New York City Mayor Eric Adams is dropping out of his re-election bid, and this has long been desired by opponents of Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who have been hoping to unite the opposition against him.
In a video post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Adams shared his decision, stating, “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign; the constant media speculation about my future and the campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign.”
“This campaign was for the underserved, the marginalized, the abandoned and betrayed by government,” Adams said. “Since then, it has been my honor to be your mayor, and I’m proud to say that we took that victory four years ago and turned it into action, making this city better for those who have been failed by government,” he said.
The fact that Adams opted out of the race is also another twist to a mayoral primary that has not been witnessed in recent times.
A democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, has just scored a whopping victory in the Democratic primary in June over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is currently running as an independent.
Adams was long urged by Cuomo allies to stand down to provide Cuomo a better opportunity to beat Mamdani in November.
President Donald Trump is a native New Yorker, and he, too, proposed the field should be reduced, and one of his aides, Steve Witkoff, even held a meeting with Adams to talk about possible jobs in the Trump administration.
With Adams being unpopular himself, it is not obvious how many votes the mayor could give up to Cuomo by quitting.
Adams has been trailing Mamdani and Cuomo by a wide margin in the majority of the polls conducted in the country, in addition to the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa.
And the effort that Trump has made to intervene in his own hometown politics has played to the benefit of Mamdani as well, since the president is unpopular in strongly Democratic New York.
Trump has also implied that Sliwa ought to quit the race, but Sliwa has reiterated on several occasions that he has no intention to quit.
One of the Cuomo campaign advisers was optimistic that the decision by Adams would liberate some of the Black vote; the campaign feels that the slightest percentage might open the race.
Cuomo responded on Sunday by praising Adams when he decided to quit his candidacy, “is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition. We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them.”
Coalescence of state and national Democrats is building around Mamdani partly because Trump is pushing to rebrand the race in favor of Cuomo. Mamdani has been endorsed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a statement made after Adams withdrew, Mamdani said, “Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo’s actions but they will not dictate the results of this election. New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another.”
Adams has, in recent weeks, lashed out against the media, accusing the press of “undermining his campaign,” claiming that negative coverage of his administration had made it difficult to raise much-needed funds.
The Campaign Finance Board of the city repeatedly refused public matching funds to Adams to run again, citing that the campaign had not provided the information about its donors as required.
This board, which grants matching funds to applicants satisfying a rigorous set of conditions, started refusing Adams as soon as his federal indictment on corruption came last year.
The conclusion to the reelection campaign of Adams is less than four years since assuming office as New York City’s second Black mayor; he labeled himself as the future of the Democratic Party.
Adams is a retired NYPD captain and Former Brooklyn Borough President, who was elected in 2021 on a platform of public safety and economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
He positioned himself as a blue-collar working-class mayor to New Yorkers, who can connect with the working population and their plight.
The campaign combined an appeal to working-class voters and tough-on-crime rhetoric that gave the campaign a wide coalition of support throughout the five boroughs of the city.
Rather, Adams has been crippled by a series of corruption scandals implicating his inner circle and some of his most trusted aides.
The mayor had to deal with his federal corruption and bribery charges last spring when the federal prosecutors accused him of accepting donations from Turkish nationals and exchanging favors with the rich.
The case was dismissed under the instruction of the Department of Justice on behalf of Trump, who argued that it was necessary to collaborate with the mayor to assist in the implementation of the Trump immigration crackdown.
Although Adams has repudiated the charges and the fact that he owes the Trump administration to clear the charges, the incident, together with ever-decreasing amounts of corruption scandals, has cast a shadow over his reelection prospects.
Having been confronted with numerous inquiries on whether he would quit the race, Adams insisted that he would still run, claiming that he believed New Yorkers would give him a second chance to achieve his agenda.
The incumbent had already chosen not to take part in the Democratic primary to run as an independent in the general election, which would have been an opposition to Cuomo as the Democratic nominee in his comeback bid after his resignation as governor following sexual harassment allegations.
And he conferred with Witkoff, the Bronxite real estate developer who turned into an envoy in the top administration during what was then reportedly described by his office as a personal trip to Florida.
Some of the jobs that were talked about concerning Adams included an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia.
Trump is not through remaking the race
Trump has characterized Mamdani as a threat to New York, as his potential mayoralty would force the president to “take over” the city. He has indicated that a Mamdani win would benefit the Republican Party.
Trump in the Oval Office, recently before Adams’ decision, said, “We’re going to have, perhaps, a communist mayor because it’s split up. If people would get together and have one candidate, they’d have, I think, a pretty good chance.”
Cuomo has been a longtime ally of the president since he also grew up in Queens and served as a governor in the first term of the Trump White House. Cuomo and Trump have refuted rumors that they have discussed the mayoral race.
Cuomo was defeated by Mamdani in the June primary by 12 points. He has since admitted that he ran a lackluster campaign, but he offered himself, or rather not Mamdani, as a Republican who had the governing experience to handle Trump.
Most importantly, Brooklyn Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both Brooklyn residents, have not supported Mamdani.
But Mamdani has attracted large masses of younger voters in his initial triumph in the primary and has begun to draw or receive approval among other members of the Democratic establishment.
