New York City mayoral contender Zellnor Myrie out with first TV ad
NEW YORK — As New York City's mayoral candidates struggle to gain traction in a race dominated by the frontrunner, among voters consumed with national politics, one lesser-known contender is out with his first TV ad Tuesday.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie is hoping to pull himself out of single digits with a 30-second spot showcasing his bootstraps biography and New York City beginnings.
'He was raised by a single mom in a rent stabilized apartment, and our public schools put Zellnor Myrie on the road to a better life,' an elderly female voice narrates over an image of the Brooklyn lawmaker and his mother holding hands in a humble living room.
The narrator for whom the ad is named — his school teacher, Mrs. Randolph — goes on to tick off highlights from the Democrat's legislative record, like bills to tighten gun laws and strengthen tenants' rights.
She also touts some of his campaign proposals, including expanding affordable housing and after-school programs.
The ad makes no mention of the behemoth in the Democratic primary, Andrew Cuomo, who is outpolling everyone, scooping up coveted union endorsements and benefitting from the backing of a super PAC that's collecting big-dollar donations from real estate titans, finance executives and some prominent Trump supporters.
With under two months until the primary to replace Mayor Eric Adams, it's becoming harder to see any candidate with low name recognition overtaking the former governor.
But privately, campaign operatives — even the beleaguered ones — insist the relentless attacks on Cuomo's record from rivals and in news coverage will start to hurt his polling lead and open the door to a well-liked candidate who can benefit from ranked choice voting. They readily point to Cuomo's comparatively high negative ratings.
Hence Myrie's hope. He's pitching himself to New Yorkers as a relatively fresh figure in city politics, with a base of reliable voters in Central Brooklyn and a housing plan that focuses on building much more and driving down costs without driving away developers.
'This ad will introduce Z to even more New Yorkers who are hungry for new leadership,' campaign spokesperson Olivia Lapeyrolerie said in response to questions about the state of the race.
Myrie, who had $2.8 million in the bank as of the last campaign filing, is the second candidate out with a TV ad this cycle — his produced by longtime political consultant Mark Guma. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is polling in second place, put out his first spot last week.
Myrie is spending $500,000 for one week of airing the ad on cable and broadcast channels, streaming shows and other digital platforms, 'as well as local sportscasts of his beloved Knicks, Yankees and Mets games,' Lapeyrolerie said. The cable buy includes $65,000 of that.
A version of this first appeared in New York Playbook. Sign up here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
17 minutes ago
In their own words: Trump, Newsom trade insults and barbs over National Guard in Los Angeles
The swiftly evolving situation in the Los Angeles area over protests surrounding immigration enforcement actions has also cued up a public spat between President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California governor who has been one of the Republican president's most vocal Democratic critics. After Trump on Sunday called up 2,000 National Guard troops to respond, Newsom said he would sue the administration, a promise on which the state followed through a day later. Trump cited a legal provision that allows him to mobilize federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." The president also agreed with one of his top advisers that maybe the governor should be arrested. Here's a look at back-and-forth between Trump and Newsom in their own words: 'You have violent people, and we're not gonna let them get away with it.' — Trump, Sunday, in remarks to reporters in Morristown, New Jersey. ___ Newsom's ire has been elevated over Trump's decision to, without his support, call up the California National Guard for deployment into his state. In a letter Sunday, Newsom called on Trump to rescind the Guard deployment, calling it a 'serious breach of state sovereignty.' The governor, who was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and other officials, also told protesters they were playing into Trump's plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction. 'Trump wants chaos and he's instigated violence,' he said. 'Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don't give him the excuse he's looking for.' In an interview with MSNBC, Newsom said Sunday he had spoken with Trump 'late Friday night,' after the protests had begun, but said deploying the National Guard 'never came up.' "We talked for almost 20 minutes, and he — barely, this issue never came up. I mean, I kept trying to talk about LA, he wanted to talk about all these other issues," Newsom said. 'We had a very decent conversation.' 'He never once brought up the National Guard,' Newsom said of Trump, calling him 'a stone-cold liar.' Saying, 'I did call him the other night,' Trump told reporters Sunday that he told Newsom in that call: ''Look you've got to take care of this. Otherwise I'm sending in the troops.' ... That's what we did.' On Monday, Trump posted on social media that Los Angeles would have been 'completely obliterated' without his intervention and referred to Newsom as 'Newscum,' a pejorative moniker he has used to refer to the governor. 'We are suing Donald Trump. This is a manufactured crisis. He is creating fear and terror to take over a state militia and violate the U.S. constitution.' — Newsom, Monday, X post. ___ As Newsom promised, California officials sued the Trump administration on Monday, with the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing that the deployment of troops 'trampled' on the state's sovereignty and pushing for a restraining order. The initial deployment of 300 National Guard troops was expected to quickly expand to the full 2,000 that were authorized by Trump. Late Monday, Trump authorized an additional 2,000 National Guard troops. Ahead of that move, Newsom accused the president of inflaming tensions, breaching state sovereignty and wasting resources, while warning protesters not to 'take Trump's bait.' Teasing the suit, Newsom told MSNBC that he saw the deployment as 'an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.' Asked Monday about the lawsuit, Trump said it was 'interesting' and argued 'that place would be burning down' without the federal government's intervention. 'I'm very happy I got involved," Trump added. "I think Gavin in his own way is very happy I got involved.' 'I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing." — Trump, Monday, in remarks to reporters. ___ Tom Homan, the Trump administration's border czar, previously warned that anyone, including public officials, would be arrested if they obstructed federal immigration enforcement. Newsom's initial response to Homan, during the MSNBC interview and in subsequent posts on his own social media: 'Come and get me, tough guy.' On Monday Trump seemed to agree with his border chief, telling reporters, 'I would do it if I were Tom.' 'I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,' Trump added. "He's done a terrible job. Look — I like Gavin, he's a nice guy, but he's grossly incompetent, everybody knows." Homan later said there was 'no discussion' about actually arresting Newsom, but reiterated that 'no one's above the law.' wrote Monday on X that they represented 'a day I hoped I would never see in America' and said Trump's call for his arrest marked 'an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.'
17 minutes ago
Election conspiracy theorist sticks by false 2020 claims in defamation trial
DENVER -- One of the nation's most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, stuck by his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen while testifying Monday during a defamation trial over statements he made about a former official for a leading voting equipment company. Taking the stand for the first time during the trial, Lindell denied making any statements he knew to be false about Eric Coomer, the former product strategy and security director for Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. Among other things, Lindell accused Coomer of being 'a part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen." Lindell also distanced himself from a story told by a conservative podcaster who accused Coomer of helping to rig the 2020 election. It was discussed during a 2021 symposium Lindell hosted to discuss election fraud. Lindell said he did not know about the story before it was discussed onstage at the event and only learned about it during the trial. Coomer said his career and life have been destroyed by statements Lindell made about him and allowed to be promoted through his online media platform, Frankspeech. During sometimes rambling testimony in federal court in Denver, Lindell painted himself as the victim of 'lawfare' — when people are sued to scare them into silence. Several conservative news organizations, including Fox News, Newsmax and One America News, have settled defamation lawsuits from voting machine companies over allegations that they promoted falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. In 2021, Newsmax also apologized to Coomer for airing false allegations against him. Nevertheless, Lindell said he hoped his trial would lead people to look at what happened in the election and get rid of electronic voting machines, which have been targeted in a web of conspiracy theories. Reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump contested his 2020 loss all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's victory. Trump's own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and Trump and his allies lost dozens of court cases seeking to overturn the result. Lindell said he never accused Coomer of rigging the election, but he testified that Coomer's claims led Newsmax to block him from being able to go on air to talk about voting machines. 'You're part of the biggest coverup of the biggest crime the world has ever seen,' he said to the Coomer lawyer questioning him, Charles Cain. Lindell said he used to be worth about $60 million before he started speaking out about the 2020 election, and now he has nothing and is $10 million in debt. 'I believe what you did to me and MyPillow was criminal,' he said to Cain during questioning. Both Cain and U.S. District Judge Nina Wang had to remind Lindell several times to listen to the questions and only provide the answers to them, rather than head off on tangents. During the trial, Coomer's attorneys have tried to show how their client's life was devastated by the series of conspiracy theories about him. Lindell was comparatively late to seize on Coomer, not mentioning him until February 2021, well after his name had been circulated by other Trump partisans. Coomer said the conspiracy theories cost him his job, his mental health and the life he'd built and said Lindell's statements were the most distressing of all. He specifically pointed to a statement on May 9, 2021, when Lindell described what he believed Coomer had done as 'treason.' Asked by his attorney what he wants out of the trial, Coomer said he would like an apology, compensation and 'a chance of rehabilitating my public image.' Lindell's attorneys argued that Coomer's reputation was already in tatters by the time Lindell mentioned him — partly because of Coomer's own Facebook posts disparaging Trump, which the former Dominion employee acknowledged were 'hyperbolic' and had been a mistake. 'Your reputation was shattered long before Mr. Lindell said a word about you,' Chris Katchouroff said to Coomer. Katchouroff noted that Lindell also is known for making hyperbolic statements and that what he said about Coomer was simply the result of his sincere concern over vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election — a claim for which there is no evidence.
Newsweek
29 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Gavin Newsom Dares Donald Trump to Arrest Him: 'Get It Over With'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. California Gov. Gavin Newsom told U.S. President Donald Trump to "just get it over with, arrest me" as the pair clashed over immigration raids in the city and how to handle the disorder that erupted from the protests against them. Trump had said he would arrest Newsom if he were the White House border czar Tom Homan, calling it a "great thing". Homan had earlier said those harboring illegal immigrants would face the law, and the Democratic governor of California is not excluded from that risk. Newsom called it a "sober and serious moment" in remarks to MeidasTouch, a liberal activist media group, on Monday evening. "This is why I told the president, just get it over with, arrest me, move on. If you need some head to scalp, do it with me, but stop messing with these kids," Newsom said. "Stop messing with four-year-olds. Kids in elementary school. We've got kids. We have hundreds of graduations down here. "Kids are not going to their own graduations, families, grandparents, here legally. Mixed status families in some cases, scared to death to go to a graduation. People are scared to walk down the streets." Newsom said he was aware of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) running "checkpoints, checking people's IDs" in Los Angeles. "We've never seen this kind of deployment in so many accents," Newsom said. "It's mass panic out here in the nation's largest county, in the nation's largest state. Good, hardworking people, decent people. These are not the criminals. These are not the thugs." This is a developing article. Updates to follow.
