Mayor Eric Adams talking at a Harlem occasion on Sept. 25, 2025. On Sunday, he introduced he was abandoning his re-election bid.
Benny Polatseck | Mayoral Pictures Workplace
Eric Adams will formally be a one-term mayor.
Hizzoner introduced on Sunday, based on a number of printed reviews, that he’s suspending his impartial re-election marketing campaign. The marketing campaign had seemingly slowed to a crawl in latest days after being repeatedly denied public marketing campaign financing and polling in final place for weeks within the four-way race.
“It’s been an honor to be your mayor,” Adams mentioned in a video announcement, based on a New York Publish report, which cited a transcript of a video the Adams marketing campaign is because of launch. “I know I cannot continue my campaign … “I strongly encourage whoever takes over City Hall to continue what we’ve done.”
Adams’ withdrawal got here after an MSNBC interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday during which the mayor refused to decide to staying within the race, saying he would quickly “make the right decision for the city of New York.”
The bombshell announcement modifications the complexion of the NYC mayoral race, successfully making it a three-person contest between Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, impartial candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Polls have had Mamdani forward, however with out majority help amongst voters.
With Adams now out of the image, Cuomo has the chance to consolidate help and acquire floor on Mamdani — as each Adams and Cuomo had largely courted average and impartial voters. However with Sliwa nonetheless within the race, latest polls counsel the affect on the ultimate final result of the competition could possibly be minimal.
The tremors of this political earthquake started earlier this month when The New York Instances first reported that the Trump administration had approached each Adams and Sliwa with job provides to get each candidates out of the race. It appeared to mirror the president’s needs for the mayoral race; Trump mentioned he most well-liked the competition to be “a one-on-one contest” between Mamdani, whom he disparaged as a “communist,” and one other competitor.
Adams repeatedly denied these reviews; at a hastily-called press convention at Gracie Mansion on Sept. 5, the mayor insisted he would keep within the race to the very finish, charging that he was the one one within the discipline who might beat Mamdani.
The president’s advisers reportedly additionally provided Sliwa a job, however the Republican nominee has mentioned he was not contacted by the White Home and wouldn’t take a publish within the administration if provided one.
Mamdani, in the meantime, has charged that Cuomo has been actively working with the president to higher his place within the race. Cuomo denied the accusations and, on Thursday, mentioned he didn’t need Trump’s assist — however that Adams’ and Sliwa’s determination to stay within the race was finally as much as every candidate.
Adams’ announcement ends a marketing campaign that started in the summertime after the incumbent mayor stayed out of the Democratic main. His recognition tanked in latest months following a corruption indictment a yr and two days in the past that the Trump Justice Division had dropped earlier this yr underneath doubtful circumstances.
In most polls, Adams had been lagging far behind Mamdani, and even behind Sliwa, gaining in some circumstances solely single-digit help from voters.
Adams was the second Black mayor of New York Metropolis when he took workplace in 2022. Like the primary Black mayor, David Dinkins, his time at Gracie Mansion might be confined to only one four-year time period.
Although Adams is now out of the race, his title will stay on the poll within the Nov. 4 common election, because the deadline for eradicating names has since handed.
It is a creating story; examine with amNY.com for additional updates.