New York City Comptroller Announces 2025 Run Against Mayor Adams

Comptroller Brad Lander speaks during a rally for immigrant rights at City Hall in New York City on May 11, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

NEW YORK CITY—New York City Comptroller Brad Lander formally announced on Tuesday that he plans to run for mayor next year in a bid to unseat incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.

Mr. Lander’s website touts the comptroller as a “big-hearted, tough-minded citywide leader” who can unite disparate and often antagonistic interests by making the city safer while promoting environmentally sustainable policies, affordable housing, and job training programs.

It highlights his background as a community organizer and planner who led efforts behind the Gowanus Rezoning, an urban restoration effort that generated thousands of new housing units in a long-blighted area of Brooklyn. The website also pitches Mr. Lander as an investment-savvy leader who has markedly increased city pension funds’ returns and championed socially responsible investing.

Mr. Lander, a progressive, is likely to face stiff opposition from those who support the tough-on-crime stances on which the incumbent mayor, a former New York City police detective, ran and won in 2021. Mayor Adams has called Mr. Lander “the loudest person in the city.”

The mayor did not respond by publication time to Mr. Lander’s announcement.

Mr. Adams has his share of vocal critics, including members of the majority on the New York City Council, which has openly feuded with him over the use of solitary confinement in city jails and whether police officers in the city should have to record the race of each person they stop and question in the course of doing their job.

Just last week, Mr. Lander announced the filing of a pair of lawsuits in response to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to pause congestion pricing, a policy that would have charged commuters entering Manhattan below 60th St. $15 fees. The goal was to raise money for upgrades to the city’s mass transit system and encourage what supporters of the policy see as more ecologically conscious alternatives to driving.

The comptroller and the governor have been at odds for months over what should be a higher priority—the city’s fiscal needs or the economic interests of lower-income commuters.

At a June press conference, Mr. Lander criticized the governor’s stance, saying, “Mass transit is the lifeblood of New York City. Our economy depends on a modern, accessible mass transit system. As everyone knows, that system needs billions of dollars of investments to be efficient and accessible.”

“Governor Hochul took a disastrous wrong turn, so we are here today to steer our shared future back on track.”

The governor has held firm to her decision to oppose the $15 tolls, saying at an Albany press conference in June, “Now is not the time to put it on the backs of hardworking New Yorkers who are still feeling the cost of inflation on their pocketbooks.”

In addition to Mr. Lander and the incumbent, former comptroller Scott Springer has filed papers with the electoral board to form an exploratory committee regarding a run for mayor. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie has also launched such a committee. The mayoral election is scheduled for Nov. 4, 2025.