New York City’s public advocate has become a champion to many of the protesters, raising hopes that he may run for mayor next year.
Eric Adams stood on the steps of Borough Hall in Brooklyn, his office and temporary home, facing a fired-up crowd at a pivotal moment of protest against police violence toward people of color.
As the most prominent black Democratic candidate for mayor, Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, should have had a powerful connection to voters stirred by the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And yet, at this rally on Tuesday, another black elected official threatened to eclipse him: Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate.
“You all ready for this?” Linda Sarsour, a prominent activist, said to the crowd of hundreds, shortly before they were to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. “When I say ‘mayor,’ you say ‘Jumaane.’”
The crowd heartily obliged.
There’s just one catch: Mr. Williams, as of now, is not running for mayor in 2021.
“I’m very happy with the job that I have, and I’m going to ask folks to give me another chance,” Mr. Williams said in an interview this week, indicating that he was focusing on re-election.
But Mr. Williams’s emergence as a sought-after candidate speaks to a surging desire among progressive activists for more options than those offered by the slate of Democratic Party candidates now before them.
“We’re trying to use every tool at our disposal to convince him that this is his moment,” Ms. Sarsour said.
Sochie Nnaemeka, the New York director of the Working Families Party, said that the protests are leading activists to cast about for alternatives to the existing field, and Mr. Williams’s name is one of several that have been floated. She declined to name the others.
“Allies, W. F. P. activists, community leaders have been actively thinking about who in this moment can step up and lead, recognizing that there’s a leadership vacuum and there’s an absence of accountable leadership, especially on the issues that matter most to us — invest in our communities, divesting from the police, etc.,” Ms. Nnaemeka said.
A key moment emerged at the Brooklyn memorial service for Mr. Floyd last week, when Mr. Williams criticized the governor and mayor for prioritizing the safeguarding of property over protecting black New Yorkers.
“Where is the same energy for black lives?” he said. “Why are you not saying we have to do everything, everything we can to protect black lives?”
Throughout his political career, Mr. Williams has displayed an activist streak: He has been arrested at least a half dozen times while protesting issues such as immigrant rights and President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
As a New York City councilman, Mr. Williams co-sponsored legislation that helped create an inspector general for the New York Police Department. He then ran a spirited primary campaign for lieutenant governor in 2018, losing to the incumbent, Kathy Hochul, by less than seven percentage points.
