Citigroup Vice Chairman Raymond McGuire on Thursday announced his departure from the bank to run for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, The New York Times reported.
With just eight months left before the primary election, McGuire is the latest to enter the race to replace current Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who is unable to run again due to term limits.
Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, formally declared his candidacy for mayor last month hours after Kathryn Garcia, the sanitation commissioner, resigned from her post ahead of her own potential mayoral run.
The Times also listed several others as potential candidates, including Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive; former federal housing secretary, Shaun Donovan; and Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer and former counsel for de Blasio.
Despite the wide field of possible contenders, William Lewis Jr., co-chairman of investment banking at Lazard, told the Times that McGuire has “a unique understanding of why Black lives matter,” as well as the financial crisis the city faces as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need someone who is going to walk into the room and say, ‘Let me see the spread sheets, and let’s deal with the crisis at hand,’” said Lewis, who has known McGuire since they attended Harvard University as undergraduate students.
“We need somebody who is going to be able to get their hands around this budget, talk to Washington and help get us more money,” Lewis continued. “We need somebody who’s going to say everyone needs to pay their fair share.”
After McGuire informed his colleagues and clients of his decision to run on Thursday morning, his campaign launched a website and sent an introductory email that focused on the city’s economy.
“I’ll start with this: No jobs, no city. It’s that simple,” he wrote.
Since COVID-19 first hit the city earlier this year, Broadway shows, restaurants and other tourist attractions in the city have been forced to shut down, leading to 896,000 private sector jobs lost between February and April, according to the city’s comptroller office.
The city’s unemployment rate reached as high as 20 percent in July, although the New York City Department of Labor reported that this had fallen to 14.1 percent in September.