Wall Street exec Ray McGuire enters race for NYC Mayor
Longtime Wall Street executive Raymond McGuire, 63, announced he is entering the New York City mayoral race.
With the primary eight months away, Wall Street executive Raymond McGuire announced his bid for the position of New York City mayor.
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According to The New York Times, McGuire said he is leaving his position at Citigroup to run for the Democratic nomination for mayor. As one of Wall Street’s highest-ranking and longest-serving Black executives, the outlet reports the 63-year-old is a first-time candidate and unfamiliar to many New York voters.
“New York gave me the opportunity to be enormously successful,” Mr. McGuire said in an interview with the NYT. “Now New York is in a financial crisis that has exploded into a whole bunch of crises — educational, health and criminal justice. If there is a moment in history where my skill set can help lead, this is it.”
As vice chairman at Citigroup, he had been contemplating running for months with the persuasion of his colleagues. William M. Lewis Jr., co-chairman of investment banking at Lazard, said McGuire, his former Harvard peer, is the candidate the city needs.
“We need someone who is going to walk into the room and say, ‘Let me see the spreadsheets, and let’s deal with the crisis at hand,’” said Lewis to the NYT. “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. We need somebody who’s going to say everyone needs to pay their fair share.”
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CNBC reported McGuire hired Charles Phillips, former CEO of software company Infor, as his campaign adviser. Phillips worked on former President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Board and he helped organize what is now known as the Black Economic Alliance where he now sits on the board.
theGrio reported Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer and a former aide to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, has also announced her campaign to become the next mayor.
“I want to build a New York where no matter who you are or what you look like, how you identify or who you love, whether you have a big bank account or none at all, whether you live in public housing or luxury condos, you can live a life with dignity and opportunity in this city,” Wiley said in a video last week.
The candidate pool includes Wiley, McGuire, and a handful of others including City Comptroller Scott Stringer and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, a Brooklyn councilman, Carlos Menchaca, Brooklyn borough president, Eric Adams, a former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales, the former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, and the former veteran affairs commissioner Loree Sutton, according to The Times.
