou Diallo
[[link removed]], who was gunned
down by four white members of the NYPD’s Street Crime Unit. Adams
resigned as founding executive director of 100 Blacks in 2006 after
being elected to the State Senate, representing Brooklyn’s 20th
district.

Corey Pegues, president of Corey Pegues Enterprise, formerly
incarcerated, a former NYPD officer, and a former member of 100
Blacks, recently interviewed Adams
[[link removed]] on his show,
“Corey’s Corner.” He considers Adams a longtime friend, but
thinks it’s “pretty obvious” that Adams is trying to garner
favor from Trump to get a pardon.

“Am I mad? I don’t know, I’m not facing 25 years in prison, so I
guess it’s good for him, but self-serving,” said Pegues. “The
bad thing about that is he got a lot of his administration that’s
under federal investigation. I mean, Ingrid got locked up, other
people are probably going to get locked up, and he’s going to get
off scot-free, which is crazy to me.”

Pegues identifies as a staunch Democrat. Overall, he believes that
Adams committed crimes while in office and his leadership should be
called into question. “[Adams] has actually done a 180 from what I
know him as. I know people evolve as they age and time goes by, but to
do a total 180 is pretty surprising to people that’s very close to
him, that’s been with him for so many years,” said Pegues.

WHO IS ADAMS NOW?

The early days of Adams’s term as mayor were marked with a sense of
hope and celebration, but that quickly gave way to criticism and
spectacle. Instead of being largely recognized for his
accomplishments
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time in office has been overshadowed by a federal investigation and
historic indictment, sexual assault allegation, and number of senior
city officials who have also been indicted or resigned. (To be fair,
many New York City mayors were embroiled in their own scandals while
in office, but narrowly escaped legal consequences.)

“In public corruption cases and ethical misconduct cases for city
officials, bribery is way up there in terms of corruption cases.
There’s a question of what the officials knew and did they knowingly
break the law,” said Ben Weinberg, director of public policy
for Citizens Union (CU)
[[link removed]].
“You have to set an example with the people you appoint and with
your own actions.”
 

According to a recent analysis by
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former Mayor Bill de Blasio “skirted” campaign finance and ethics
laws all the time, acted on behalf of donors who sought favors, and
misused city funds and a police detail during his brief presidential
run. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a Democrat but ran as a
Republican
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later switching his party affiliation to Independent and then back to
Democrat in 2019. Under Bloomberg, city payroll chief Joel Bondy
resigned amid a huge fraud and corruption case against him. Former
NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik was convicted for tax fraud and former
Housing Development President Russell Harding embezzled taxpayer money
during former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s time. The late David Dinkins,
the city’s first Black mayor, made it out with little scandal
involving himself, but was in office when the head of his Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) Philip Michael was forced to resign amid a
bribery scandal.

For Adams, Weinberg found that “twice as many” city leaders were
indicted or resigned than under the past four mayors combined. He said
this “troubling trend” underscored the urgent need for reforms to
the city’s ethics laws, conflict-of-interest rules, and appointment
procedures for senior officials.

REPUBLICAN VERSUS DEMOCRAT

According to John Ketcham, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for
Policy Research
[[link removed]], a
conservative think tank focused on domestic policy, 2024 presidential
election data showed that New York State and New York City voters
swayed more heavily Republican than in previous years, and that former
President Joe Biden’s “failure to address the effects of the
migrant crisis” contributed to that.

Much of Trump’s gains relative to 2020 came from majority Hispanic
and Asian neighborhoods, Ketcham said, areas that experienced the
effects of the migrant crisis through “street prostitution,
trafficking, unlawful street vending, and other forms of visible
disorder.” He added that other factors, like skyrocketing housing
costs and serious crime levels, also led to a Trump vote over former
Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ketcham also acknowledged that the city and state’s Democratic Party
does not speak with one voice. “This split personality is partly a
consequence of the state’s closed party primaries,” said Ketcham.
“Political competition in the city effectively occurs between
factions of the dominant Democratic Party, rather than as competition
between parties.” There’s certainly a wide range of reactions to
Adams and Trump from fellow Dems.

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus, headed by Councilmembers
Shahana Hanif and Sandy Nurse, said in a joint statement to the
mayor’s Carlson interview: “Good riddance.”

Reginald T. Brown (pronouns they/them), a socialist Democrat and board
chairperson for VOCAL-NY, is adamant that many high-level Democrats in
New York, including Governor Kathy Hochul, are “corporate” and not
for the people. Brown denounced Democrats who work with Republicans,
such as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC)
[[link removed]] that
was disbanded in 2018.

Adams was Brown’s senator when they lived in Brooklyn. To Brown,
Adams and Trump are “twins” in terms of their attitudes and a
strategic “cozying up to billionaires.” Brown said they didn’t
support Adams then and won’t now. “It was nice having a Black man
[in office], but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Just like
having a Democrat doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Brown said.

Queens Councilmember Robert Holden, a common-sense Democrat, said that
it’s “encouraging to see Mayor Adams adopting a more common-sense
approach to immigration.” He hopes Adams stays focused on following
through with these ideas and delivering real results for the people of
New York.

Adams has run and won on the Democratic ticket for mayor, Brooklyn
borough president, and four times as senator for Brooklyn. However, it
is not as widely known that he has registered as a Republican
[[link removed]] at
least once in the city, and because of his background in law
enforcement, has campaigned and legislated from a
centrist-to-conservative view on crime reduction and bail reform.

In the past week since the Carlson interview, Adams has had a limited
public schedule because he “hasn’t been feeling his best” and
has a slew of doctor’s appointments. His press office said despite
what’s going on, “he has been clear that he is running as a
Democrat” in the upcoming election.

As mayor, Adams enjoys high name recognition and still has significant
support among Black voters — a 40% favorability rating, according to
a poll conducted earlier this month, said Ketcham. The mayor
has gloated lately about his base 
[[link removed]]of
loyal Black and Brown/working class voters, even circulating
“texts” from them as proof. “I don’t know if you need to hear
this,” read one sent to the _AmNews_ by the mayor’s press
office, “but I think it’s important for you to know that despite
these weak negroes foolish agenda, I am always in the streets with
real New Yorkers who stop me and ask me to send you messages of
encouragement.”

The downside is that assumed mayoral candidate former Governor Andrew
Cuomo shares much of the same voting base as Adams. Cuomo also has
widespread name recognition and a reputation for effectiveness through
ruthlessness. They are likely to split most of the city’s minority
and moderate vote even with ranked choice voting, said Ketcham.

“Many of Adams’s supporters have discounted the indictment on the
grounds that it was motivated by a retaliatory Biden Department of
Justice or that it was for relatively minor offenses like hotel room
and plane upgrades,” said Ketcham. “Given the mayor’s high
unfavorability numbers, securing a presidential pardon may only have a
small effect on his electoral chances.”

There’s still a chance that Adams could lose the Democratic primary
and then run as the Republican candidate in November’s general
election, based on the state’s obscure Wilson-Pakula law
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which allows Adams to seek authorization from the Republican Party to
run in its primary. Having the backing of Trump could pressure the
state party to allow Adams to run, said Ketcham, and considering that
no plausible Republican primary candidate has emerged yet, Adams might
be Republicans’ best chance of winning.

Pegues said that Adams was a golden child of the Democratic party at
one point and everyone truly did want to see him succeed. Now, he
doesn’t think that Adams will have a “chance in hell” of getting
re-elected. Even if he continues to be friendly with Trump and
Republicans, Adams eventually will have to defend the city from
Trump’s orders 
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face the wrath of voters. He pointed out that Black MAGA Republicans,
like U.S. Senator Tim Scott, didn’t receive any high-level
appointments in Trump’s administration.

“Donald Trump is who he is and he tells you who he is and he is what
he is,” said Pegues. “He is straight-up, ‘you either bow down to
me and kiss the ring, or you’re finished.’”

_[ARIAMA C. LONG is a reporter for the New York Amsterdam News in New
York City, covering local politics, city council and city agencies.]_
 

* Eric Adams
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* Mayor Eric Adams
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* New York City
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* New York politics
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* Republican Party
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* New York City mayoral election
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* Andrew Cuomo
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* Brad Lander
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* Jessica Ramos
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* Zellnor Myrie
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* Zohran Mamdani
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* Scott Stringer
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