Mayor Adams is trailing in the polls and increasingly appealing directly to Black communities by emphasizing his status as the city's second Black mayor. Political leaders in Harlem, Central Brooklyn, and Southeast Queens are aligning with Zohran Mamdani or Andrew Cuomo, and polls indicate voters are responding. A January survey found only 6 percent of Black voters wanted the mayor to run for reelection while 78 percent said he should quit. Many Black residents, especially older New Yorkers, report feeling embarrassed by the mayor's arrest and indictment over alleged luxury travel scams and undisclosed gifts, and by public threats from federal figures.
As the curtain goes up on the post-Labor Day push to Election Day, Mayor Adams, tanking in the polls, is making unsubtle tribal appeals to the Black communities that powered him to victory four years ago, frequently reminding voters that he is second Black mayor in city history after David Dinkins. But political leaders in vote-rich Harlem, Central Brooklyn, and Southeast Queens neighborhoods are increasingly connecting with Zohran Mamdani or Andrew Cuomo, and polls suggest that voters are doing the same.
The mayor's collapse in support is not new. Back in January - before Cuomo entered the race and well before Mamdani's surge, at a time when Adams was facing federal corruption charges - one survey found that only 6 percent of Black voters said the mayor should run for reelection, compared with an eye-popping 78 percent that said he should quit.
Black voters aren't stupid, but the word I keep hearing from many of them, especially older New Yorkers, is embarrassed. People in my neighborhood find it embarrassing that the city's second Black mayor was arrested and indicted on federal charges of scamming luxury travel and other undisclosed gifts from business donors, only narrowly escaping a criminal trial after the Trump administration intervened.
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