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

Fernando Cabrera, a Bronx pastor with a history of anti-gay views who served as an adviser to Mayor 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, filed 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 cash in its coffers, the filing shows.

Cabrera, a socially conservative Democrat, didn’t return a request for comment on his submission.

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 declined to comment Friday morning.

Adams’ decision to hire Cabrera 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.”

A source directly familiar with the matter told The News that Adams is privately supportive of Cabrera’s push to reclaim his old Council seat.

On Aug. 12, Adams visited Cabrera’s New Life Outreach International church in Kingsbridge Heights for an event billed in a poster as “an evening of faith.”

The poster, released on the church’s Instagram, had the mayor’s office insignia on it, and Adams was joined on the visit by Gilford Monrose, the executive director of his City Hall Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships.

Photos and videos from the event reviewed by The News show Cabrera and other congregants laying hands on Adams and praying for him.

“God chose you, it wasn’t by chance, and sometimes we think it’s the people, but it was God that selected [you],” an unidentified preacher tells Adams, as Cabrera stands next to him.

Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for Adams’ office, confirmed the event at Cabrera’s church was co-organized by City Hall as part of a series of meetings with local faith leaders. Garcia referred comment on Cabrera’s Council moves to Adams’ campaign, which didn’t return a request for comment.

Allen Roskoff, a longtime LGBTQ activist in the city who was highly critical of Adams’ decision to hire Cabrera , called it a “disgrace” for him to run for Council.

“He has done unforgivable things to the LGBTQ community,” Roskoff said. “The fact that the mayor has not denounced him and the fact that the mayor has not said he has no place in the City Council is another reason why the mayor must be defeated.”