Running for mayor may require some faith. At least it did on Sunday. 

Candidates for the city’s top job were in the pulpit this weekend, trying to court voters in one particular area in Brooklyn. 

At least four of them — Ray McGuire, Maya Wiley, Eric Adams and Shaun Donovan — were at some point on Sunday in central Brooklyn near Broadway Junction in what was a clear play for Black voters. 

What You Need To Know

  • With just 10 weeks before Primary Day, candidates are taking to the campaign trail in person to court voters

  • Several mayor candidates visited the same Brooklyn neighborhood on Sunday, looking to make inroads with Black voters

  • Meanwhile, Eric Adams once again went after some of his rivals for being newcomers to politics

“For far too long we have not been investing in communities like East New York that are Black that have been denied the opportunities that this city can help create,” Wiley told NY1 on Sunday. 

Moments later, she was in the pulpit describing how this community in particular had suffered from a lack of affordable housing and high unemployment. 

Just five minutes away, Adams, the Brooklyn borough president whose campaign has been gaining steam in recent weeks, took the mic. He went after his rivals — newcomers, he says, who have not been shepherding these communities through crisis.

“Where were you when 65% of black children were not meeting proficiency year after year?” He blared. "If you were MIA then, then what are you going to do as the mayor of the city of New York? When COVID hit our community others fled, and I led."

Adams was not entirely clear who he was referencing — perhaps a veiled attack against frontrunner Andrew Yang. Yang was off the campaign trail Sunday after getting his COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.

“There are many candidates that are just discovering this community,” Adams told us. "They just discovered that NYCHA has a crisis. They just discovered that many of the Black churches are dealing with real economical issues.”

Just a few blocks away, as Adams was blasting his competitors, a businessman turned politician was also courting voters. McGuire, the former Citigroup executive, explained to socially distanced parishioners that he was a man of faith. 

“This is not new for me. This is who I am as a person. This is my foundation,” McGuire said. "This is not something I am doing as part of a political campaign. We have people who are in campaigns who are giving speeches, who have made promises. They had their chance.”

And perhaps, he argues, it's time to take a chance, or put a little faith, in an outsider.