New York City Mayor Eric Adams has blamed his “woke” Democratic colleagues for the party’s loss of a significant portion of the Latino and Asian electorate. Mayor Adams made the point on the MSNBC show, Morning Joe, on Wednesday, February 8th, as a response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
“There’s a hemorrhaging of our Latino community, our AAPI communities, that’s leaving the traditional Democratic base because we’ve allowed the loudest and those who consider themselves to be ‘woke,’” Adams said.
“Some of us never went to sleep, and we hear and speak directly to people, and I think the party is now understanding that we have to speak at those issues that are important: Jobs, public safety, educating our children, good health care, just these common kitchen table issues that we run away from,” he added.
Before he made the appearance on the Morning Joe show, Mayor Adams had released a statement in which he agreed with portions of President Biden’s speech.
“This president’s focus on working people is exactly what the nation needs, and his focus on helping Americans care for their children, provide for their families, and put money in their wallets will resonate from coast to coast. The agenda he laid out goes hand-in-hand with what we are doing in New York City — this is a blue-collar president, I’m a blue-collar mayor, and we’re both pursuing a blue-collar agenda for working people in New York and across the rest of the nation,” he wrote.
History of Similar Comments
It is not the first time that Mayor Adams has called the Democratic party and some of its policies woke. In April 2022, during an interview with ABC This Week, he blamed Democratic progressive policies for the high rates of crime in New York City.
It is also not the first time he has spoken of the Democratic Party’s loss of minority voters. He wrote an op-ed in November 2022, in which he expressed that view in USA Today.
Mayor Adams’ comments come soon after Republican Governor for Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders made comments criticizing President Biden’s supposed “surrender” to wokeness. “At 80, he’s the oldest president in American history. I’m the first woman to lead my state. He’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is,” she said.
Republican or Democrat?
Tony Melone, a spokesperson for the New Kings Democrats, wondered why Adams would share sentiments similar to Governor Sanders. “Perhaps the Democratic mayor of NYC shouldn’t amplify Republican talking points on national TV?” he wrote on Twitter.
Mayor Adams has, at times, disagreed with the more progressive members of his party. Notably, Adams was once a registered Republican between 1997 and 2001.
