NYC’s four leading mayoral candidates had a busy Sunday despite the rainy weather, spending time engaging with voters, spotlighting local issues and pushing their campaign messages as the much-anticipated election draws nearer.
Each candidate’s day was packed with activities and speaking engagements that underscored their campaign priorities for New Yorkers throughout the boroughs.
Adams visits churches in Brooklyn
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams — who vociferously said Friday he was staying in the race to the end, despite rumors he was seriously considering a job with the Trump administration — spent Sept. 7 visiting several churches in Brooklyn, speaking with congregants about various issues. He discussed at Brooklyn’s St. Paul Community Baptist Church the accomplishments he made while in office, focusing many of his remarks on the foster-care system.
“Peel back all the noise, all the constant attacks, peel back all of that and look at what I did in three years and eight months,” he said. “Who’s the majority of those children in foster care? Black and brown. I’m paying the college tuition of foster-care children and giving them a stipend. And they’re not aging out at 18 anymore. I’m giving them life coaches until they’re 21.”
But he also took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday to slam his opponents, Queens Assembly Member and Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani and independent candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling them “spoiled brats” who come from “rich” families.
“They don’t know the grind of a 9-5, the weight of overdue bills, or the fear of losing a home,” he penned. “I lived it. That’s why I’m going to keep delivering for real New Yorkers, because I AM a real New Yorker.”
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I’m running for reelection and I am going to beat Mamdani. pic.twitter.com/YrnXvqG13l
— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) September 5, 2025
Mamdani talks childcare, visits church
Speaking of Mamdani, the frontrunner and socialist in the race, spent the morning outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan, rallying with local parents to expand universal child care to build on a pilot program recently passed in the city budget to provide hundreds of free seats for children ages 2 and younger. The candidate from Queens said he wants to ensure working families can afford to stay in the city while supporting the push for “2-Care,” universal child care for 2-year-olds in the city.
“As kids head back to school, families across the city are feeling the strain of the crushing child care crisis. What once seemed impossible — Universal Pre-K — is now an essential service,” he said. “It’s time to do the same with 2-Care and ensure working families can afford to stay and thrive in our city.”
Later, the candidate attended service at the Evangelical Crusade Christian Church in Brooklyn where he was welcomed by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Nicholas.
Cuomo talks 100-day agenda in Queens
Meanwhile, Cuomo was in Queens, where he discussed his “First 100-Day Agenda” at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. While delivering remarks at the church, he said his plan would promote innovation and job creation, tackle affordability by eliminating taxes on working families who cannot afford them, and improve public safety by hiring 5,000 additional police officers to restore the department to staffing levels “first achieved under [former] Mayor David Dinkins.”
Zeroing in on anti-crime efforts, he said, community and police partnerships can help combat gun and gang violence.
“We have to get police working with those groups, forging partnerships. It won’t work if the community believes the police are the enemy,” the candidate, who has been stepping up his presence on social media, said. “In the first 100 days, I want every precinct in this city to sit down with the community and come up with a plan to stop gun violence and gang violence. We will get that done.”
Sliwa on subway safety
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican and Independent candidate in the race who campaigns daily in the subway system, held a press conference at the 72nd Street subway station focusing on subway attacks, especially against women.
Sliwa held the conference in response to the brutal attack against a 48-year-old woman in the Union Square subway station on Friday. According to the Daily News, the woman was allegedly bashed in the head by a man with a baseball bat after they got into an argument on a northbound 4 train near the station.
“Another day, and another attack on women in our subways,” Sliwa said at the event. “Let’s stop this nonsensical talk about who’s dropping out of the race and instead focus on what matters, protecting New Yorkers.”
Sliwa has made subway safety a major focal point of his campaign. Some of his policy commitments include hiring 7,000 new police officers to restore visible patrols, cracking down on repeat offenders, and increasing repercussions for those who commit violent crimes and sexual harassment on the trains.
He said he stands with women who “feel unsafe simply getting to work, school or home.”
