New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday abandoned his re-election bid, stepping aside amid a federal bribery indictment and plunging approval ratings during his tenure as leader of the nation’s largest city.
His departure from the race, a little more than a month before Election Day, leaves the contest to become the city’s next mayor effectively between frontrunner Democrat Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Adams had struggled to raise money and trailed far behind Mamdani and Cuomo, who is running as an independent, in public opinion polls. Mamdani holds a sizeable lead ahead of the November 4 election, while recent polls showed single-digit support for both Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Adams announced he was dropping out in a nearly nine-minute video that showed him walking down stairs to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” while holding up a large photo of his late mother, just as he did when he voted for himself as mayor four years ago.
“Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign,” he said in the video posted on X.
He declined to endorse another candidate in the race and said he will finish his term, which ends on January 1, 2026.
“I will continue to fight for this city,” he said.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, has alarmed much of the New York business community and some within the Democratic Party with his leftist views.
The fear among Mamdani’s critics had been that Adams and Cuomo would split the opposition vote, giving Mamdani an easy victory.
President Donald Trump, a Republican who has warned about the consequences of a Mamdani win, earlier this month suggested that Adams and Sliwa pull out of the race even as the mayor swore he would remain until the end.
Trump said on Sunday he believes Cuomo will benefit from Adams’ exit.
“I think that gives Cuomo a much better chance,” the president said in a phone interview. “I do welcome it.”
Adams appeared to swipe at Mamdani in his remarks on Sunday.
“Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer to destroy the very system we built together over generations,” Adams said. “That is not change, that is chaos.”
Mamdani released a statement in response to Adams’ departure.
“On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of,” he said.
Cuomo urged voters to reject “extremist forces,” in an apparent reference to Mamdani.
“We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them,” Cuomo posted on X.
Adams’ Trump Ties Angered Democrats
Adams, a former New York City police captain, has had a brutally unpopular tenure as leader of the heavily Democratic city.
An elected Democrat, he was running for a second term as an independent after his indictment on federal bribery counts made him the city’s first sitting mayor to face criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence.
Trump’s Justice Department dropped the case not because of the strength of the evidence, but because officials said the prosecution was interfering with Adams’ ability to support the president’s deportation agenda.
Adams had angered many Democrats by cooperating with Trump’s aggressive enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The apparent quid pro quo prompted half a dozen senior Justice Department attorneys to resign rather than follow instructions to dismiss the charges. Adams and his attorney denied that there was any deal to secure a dismissal.
On Sunday, Adams blamed media speculation about his future and a decision by the city’s Campaign Finance Board to deny him public matching funds for his flagging performance.
Mamdani, a previously obscure state legislator, pulled off a surprising victory over Cuomo in the city’s Democratic primary election. His grassroots campaign used clever social media videos to inspire an army of volunteers.
Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 during a sexual harassment scandal even though he denied wrongdoing.
(With inputs from Reuters)
