Listen To Story Above
The presence of two individuals with the identical surname, Adams, contesting the New York City mayoral race could lead to voter perplexity and inadvertently favor the frontrunner, Andrew Cuomo, according to experts. The incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and his rival, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, both seek their party’s nomination in the forthcoming June primary election, despite not being related.
Republican pollster John McLaughlin asserted, “It’s confusing to have ranked choice voting and then it’s really confusing with two candidates with the same last name on the ballot.” McLaughlin drew from his firsthand experience during the 1992 special election for Jersey City mayor, where Republican Brett Schundler emerged victorious amidst 18 other candidates. One of the factors contributing to Schundler’s victory was the presence of two Democratic brothers, Louis and Allen Manzo, in the race. Allen siphoned off 3,990 votes from his brother Louis, who finished second, merely 1,643 votes behind Schundler.
The race for New York City’s mayor is getting crowded with 3 months to the primaries.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams & Fmr Governor Andrew Cuomo are the latest to challenge Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection. https://t.co/0sJSF6CwOC@CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/YZF2UgDWzh
— Ali Bauman (@AliBaumanTV) March 7, 2025
McLaughlin suggested that the presence of two Adamses could have a similar effect. “If two of the nine names on the ballot are the same, it gets confusing,” he stated. “They’ll just see Adams if they’re not paying attention to the first name.” With ranked choice voting, Democrats might inadvertently vote for Eric Adams as their first choice and Adrienne Adams as their second, or vice versa. In the final tally, this split could lead to the elimination of both candidates, potentially benefiting Cuomo or another progressive contender who gains momentum, such as Brad Lander, Scott Stringer, or Zohran Mamdani.
“The two Adams knock each other out,” McLaughlin remarked.
During Adrienne Adams’ campaign kickoff on Saturday, all her promotional materials prominently featured her first name without mentioning her surname.
Having two Adams names on the ballot could cause a whole lot of confusion and create an unpredictable X factor in the Democratic primary race for mayor, campaign veterans told The Post. https://t.co/Ht5vrJrGWG pic.twitter.com/VaAK035PV8
— Patriot Pointman (@patriotpointman) March 9, 2025
Other political veterans concurred that having the name Adams twice on the ballot could sow confusion, although the extent of its impact remains debatable. One anonymous Democratic consultant stated, “It’s going to cause confusion — no doubt about it. Cuomo will benefit because the Adamses will knock each other out.”
Campaign veteran Jerry Skurnik, a consultant with Engage Voters USA, acknowledged the potential factor of confusion over the two Adamses, noting that “If someone is eliminated by 5,000 votes, that could be the reason.”
While such instances have historically been more prevalent in smaller legislative races, laws have been enacted to address candidates with identical surnames by requiring the inclusion of numbers or biographical information on ballots.
