(Bloomberg) — Eric Adams may have dodged a federal corruption trial thanks to President Donald Trump, but their unlikely alliance risks destroying the New York City mayor’s support among a core group of Democratic voters.
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In coming days, key Black leaders and clergy who helped propel Adams to power will meet with Reverend Al Sharpton — an influential figure in the constituency — to determine whether to back the mayor’s reelection bid ahead of a June primary, according to people familiar with the matter. On Wednesday, a separate group of Black clergy called on Adams to drop out.
Adams, meanwhile, is also weighing switching party affiliations, according to the New York Times, a move that would be politically feasible if he got Trump’s endorsement, according to billionaire Republican John Catsimatidis.
The moves signal the mayor’s increasingly tenuous grip on his political future, days after a top official at the Justice Department called on federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop their pending bribery case. The DOJ has left open the possibility that charges could be refiled, spurring criticism among Adams’ rivals that he’s beholden to the Republican president — who remains deeply unpopular with city Democrats.
“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” said Sharpton. “Clearly we have crossed the Rubicon.”
With New York City’s Democrats outnumbering Republicans by 6 to 1, the winner of its Democratic primary typically wins the general election. In the 2021 primary, Black residents made up 34% of the assembly districts that Adams won — areas like Harlem, the Bronx and South Brooklyn.
While Trump gained support among New Yorkers in the 2024 election, district-level data shows that the voters who backed Adams in 2021 largely don’t overlap with those who supported the president.
In a statement to Bloomberg, the DOJ denied any quid pro quo with Adams, saying that the case “can now be reviewed by an unbiased U.S. Attorney.” Former Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to lead the Southern District of New York, may review the case after the mayoral election in November, the DOJ said in its directive.
“Despite the fact that I am no longer facing legal questions, I also understand that many New Yorkers will still question my character,” Adams, 64, said in a televised address Tuesday. “I know that I must continue to regain your trust. I have learned a lot over the last year, and this experience has been humbling.”
Adams, a former police captain who won against a crowded field on a platform of bringing down crime, was once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He’s only the second Black mayor in the city’s 400-year history.
But since late 2023, polls have shown him with low favorability among voters, and recent surveys suggest he’ll lose in the primary, particularly if former Governor Andrew Cuomo enters the race — a possibility people close to the ex-governor say is even more likely after the DOJ order.
The mayor’s campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment. Adams, who was briefly a registered Republican in the 1990s, has until Friday to switch his party affiliation back. He told the New York Times in a statement that he isn’t running for reelection as a Republican.
Adams has pointedly embraced Trump since he was reelected, refusing to criticize any of the president’s more controversial actions since he took office last month. Unlike other Democratic mayors, Adams has also been outspoken about working with the Trump administration to find ways to deport violent criminals and allow more cooperation between federal and local law enforcement on immigration.
He’s frequently called on the city, which has tightened its sanctuary laws in recent years, to reform its policies to allow for more compliance with federal authorities.
While Adams has said it was in the city’s best interest to maintain a good relationship with Trump, critics have speculated the mayor is showing fealty out of self-interest rather than public service.
Narrowing Path
The mayor still has a path to reelection but it has narrowed, political strategists said.
“He still remains in the same quagmire he has been in,” said Democratic political strategist Trip Yang. “Registered Democrats viscerally do not like Donald Trump.”
But there is a subset of New Yorkers, including prominent Democrats, who saw the case as specious, weak or politically motivated, for whom the DOJ’s move was a welcome one.
“Let’s remember that our mayor was never convicted of any charge to begin with, and that nearly anyone can be indicted,” said Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a New York state Assembly member from Brooklyn who also serves as chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
Orthodox Support
The mayor’s relationship with Trump could help him in at least one constituency: Orthodox Jews in New York City. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump received more than 70% of the vote in much of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Borough Park and Williamsburg where the community is concentrated.
Heshy Tischler, a former Republican and now independent candidate for the City Council who has been an outspoken member of the city’s Orthodox community, said Adams “will get the Jewish vote, no questions asked.”
“Adams has done a lot for the Jewish community and school-wise in education, so that’s a very big part for us,” he said. “Borough Park and Williamsburg, that I know he will get. And they love him.”
Rabbi Chanina Sperlin, a registered Democrat and former executive vice president of government affairs at the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, celebrated the news of the DOJ’s decision. He said in an interview that Adams is a “great friend to Crown Heights.”
Switching Parties
Billionaire Catsimatidis, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for mayor in 2013, was with Adams at a steakhouse Monday night when news broke of the DOJ directive.
When he showed Adams the news on his iPhone, “he looked like 1,000 pounds of bricks came off his shoulders,” Catsimatidis said.
Catsimatidis said Tuesday he thinks Adams would seek an authorization under Wilson Pakula, an obscure New York law that allows candidates to run for election on a party line even if the candidate isn’t registered to that party — if a majority of the party’s leadership approves it.
Basil Smikle, former executive director of the state Democratic Party, said Adams has a difficult path to reelection no matter which party he belongs to. If Adams does switch party affiliation, he’ll have to make his case that his track record of managing the city is persuasive enough to bring his base with him.
“He hasn’t engendered that kind of support from his base enough that they would follow him on to a Republican line,” Smikle said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was even more pessimistic about Adams’ prospects. “There are people in the communities that I represent back in Brooklyn who are deeply alarmed at the unfolding events connected to the current mayor,” he said.
The Trump DOJ’s directive signals that the administration intends to keep the mayor “on a short leash,” Jeffries said. “How the mayor responds to the White House’s intentions is going to determine a lot about the political future of the current Mayor of the City of New York.”
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