New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspends his reelection bid

By Gloria Pazmino, CNN

(CNN) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ending his reelection bid, a move long sought by rivals of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani who have wanted to consolidate the opposition against him.

Adams announced his decision Sunday in a video posted to X, saying “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.”

Adams’ decision to leave the race adds another twist to a mayoral primary unlike any other in recent memory. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, notched a stunning win in June’s Democratic primary over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is now mounting an independent campaign.

Cuomo allies have long pushed Adams to withdraw to give himself a better chance against Mamdani in November. President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker, has also suggested the field should be narrowed, and one of his top aides, Steve Witkoff, met with Adams to discuss potential jobs in the Trump administration.

Given Adams’ own unpopularity, it’s not clear how many votes the mayor’s withdrawal might throw to Cuomo. Adams has been running fourth in most public polls behind Mamdani, Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. And Trump’s intervention into his hometown’s politics has helped Mamdani too given the president’s unpopularity in deeply Democratic New York. Trump has also suggested that Sliwa should drop out of the race, although Sliwa has repeatedly said he has no plans to do so.

The Cuomo campaign is hoping that Adams’ decision will free up some of the Black vote, one adviser said. The campaign believes that even a small percentage could open up the race.

State and national Democrats are increasingly coalescing around Mamdani in recent weeks due in part to Trump’s push to reshape the race in Cuomo’s favor. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed Mamdani as has former Vice President Kamala Harris.

In recent weeks, Adams has lashed out at the media accusing the press of “undermining his campaign,” saying negative coverage about his administration had complicated his ability to raise badly needed funds.

Adams was repeatedly denied public matching funds for his re-election by the city’s Campaign Finance Board, which said the campaign had failed to provide required information about its donors. The board, which doles out taxpayer funded matching funds to candidates who meet a strict set of requirements, began denying funds to Adams shortly after his federal corruption indictment last year.

The end of Adams’ reelection campaign comes less than four years after he took office as New York City’s second Black mayor, describing himself as the future of the Democratic Party.

A retired NYPD captain and former Brooklyn borough president, Adams was elected in 2021 on a platform focused on public safety and economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

He pitched himself to New Yorkers as a blue-collar working-class mayor who could relate to the city’s working class and their struggles. The campaign mixed appeals to working-class voters with tough-on-crime rhetoric that delivered a broad coalition of support across the city’s five boroughs.

Instead, Adams has been hobbled by a steady stream of corruption scandals involving his inner circle and some of his most trusted aides.

The mayor faced his own federal corruption and bribery charges last spring after federal prosecutors accused him of soliciting donations from Turkish nationals and trading favors to benefit wealthy donors.

The charges were dismissed at the direction of Trump’s Department of Justice, who cited the need to work with the mayor to help enforce Trump’s immigration crackdown. While Adams has denied the charges and that he was indebted to Trump’s administration for dropping the charges, the episode combined with mounting corruption scandals cast a pall over his reelection chances.

Long faced with questions about whether he would leave the race, Adams insisted he would continue to run, saying he believed New Yorkers would give him a second chance to fulfill his agenda.

He had already opted out of the Democratic primary to run as an independent in the general election, in what observers had expected would be a clash with Cuomo as the Democratic nominee in his comeback bid following his resignation as governor over sexual harassment claims.

And he met with Witkoff, the Bronxite real estate developer turned top administration envoy, during what his office originally described as a personal trip to Florida. Among the jobs discussed for Adams were an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia.

Trump may not be done reshaping the race

Trump has described Mamdani’s potential mayoralty as a threat to New York, saying that if Mamdani is elected, the president would have to “take over” the city. At other times, he’s suggested a Mamdani victory would help the Republican Party.

“We’re going to have, perhaps, a communist mayor because it’s split up,” Trump said in the Oval Office recently before Adams’ decision. “If people would get together and have one candidate, they’d have, I think, a pretty good chance.”

The president has a long relationship with Cuomo, a fellow Queens native who served as governor during Trump’s first White House term. Cuomo and Trump have denied reports that they have spoken about the mayoral race.

Cuomo lost to Mamdani by 12 points in the June primary. He has since acknowledged he ran a lackluster campaign but presented himself – and not Mamdani – as a true Democrat with the governing experience to deal with Trump.

Notably, key Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both from Brooklyn, have not endorsed Mamdani.

But Mamdani turned out huge numbers of younger voters in his primary victory and has started to win support or praise from other parts of the Democratic establishment.

CNN’s Issac Dovere contributed to this report.

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