Mayor Eric Adams declared final Friday that he’s staying within the New York Metropolis mayor’s race as a result of he’s the one candidate who can defeat Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
4 days later, a ballot launched by Siena Faculty and The New York Instances discovered that simply 9% of surveyed voters supported the incumbent mayor. The ballot appeared to line up with many different latest polls, with Adams working third or fourth and/or with single-digit help.
Because it stands proper now — and because the Siena/New York Instances ballot confirmed — Mamdani leads the four-person subject with a plurality, and the candidates opposing him should consolidate behind the strongest polling amongst them, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to have an opportunity at defeating him.
If the surveys are proper, Adams seems to have little to no likelihood of profitable re-election within the crowded contest towards Mamdani, Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. That begs the query: Why is Hizzoner staying in a race by which, in all chance, he’ll lose?
Mayor Eric Adams addresses supporters at his Harlem marketing campaign workplace on Aug. 20, 2025, attacking opponents over rent-stabilized residences and touting his administration’s reasonably priced housing recordPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud
One concept: Leverage for Adams
Veteran political advisor Ken Frydman mentioned Adams has but to exit the race as a result of he’s leveraging his place because the incumbent mayor to safe the perfect touchdown spot doable as soon as his time period concludes on the finish of the yr.
“Understandably, he is trying to maximize the power of incumbency until his term ends at midnight on Dec. 31,” Frydman advised New York News. “He’s trying to maintain his position in these apparent negotiations with the Trump administration about his next job.”
Adams met with high Trump adviser Steve Witkoff in Florida final week, his spokesperson Todd Shapiro confirmed on Friday, to debate job alternatives inside the Trump administration, in keeping with a number of revealed experiences. He was even provided an unspecified put up on the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth, Politico reported final week, and is being thought-about to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, The New York Instances reported.
The mayor was additionally reportedly set to journey to Washington, D.C., in some unspecified time in the future this week to satisfy with Trump’s advisers once more.
All of that got here earlier than Adams unexpectedly convened the Friday press convention to inform reporters that he’s not going anyplace. He spent a lot of that deal with blasting each Mamdani and Cuomo as “spoiled brats” — referencing their privileged backgrounds.
One other concept: Spite
One Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to debate the matter freely, mentioned spite for Cuomo is perhaps a “significant motivator” for Adams’s remaining within the race.
“He sees Andrew Cuomo as someone who has wronged him, and he doesn’t view being a spoiler for Cuomo as a bug, but a feature of his campaign,” the strategist mentioned of Adams. “He will prevent Andrew Cuomo, who he thinks boxed him out of the primary and a chance to win reelection, from being elected mayor.”
Adams known as Cuomo “a snake and a liar” throughout his Friday remarks and asserted he’s the most recent sufferer within the former governor’s sample of undermining Black rivals’ political campaigns.
Cuomo on Tuesday advised reporters that it “isn’t accurate or true” that he spoiled the probabilities of Black pols, together with former Gov. David Paterson and former state Comptroller Carl McCall, for his personal political achieve.
The mayor has additionally slammed Cuomo for working towards him within the common election after privately saying he wouldn’t compete in a subject that features him.
Nonetheless one other concept: Controlling the narrative
Basil Smikle, a Columbia College professor and former state Democratic Get together chair, mentioned that whereas Adams should still be exploring job prospects, he needed to say he was staying within the race final week with the intention to get management over the reported rumors about it.
“He needed to say something because the reports were too frequent and becoming too detailed about what deal was being offered,” Smikle mentioned. “It was important for him to come out and say something, just to keep the conversation from escalating.”
Smikle mentioned it’s also “conceivable” that even when Adams is entertaining presents, he’s staying within the race as a result of he desires to go down preventing. Moreover, the mayor could also be involved in regards to the optics of taking a job with Trump, who is kind of unpopular within the 5 boroughs.
“That actually tracks with where most elected officials are,” Smikle mentioned. “Particularly if they’ve been in office for a long time, if they’re going to lose, they want to lose it on a field of battle. They don’t want to step aside unless it’s for something extraordinary. At the end of the day, the story will not be that he stepped aside for the good of the city, the story will be he stepped aside to join the Trump administration. And that’s something that he’s going to have to reconcile within his own career.”
Regardless of the theories and hypothesis, Shapiro, talking on behalf of the Adams marketing campaign, mentioned the mayor isn’t budging from the race in any respect.
“The mayor had a press saying he’s conference staying in the race,” Shapiro advised New York News in a Tuesday interview. “You can’t believe political experts because during the primary Mamdani wouldn’t have won. Don’t count out Eric Adams; he’s in it to win it.”
