New York City’s former comptroller and one-time mayoral candidate Scott Stringer may be one of the candidates who wants to be the city’s next mayor. Reportedly, he has his eye on challenging Mayor Eric Adams in 2025.
According to NY1, Stringer filed papers with the city’s Campaign Finance Board to create an exploratory committee for a potential mayoral campaign. This move will allow him to raise money for his possible run before he makes a concrete decision.
Stringer has previously served as city comptroller, Manhattan Borough President, and a state assemblyman. He was eliminated in the sixth round in the ranked-choice voting in the 2021 Democratic primary election.
“New York City needs a new direction and new leadership. Crime is up, housing is down, education is flat,” Stinger stated in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I think we have an administration that is steering this ship towards an iceberg.”
Stringer ran for mayor in 2021 during a crowded primary in which he received integral endorsements from the United Federation of Teachers along with the progressive Working Families Party. However, his campaign was significantly affected following sexual harassment and misconduct allegations made against him by Jean Kim, a lobbyist who asserted the misconduct took place while she was interning for Stringer in the past. This accusation considerably hurt his campaign and led to major endorsers like the WFP dropping him.
He has denied all of the allegations and has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Kim, which is still under appeal.
Regardless of this controversy, Stringer said that both he and New Yorkers, believe that he deserves a second chance at the role. He also claims that it’s unrelated to the ongoing federal investigation into Adams’ campaign finances.
Yet, Stringer did still call out Adams’ recent budget proposal and threats to make severe cuts to mainly public agencies. “We do have serious budget issues, he exaggerated this in a way that showed the administration had very little credibility,” Stringer commented on the Adams administration’s performance. “You can’t love migrants on Monday… then blame them for the fiscal challenges we face.”
“It’s not enough to just throw overtime at cops and think it’s sustainable,” he added about Adams’ approaches to crime rates in the city.
Stringer explained that he will find more sensible and productive solutions for budget issues, the migrant crisis, and patterns of crime that best serve everybody, if he decides to run.
Several officials and political figures have declared an interest in challenging Adams for his seat, but Stringer is the first to file an exploratory committee ahead of the 2025 election. He has until July to raise money before he must officially choose whether he wants to file to run.
