Mayoral hopeful Adrienne Adams is launching a multi-million dollar campaign ad portraying her as a drama-free professional who can “rise above” the fray of New York politics — her first big spend of the 2025 election cycle, which comes amid signs of growing momentum, but also as questions loom about whether she has enough time to break through.
The 30-second ad, entitled “Rise Above” and set to hit television and digital airwaves Thursday, less than three weeks ahead of the primary, features a piano-led gospel track, as Adams declares: “In New York City, we know drama, but as City Council speaker, I rise above it.”
Pictured behind a church pulpit, she then touts how she as speaker reversed library and child care budget cuts enacted by Mayor Adams — who is not related to her — and recently secured a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump’s administration from putting federal immigration agents on Rikers Island.
“And now I’m running for mayor, not for power or praise, but for my children and for yours, for affordability, for safety, for justice,” she says in the ad, which the Daily News got an exclusive preview of. “I’m in it for us.”
The speaker’s campaign didn’t immediately have an exact figure for how much she expects to plunk down on the ad. But her spokeswoman Lupe Todd-Medina said it will be in the “multi” millions.
The ad blitz comes after the speaker unlocked matching funds for her campaign last week, netting more than $2 million in the coveted public cash. Had she not gotten that cash boost, she wouldn’t have been able to qualify for matching cash until June 20, just four days before the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary.
Even before getting matching funds, signs have emerged Adrienne Adams’ mayoral pitch is gaining traction with voters.
A recent Marist poll put her in third place, behind front-runner Andrew Cuomo and No. 2 candidate Zohran Mamdani, marking her best showing to date. Her rise in the polls came after she was endorsed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and DC 37, the city’s largest public sector union.
Still, the speaker, whose name-recognition on a citywide level is low, has lots of ground to catch up with less than four weeks to go until the primary and early voting starting June 14. The Marist poll projected her clutching 11% support in a simulated first ranked-choice voting round, well behind Mamdani’s 22% and Cuomo’s 44%.
Trip Yang, a New York City Democratic strategist who isn’t involved with any mayoral campaigns this year, said the fact that Adrienne Adams was already climbing in the polls before she launched a major ad blitz is a positive sign.
“She absolutely has a shot,” he said. “She has already been in third place in some polls without much spending, and now she has the matching funds. That’s a huge boost of adrenaline for her campaign.”
Yang noted City Comptroller Brad Lander has typically grabbed the No. 3 spot in most mayoral race polls. “But Brad has already spent millions of dollars [on ads], and she barely has spent any and she’s already climbing,” he said. “By that logic, Adrienne has a much higher ceiling.”
The ad rollout comes after the mayoral candidates faced off at the first Democratic primary debate on Wednesday night.
The debate was dominated by the eight other candidates on stage ganging up on Cuomo, blasting his record and accusing him of being unfit for office, having resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations he denies.
Speaker Adams made waves when she interrupted Cuomo on stage after he declined to offer any “personal regrets” when asked by moderators.
“No regrets when it comes to cutting Medicaid or health care, no regrets when it comes to cutting child care, when it comes to slow walking [personal protective equipment] and vaccinations in the season of COVID to Black and brown communities — really, no regrets?” she fumed at Cuomo while shaking her head.
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