Eric Adams Bio
Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and former police officer who served as the 111th mayor of New York City from 2022 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Adams spent more than two decades in the New York City Transit Police and the New York City Police Department (NYPD), retiring at the rank of captain before entering public office. He went on to represent Brooklyn in the New York State Senate, serve as Brooklyn Borough President, and ultimately lead the nation’s largest city during a turbulent period that included a migrant crisis, a post-pandemic recovery, and federal investigations into his administration.
Adams is also widely known for his advocacy of plant-based eating, a lifestyle he credits with reversing his type 2 diabetes. Nicknamed the “Nightlife Mayor” for his well-documented Friday and Saturday club outings, Adams built a reputation as a colorful, hands-on leader. His tenure ended under the cloud of federal bribery and fraud charges that were later dropped in April 2025, after which he briefly mounted an independent re-election bid before withdrawing from the 2025 race.
Early Life and Background
Eric Leroy Adams was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on September 1, 1960. He was the fourth of six children in a working-class family. His father, Leroy Adams, and his mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter, raised him in a tight-knit neighborhood that exposed him to both the promise and the challenges of urban life. Adams has often credited his upbringing with shaping his views on public safety, family, and opportunity.
Adams attended Bayside High School in Queens before pursuing higher education in New York City. He earned an associate degree from the New York City College of Technology, a bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and later a Master of Public Administration from Marist College. His academic path, completed while he was already working in law enforcement, reflected a long-standing interest in policy and government that would eventually draw him out of uniform and into elected office.
Path to US Politics
Adams’s political ambitions first surfaced in the 1990s, when he began seeking counsel from senior figures in New York City government, including David Dinkins advisor William Lynch Jr. Lynch urged Adams to earn a college degree, climb the NYPD ranks, and pursue a lower office before aiming for City Hall. In 1994, Adams ran for Congress against incumbent Major Owens in the Democratic primary for New York’s 11th congressional district but failed to collect enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot.
Adams registered as a Republican in 1995, a switch he later described as a protest against Democratic leadership, before returning to the Democratic Party in 2002. The shift set the stage for his 2006 run for the New York State Senate, where he represented the 20th district in Brooklyn for seven years. His state-level experience, combined with his law-enforcement background, helped him build the moderate, public-safety-focused brand that would later define his mayoral campaigns.
Eric Adams Career
Early Career (1995-2006)
Adams served more than two decades in the New York City Transit Police and the NYPD, rising to the rank of captain. He founded a group called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an organization that pushed back against the police department’s handling of violence in minority communities and amplified concerns about police misconduct. During this period, Adams also began taking college courses that would eventually earn him a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.
After a failed congressional run in 1994, Adams spent more than a decade building a political network in Brooklyn. He aligned himself with established Democratic figures and cultivated ties to labor, faith, and civic organizations. By the time he launched his first state Senate campaign in 2006, he had the résumé of a reform-minded former officer and a strong base in central Brooklyn.
State Senate Era (2006-2013)
Adams represented the 20th Senate district in Brooklyn from 2007 to 2013. He used the position to champion criminal-justice reform, anti-gun-violence initiatives, and economic development in underserved neighborhoods. His legislative work helped him gain statewide recognition and laid the groundwork for his next political move.
In 2013, Adams won the race for Brooklyn Borough President, becoming the first African American to hold the office. He was re-elected in 2017 and used the borough presidency as a launching pad for a citywide campaign, releasing policy papers on housing, public safety, and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 Mayoral Campaign and Election
Adams formally announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City on November 17, 2020, positioning himself as a moderate Democrat focused on crime and public safety. He was a top fundraiser in the Democratic primary, trailing only Raymond McGuire in money raised, and he benefited from a May surge in the polls as concerns about rising crime grew. On July 6, 2021, he completed a come-from-behind victory in the ranked-choice primary, finishing ahead of Kathryn Garcia, Maya Wiley, and Andrew Yang.
On November 2, 2021, Adams defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in a landslide, becoming the second African American to serve as mayor of New York City. He was sworn in shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve at Times Square, holding a photograph of his recently deceased mother, Dorothy, during the ceremony.
Mayoralty (2022-2025)
As mayor, Adams took a tough-on-crime approach, reinstating a plainclothes anti-gun unit that his predecessor had disbanded and implementing a zero-tolerance policy on homeless people sleeping in subway cars. He also pursued affordable-housing initiatives, an aggressive push for plant-based public-health programs, and a sweeping “City of Yes” zoning reform package. His first year was marked by a January 2022 Bronx apartment fire that killed 17 people, a subsequent rise in violent crime, and several legal clashes with the City Council.
Beginning in late 2023 and intensifying through 2024, Adams faced a wave of federal investigations, a sexual-assault lawsuit filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, and a series of high-profile staff resignations. In September 2024, he was indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, to which he pleaded not guilty. In February 2025, the Department of Justice moved to drop the case, and Judge Dale Ho formally dismissed the charges on April 2, 2025.
Post-Mayoral Activities (2025-Present)
On April 3, 2025, Adams announced that he would exit the Democratic primary and run for re-election as an independent. He was the first sitting mayor to seek re-election without a major-party nomination since John Lindsay in 1969. Citing weak poll numbers, Adams withdrew his candidacy on September 28, 2025, and endorsed Andrew Cuomo on October 23, 2025, ahead of the general election won by Zohran Mamdani.
Notable Events and Milestones
Adams made history in 2013 as the first African American elected Brooklyn Borough President, and he repeated the breakthrough in 2021 by becoming the city’s second Black mayor. His administration approved the first two phases of the “City of Yes” zoning plan, implemented a citywide trash-containerization mandate, and navigated one of the largest migrant humanitarian responses in New York City history. The federal bribery indictment in September 2024 and the dismissal of those charges in April 2025 bookended one of the most turbulent mayoralties in modern New York history.
Eric Adams Career Wins
Adams’s electoral record includes a 2006 New York State Senate victory, two wins for Brooklyn Borough President in 2013 and 2017, and a landslide mayoral victory in 2021 that made him the 111th mayor of New York City.
Electoral Highlights
Adams first won elected office in 2006, taking a Brooklyn-based State Senate seat he would hold for seven years. He followed that with back-to-back borough-presidential wins in 2013 and 2017, expanding his citywide profile. His most decisive victory came in 2021, when he won the Democratic primary in New York’s first ranked-choice mayoral contest and then defeated Curtis Sliwa in a general-election landslide.
Other Wins and Achievements
Outside the ballot box, Adams scored a major policy win with the “City of Yes” zoning initiative, the first two installments of which were approved by the City Council in December 2023 and June 2024. He also secured the first sustained citywide containerization of trash and received national attention for promoting plant-based eating as a public-health tool, including the 2020 publication of his cookbook “Healthy at Last.”
| Position | Wins | Year |
|---|---|---|
| New York State Senate (20th District) | 1 | 2006 |
| Brooklyn Borough President | 2 | 2013, 2017 |
| Mayor of New York City | 1 | 2021 |
Eric Adams Family
Family Background and Personal Lineage
Adams was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, by his father, Leroy Adams, and his mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter. He was the fourth of six children, and his mother’s death shortly before his 2022 inauguration was a defining personal moment that he has publicly acknowledged on several occasions. Adams has cited his upbringing and his late mother as central influences on his career in public service.
Personal Life
Adams has never been married. He has a son, Jordan Coleman, with former partner Chrisena Coleman. Jordan Coleman is a graduate of American University and works as a filmmaker and television actor. Adams is currently in a relationship with Tracey Collins, the Senior Youth Development Director for the New York City Department of Education. He is a non-denominational Christian, became a Prince Hall Freemason in 2023, and has earned the nickname “Nightlife Mayor” for his well-known weekend club appearances across the five boroughs.