Four years ago, allegations of sexual misconduct turned the New York political sphere upside down.
Numerous allegations against Andrew M. Cuomo led to his resignation as governor in August 2021; months earlier, Scott M. Stringer, a former city comptroller, saw his bid for mayor fall short after two women accused him of sexual harassment decades earlier.
This year, three Democratic candidates for mayor of New York City — Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Stringer and the incumbent, Eric Adams — will provide a durability test for the #MeToo movement in New York politics. All three have faced allegations of sexual misconduct; all have forcefully denied the accusations and challenged the accusers in court.
The contours of the June 24 Democratic primary have mostly centered on issues of competency and who might best steer the city through concerns of public safety, affordability and interference from President Trump, a Republican.
But some of the accusers, their lawyers and women’s groups are trying to keep the #MeToo allegations front and center, hoping to persuade voters that they should be viewed as disqualifying behavior.
By far the most visible and most organized effort is aimed at Mr. Cuomo. Outside a recent union gathering for the former governor, participants in a “Women Against Cuomo” rally shouted to union members who were waiting in line: “You are endorsing a sexual harasser!”
“We’re here to remind everyone who thinks that they are supporting a man who’s going to stand up for them, who he actually is,” Erica Vladimer, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, said at the rally.
When Mr. Cuomo held a fund-raiser reception in Manhattan on Friday organized by a group of more than 100 women, a competing group, led by one of his most persistent accusers, protested outside.
Mr. Cuomo told reporters on Sunday after attending a church service in Harlem that a report by the state attorney general, Letitia James, investigating the allegations was wrong.
“I said at that time it was wrong, I said at that time it was political, it has been discredited and nothing has come from any of it,” he said.
He added: “I’m not here to talk about past politics. New Yorkers wants to talk about the present, they want to talk about the future.”
Many of Mr. Cuomo’s female accusers are hesitant to speak out themselves for fear of retaliation.
Mr. Adams, who is running for a second term while also facing federal corruption charges, was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a colleague in 1993. The colleague, Lorna Beach-Mathura, said she asked him for career help when he was a police officer. He requested oral sex, forced her to touch his penis and ejaculated on her leg, according to her complaint. The mayor’s allies have questioned her credibility and history of filing lawsuits.
Her suit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which took effect in 2022, but she documented her account a year earlier in emails she sent to The New York Post and to the campaign of Andrew Yang, during his 2021 bid for mayor.
Mr. Adams has denied the allegations and his lawyers have moved to dismiss the case, which could go to trial later this year. Ms. Beach-Mathura, who recently declared bankruptcy, said she had tried to publicize her story in 2021 after she was offended that Mr. Adams had portrayed himself as a “law and order candidate.”
“I don’t think Eric Adams is qualified to be mayor, just like I didn’t think he was qualified to be mayor in 2021,” Ms. Beach-Mathura said in a recent statement to The New York Times.
She said that she was glad that voters would now “be more informed about who Eric Adams is.”
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said: “As Mayor Adams has repeatedly stated, these allegations are false, and he has no recollection of ever even meeting this individual — an individual who, by the way, literally wrote a book on how to file lawsuits because, in her own words, ‘you just may win.’”
Ms. Beach-Mathura’s claims did not become known until she filed a lawsuit in 2023. The accusation against Mr. Stringer surfaced in 2021, when Jean Kim held a news conference to accuse him of sexually assaulting her in 2001 when she was involved in his campaign for public advocate.
She said that Mr. Stringer repeatedly groped her without consent, pressured her to have sex and warned her not to tell anyone. Mr. Stringer disputed her account, saying they were peers and that their relationship had been consensual.
Mr. Stringer sued Ms. Kim for defamation in 2022, contending that she had done “irreparable harm to him and his political future.”
Ms. Kim’s husband, Anthony Caifano, said in an interview that his wife opposed Mr. Stringer’s campaign but was wary of speaking out because of the defamation case.
“Jean still stands behind her allegations,” Mr. Caifano said. “There is a narrative now that her allegations were disproven and they weren’t.”
Mr. Stringer’s campaign sent a six-page document seeking to refute Ms. Kim’s claims and arguing that her account was not corroborated.
“This false allegation has been a difficult and painful experience, and it’s been particularly tough on my wife and kids,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “As my children get older, I want them to know the truth, and I am hopeful they will.”
The defamation case is pending. In September, a judge denied Ms. Kim’s request to dismiss the case. Mr. Cuomo has gone further.
The state has spent more than $15 million defending Mr. Cuomo and his aides from the allegations. In December, he filed a notice of intent to sue one accuser, Charlotte Bennett, for defamation. Lindsey Boylan, a former aide who accused Mr. Cuomo of an unwanted kiss and who attended the protest on Friday, said she had had to spend more than $1 million on legal fees.
And when the former governor held a rally last week to kick off his campaign, his lawyer Rita Glavin was close at hand, ready with a quick defense of Mr. Cuomo’s move to seek one accuser’s gynecological records.
Mr. Cuomo has avoided discussing the allegations by 11 women. His launch video referred to painful mistakes from his past without identifying them. When he was asked by a reporter to name those mistakes, he said he wished he had added more police in the transit system and did not mention the allegations.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said “the supreme irony is that the only harassment and bullying going on” was by the women protesting against the former governor.
Several of the accusers say they have faced financial hardships after telling their stories and that it has been painful for them to navigate the legal system.
“Emotionally, it’s still very upsetting for Jean,” her husband, Mr. Caifano, said. “She just wants to move on.” He added that she can no longer afford to pay for a lawyer to represent her.
How voters regard the #MeToo allegations may depend on how they weigh the individual circumstances and the candidate’s broader record. Still, the allegations could influence some voters in a competitive primary with Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Adams and Mr. Stringer often among the top five candidates in polls.
Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia University, said that the #MeToo movement had faced setbacks, but it had not disappeared.
“Not every accusation will result in criminal charges, termination or even political consequences, but that doesn’t mean that accusations of sexual harassment and assault have faded from public awareness,” she said.
Some women say the presence of three male candidates with #MeToo allegations underscores the urgency to elect the city’s first female mayor. Two women are running: Ms. Ramos and Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker. Ms. Ramos, whom Ms. Kim and Ms. Boylan have supported for mayor, said in a statement that voters deserved better choices on the ballot.
“If people think their only choice is between a sex pest and a corrupt liar, of course they’re not going to think government can work for them,” she said. “How can we keep trusting a system that empowers men who have shown they don’t care about us?”
Olivia Bensimon contributed reporting.