Jim Walden, an impartial candidate in New York Metropolis’s mayoral race, introduced Tuesday that he was suspending his marketing campaign, whereas urging his fellow candidates to unite towards the Democratic major winner, Zohran Mamdani.
“For those still trailing in the polls by month’s end, I implore each to consider how history will judge them if they allow vanity or stubborn ambition to usher in Mr. Mamdani,” Walden wrote in a press release asserting his exit.
He warned that Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, would symbolize a “Trojan Horse taking on Metropolis Corridor,” adding that time was “slipping away” for an alternate possibility to achieve momentum within the crowded subject.
Walden, an legal professional who has represented Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and blended martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, had positioned himself as a free-market technocrat within the mould of former New York Metropolis Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
However he struggled to register amongst voters already contending with a number of acquainted names: present New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
Walden final month issued a “drop out challenge” to these three candidates, arguing that they’d maximize their odds of beating Mamdani in the event that they collectively agreed to consolidate behind whoever was main within the polls come fall.
Not one of the candidates agreed to the proposal, although each Adams and Cuomo have known as on the opposite to drop out.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, praised Walden for “putting aside ego and ambition,” adding that the decision “underscores the existential threat our city faces in Zohran Mamdani.”
A spokesperson for Adams’ marketing campaign, Todd Shapiro, stated the mayor had no plans of dropping out and was “focused on the future — delivering results and leading this city forward.”
Mamdani’s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, stated in a press release: “While support of Zohran’s vision for an affordable New York continues to grow across all five boroughs, the billionaire class is narrowing their selection process — and Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams are pulling out all the stops to charm them alongside Donald Trump.”
