Mayoralty of Eric Adams

Eric Adams was the 111th mayor of New York City from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025. Adams, a member of the United States, had announced his candidacy for mayor in November 2020, and won the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. Adams defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election in a landslide victory.

As mayor, he took a tough-on-crime approach and reintroduced a plain-clothed unit of police officers that had been disbanded by the previous administration. He also implemented a zero-tolerance policy on unhoused people sleeping in subway cars alongside increased police presence. He restored and expanded the gifted and talented program, trimmed agency budgets, and positioned New York as a cryptocurrency hub. His early tenure featured a Bronx apartment fire, a rise in major crime, changes to COVID-19 vaccination mandates (including an exemption for athletes), an affordable-housing "blueprint," and the "City of Yes" zoning package amid sustained migrant-shelter pressures. His record on crime was mixed, with a reduction in shootings, major crimes and transit crime; overall crime remained above pre-pandemic (2019) levels, however.

Adams's approval ratings fell sharply in mid-2022. he faced criticism over hiring decisions and remarks, and his administration became the subject of federal investigations into campaign fundraising tied to Turkish interests, culminating in a September 2024 indictment later dismissed with prejudice in April 2025 after the U.S. Department of Justice under Donald Trump moved to drop the case. Adams initially ran in the 2025 mayoral election as an independent, but withdrew and was succeeded by Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the election, at the end of the year.