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By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Jessica Ramos, a New York State senator from Queens, announced on Friday morning that she is officially entering the race for New York City mayor, and will face off against Mayor Eric Adams in the 2025 Democratic primary.
As reported by the NY Times, the Queens-born 39-year-old progressive is the is the fourth well-known Democrat to challenge Mayor Eric Adams, as his administration faces numerous federal investigations. On Thursday, NYC’s police commissioner Edward Caban resigned an relation to one of those federal investigations, which probed the NYPD’s nightclub enforcement.
Though there is no proof yet that Mayor Adams did anything wrong, the multiple investigation initiated against him has emboldened multiple challengers to enter the primary next June. Well-known Democratic candidates include: NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, and State Senator Zellnor Myrie. Also mulling entering the race are: Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Queens state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
For her part, Ramos is vying to become the first female and the first Latino to become mayor of New York City. She is the daughter of immigrants from Columbia. She went to Hofstra University, but dropped out. Ramos has served on Queens Community Board 3, and she was a Queens County Democratic district leader from 2010 to 2014. Since 2019, she has served in the NYS Senate representing District 13, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights.
She famously opposed billionaire Steven A. Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, by refusing to endorse his casino proposal in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. She argued that it would not be in the best interest of residents in her district. “I have no problem telling a billionaire no,” she said in an interview. Ramos is also known for often speaking Spanish on the campaign trail to sway Latino voters.
Per the Times, Eli Valentin, a Democratic political strategist, said that Mayor Adams’s support among Latino voters is now well below its peak, and that Ramos can likely take advantage of that. “She’s charismatic, she’s smart, and she has an ability to connect with different groups and to create coalitions,” Valentin said. Mayor Adam’s approval rating with Latino voters has dropped to just 20 percent, as per a Quinnipiac poll.
The greatest challenge for Ms. Ramos will be raising enough money to qualify for public matching funds, Valentin told the Times. In order to succeed she will need to put great emphasis on quickly raising
campaign funds, and setting up citywide campaigns to introduce herself to the broad range of voters across the five boroughs.
“It is very early, but I think the field already says, ‘Anybody but Adams,’” Ms. Ramos said, as she criticized the mayor’s response to the migrant crisis and his budget cuts to libraries. “Some people in office seem to feel that they have all of the time in the world to get to a place where we can deliver on a certain thing,” Ramos said. “No. People are homeless now. People are sick now. People are poor now. People are lacking child care now.”
