Eric Adams’ mayoral career could be summarized using many words. Some of these include “failure,” “corruption,” and “misadventure,” but the word I would use is “downfall.” Upon securing the Democratic nomination on June 24, 2021, Eric Adams touted himself as the “future of the new Democratic Party,” but by September 2025, he announced the end of his reelection campaign, weeks away from the election, with his name still on the ballot. I find Adams’ downfall tragic, rather than humorous, not just for himself but New Yorkers as well.
Adams started out as someone who could have potentially represented marginalized people as he grew up on the edge of homelessness. Adams lived a life one would not expect would lead to politics. That changed when, at the age of 15, he was arrested for trespassing and beaten by police officers. For some, a moment like this might lead to a further life of crime, but for Adams, this jumpstarted his career in politics — a career which included working as a police officer, being an elected representative in the New York State Senate, and then becoming Brooklyn Borough President. Adams’ experience made him a strong voice for working-class New Yorkers, especially with regards to the changes he brought to the police force. He created a group known as 100 Blacks, whose goal was to challenge police brutality and racism internally. In 2020, he announced his campaign for mayor with a platform that focused on police reform and won the election. When he was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1, 2022, Adams was seen as a man of the people by the average New Yorker and a potential future Democratic Party leader by working people — yet no one could have been prepared for the dark storm of Adams’ first term.
Immediately after being sworn in as mayor, Adams threw his ethics out the window and started his fall from grace. Within the first two weeks of the election, his first controversy came to light when he sought a waiver from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. The waiver would allow Adams’ brother, Bernard Adams, to be the head of his mayoral security detail, a job with a salary of $210,000 a year. Instead of approaching this controversy professionally, Adams dismissed it as a minor issue. In addition, crime rates in New York City continued to rise under Adams, with his second month in office seeing a nearly 60 percent increase in crime from the previous year. He responded to this by seeking to fight crime with a zero-tolerance subway enforcement, which was met with much disapproval from New Yorkers and correlated with more violence on the subway. In just three months, Adams changed from being a man of the people to acting like the same type of incompetent politician he ran in opposition to. New Yorkers were negatively impacted by his over-policing policies, which caused his approval rating to plummet to 29 percent. He who was once a victim of over-policing and police brutality became an enabler for that very system. Now, he was no longer trying to protect New Yorkers, but was leaading an offenseive against them.
Over the next four years, Adams’ image became one of a careless politician and less of the working man voters thought they were electing. His decisions to veto bills that would help the homeless and approve education budget cuts and his support for claims that the migrant crisis “will destroy New York City,” created division and revealed his incompetence to govern. He reached the lowest moment of his whirlwind collapse when he was indicted for receiving bribes from wealthy Turkish individuals in exchange for his influence. After this, his support among New Yorkers plummeted, with Adams polling at just 20 percent in March of this year, according to Quinnipiac University. No longer was the vision for a crime-free New York possible when the mayor himself was a criminal. Adams is now going down in history not for rising out of poverty to become New York City’s second Black mayor, but rather as the first mayor in city history to be indicted on federal charges while in office. And then, he dropped from the race.
“The constant media speculation about my future and the campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” he said.
Despite this, while Adams was still a candidate, he made attacks against Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling him a socialist. Ironically, Mamdani, who was not a product of poverty but the son of a respected filmmaker mother and academic father, has garnered the image that Adams sought. The three current mayoral front runners are Mamdani, Curtis Silwa, and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. While Adams refused to endorse any of these candidates, he leaves with one final message that feels ironic considering his corruption:
“Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer to destroy the very system we built together over generations.”
So while others may snicker at Adams’ spectacular failure, I feel a great regret for the promise of what he could’ve been, not just to the city, but toward America and the world. In an ideal world, he could have been a symbol for how those without power can work toward change, but instead, he showcased the well-known adage, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Sadly, he’s turned himself into a caricature and will now just be a footnote in a history book rather than an inspirational leader for his city.
