Controversial ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams adviser Fernando Cabrera files to run for his old NYC Council seat

NEW YORK — Fernando Cabrera, a Bronx pastor who has come under fire for anti-gay views and served as an adviser to Mayor Eric Adams at City Hall, filed paperwork this week to mount a 2025 campaign for his old City Council seat, the Daily News has learned.

Cabrera, who was a senior faith adviser to Adams between February 2022 and last summer, submitted the Campaign Finance Board paperwork on Friday to run in the Democratic primary for the Bronx’s 14th Council District. The move allows Cabrera to start raising money for his campaign, which is starting off from scratch with no money in its coffers, the filing shows.

Cabrera, a centrist and socially conservative Democrat, didn’t immediately return a request for comment on his filing.

The pastor used to represent the Fordham and University Heights-based district between 2010 and 2021. Since he left the legislative chamber to join Adams’ administration, the district has been represented by Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez, a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus who is facing one other challenger, community advocate Bryan Hodge Vasquez, in the June 2025 primary as of now.

Sanchez did not immediately return a request for comment.

Adams’ decision to hire Cabrera in early 2022 drew outrage from LGBTQ community advocates who pointed to his long record of anti-gay rhetoric and views. Most infamously, in 2014, Cabrera praised Uganda’s government — which has outlawed homosexuality and made it a crime punishable by death — for withstanding international pressure to “allow gay marriage.”

“And they have stood in their place. Why? Because the Christians have assumed the place of decision-making for the nation … because the Christians here took the opportunity to take their rightful place,” he said in a video during a visit to the East African nation at the time.

Upon his appointment at City Hall, Cabrera issued a written statement apologizing for his past rhetoric on LGBTQ issues, and Adams then urged New Yorkers to give him “the opportunity to show his commitment to bringing together all New Yorkers, regardless of who they love or how they identify.”

-------