Eric Adams made the rounds on the local morning news Friday, conducting a series of interviews following the City Council’s passage of his administration’s substantial “City of Yes” housing package. But the mayor made news of a different kind when he didn’t explicitly rule out a switch back to the Republican Party somewhere down the line.
During an appearance on NY1, Adams, who was once a registered Republican, was asked if he would ever return to his former party after more than a decade as a Democrat. The mayor notably didn’t offer a direct answer. “The party that’s the most important for me is the American party. I’m a part of the American party. I love this country,” he said.
He continued, “This is the home of the free, the land of the brave. My 19-year-old nephew died on the fields of Vietnam protecting what this city and this country represents and that’s the party I’m going to always be a member of. And I did it as a police officer when I wore that bulletproof vest for 22 years and I’m gonna do it with this blue suit as the mayor of the city of New York.” NY1’s Jamie Stelter later clarified on social media that Adams appeared to misspeak and meant to reference his uncle who had fought in Vietnam.
On a possible party shift, Adams initially offered a similar answer during a later interview with PIX11, saying that people are too focused on individual party identification and not on common goals. “No matter what party I’m on or vote on, I’m going to push for American values,” he said.
When pressed again, Adams said he does intend to run as a Democrat next year but also offered a blunt rebuttal to his critics: “I’ve been a Democrat for many years. And I’m going to run for my reelection as a Democrat. But my focus is the American people and the people of New York City. And those who don’t like it, they will cancel me. And I say: Cancel me. I’m for America.”
The line of questioning comes as Adams has recently voiced policy positions with more of a conservative bent, promising to work with the incoming Trump administration on immigration and to meet the president-elect’s hard-line “border czar,” Tom Homan. Adams has also echoed Donald Trump in recent days when discussing his pending legal case, implying in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he has been targeted by the federal government following his criticism of the Biden White House for what he considered its lack of action on immigration.
“Yes, I do. People were not happy with me. It doesn’t have to be the president because there are a lot of other people unhappy that I fought for this city,” Adams said.
Adams’s morning comments were quickly lambasted by many of his prospective primary challengers, who questioned the mayor’s loyalty to the Democratic Party. State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who represents Adams’s former district in Brooklyn, wrote, “At a time when the Republican Party has never been more out of line with New York values, we need a Mayor who isn’t scared to call himself a Democrat.”
Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the most recent addition to the race, issued a statement writing, “Eric Adams is in City Hall because Democratic voters sent him there. To serve his own narrow self-interests, he is clearly prepared to betray them.”
Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos said in a statement, “I don’t mind Mayor Adams finally being honest about being a Republican, but then he should just run as one and let the Democrats pick a real leader.”
Former comptroller Scott Stringer referenced the oft-floated rumor that Trump could pardon Adams once in office. “Eric Adams’s legal problems are literally trumping the priorities of New Yorkers. The sad fact of this mayoralty is that a presidential pardon would be considered his greatest accomplishment,” he said.
On social media, Comptroller Brad Lander quipped, “FWIW, I have ruled out switching to the Republican Party.”
