Mayoral hopeful Adrienne Adams is launching a multi-million greenback marketing campaign advert portraying her as a drama-free skilled who can “rise above” the fray of New York politics — her first huge spend of the 2025 election cycle, which comes amid indicators of rising momentum, but additionally as questions loom about whether or not she has sufficient time to interrupt via.
The 30-second advert, entitled “Rise Above” and set to hit tv and digital airwaves Thursday, lower than three weeks forward of the first, incorporates a piano-led gospel observe, 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 little one care finances cuts enacted by Mayor Adams — who just isn’t associated to her — and not too long ago secured a short lived restraining order blocking President Trump’s administration from placing federal immigration brokers on Rikers Island.
The speaker’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly have a precise determine for the way a lot she expects to plunk down on the advert. However her spokeswoman Lupe Todd-Medina mentioned it will likely be within the “multi” hundreds of thousands.
The advert blitz comes after the speaker unlocked matching funds for her marketing campaign final week, netting greater than $2 million within the coveted public money. Had she not gotten that money increase, she wouldn’t have been in a position to qualify for matching money till June 20, simply 4 days earlier than the June 24 Democratic mayoral main.
Even earlier than getting matching funds, indicators have emerged Adrienne Adams’ mayoral pitch is gaining traction with voters.
A latest Marist ballot put her in third place, behind front-runner Andrew Cuomo and No. 2 candidate Zohran Mamdani, marking her greatest displaying up to now. Her rise within the polls got here after she was endorsed by New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James and DC 37, town’s largest public sector union.
Nonetheless, the speaker, whose name-recognition on a citywide degree is low, has a lot of floor to meet up with lower than 4 weeks to go till the first and early voting beginning June 14. The Marist ballot projected her clutching 11% help in a simulated first ranked-choice voting spherical, nicely behind Mamdani’s 22% and Cuomo’s 44%.
(L/R) Candidates Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Andrew Cuomo, Whitney Tilson, Zohran Mamdani, Michael Blake and Scott Stringer take part in a Democratic mayoral main debate, at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Heart studios in New York on June 4, 2025. (Photograph by YUKI IWAMURA/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Journey Yang, a New York Metropolis Democratic strategist who isn’t concerned with any mayoral campaigns this yr, mentioned the truth that Adrienne Adams was already climbing within the polls earlier than she launched a significant advert blitz is a constructive signal.
“She absolutely has a shot,” he mentioned. “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 famous Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander has sometimes 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 mentioned. “By that logic, Adrienne has a much higher ceiling.”
The advert rollout comes after the mayoral candidates confronted off on the first Democratic main debate on Wednesday evening.
The talk was dominated by the eight different candidates on stage ganging up on Cuomo, blasting his document and accusing him of being unfit for workplace, 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 supply any “personal regrets” when requested 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 whereas shaking her head.
Initially Printed: June 5, 2025 at 10:59 AM EDT
