New York’s Mayoral Race Is a Glorious Dumpster Fire, And I Love It

A confession: I love every single thing about this year’s New York City mayoral race. I read every story about it, hang on every update or embarrassing photograph that crosses my transom online, and check the polling and political markets daily. Why would I, a person who lives nowhere near the Empire State, be so riveted by a local election? Because it is a saga of urban political despair that sings to my own corroded soul like few others this year. I love the chaos, the insanity, the sheer hopelessness of the choices on offer for New Yorkers, as only a longtime Chicago resident truly can. Allow me to explain.

The Democratic mayoral primary approaches on June 24. New York’s current mayor, Eric Adams, is running for reelection — as an independent. His hand was forced. After a hapless tenure, a series of Biden-era federal indictments for comically small-stakes foreign bribery, and a politically toxic intervention by the Trump DOJ, Adams has conceded to the reality that he is as welcome within the New York City Democratic Party as an infestation of sewer rats. He has thus abandoned it to run on his own brand. (Perhaps he is counting on the support of his lone remaining natural constituency, the Turkish government.)

JB

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.

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A confession: I love every single thing about this year’s New York City mayoral race. I read every story about it, hang on every update or embarrassing photograph that crosses my transom online, and check the polling and political markets daily. Why would I, a person who lives nowhere near the Empire State, be so riveted by a local election? Because it is a saga of urban political despair that sings to my own corroded soul like few others this year. I love the chaos, the insanity, the sheer hopelessness of the choices on offer for New Yorkers, as only a longtime Chicago resident truly can. Allow me to explain.

The Democratic mayoral primary approaches on June 24. New York’s current mayor, Eric Adams, is running for reelection — as an independent. His hand was forced. After a hapless tenure, a series of Biden-era federal indictments for comically small-stakes foreign bribery, and a politically toxic intervention by the Trump DOJ, Adams has conceded to the reality that he is as welcome within the New York City Democratic Party as an infestation of sewer rats. He has thus abandoned it to run on his own brand. (Perhaps he is counting on the support of his lone remaining natural constituency, the Turkish government.)

JB

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.