New York City Mayor Eric Adams drops out of mayoral race

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday announced that he is dropping his third-party bid for re-election, narrowing the field for November’s election. Adams posted a video on X, saying, “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my re-election campaign.” In the video that was nearly of nine minutes, Adams said, “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.”

A source close to the mayor said that his dropping out was “unfortunate” as “his policies were best for this city.” Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said that he would like to see two candidates in the mayoral election leave the race to boost the chances of defeating Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one on one,” Trump said at a White House dinner. “I think that’s a race that could be won.”

“I don’t think you can win unless you have one on one, because somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead,” Trump added. “I don’t like to see a communist become mayor, I will tell you that.”

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Adams also appealed his successor to “continue the work we started, lowering the cost of living, investing in quality of life and staying laser-focused on reducing crime and disorder through investments in policing, mental health, substance abuse care, homelessness services and community-based initiatives.”

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Though Adams did not make any endorsement in the video, but he appeared to take a swipe at Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a state legislator, arguing that “extremism is growing in our politics.”

“Too often, insidious forces use local government to advance divisive agendas with little regard for how it hurts everyday New Yorkers,” he said. “Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer to destroy the very system we built together over generations. That is not change, that is chaos,” he added.

Adams’ announcement comes after weeks of speculation that he could exit the race and help consolidate non-Mamdani support behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also running a third-party bid for mayor.

Adams’ name will still be on ballots since he exited the race after a deadline to print them. But he has not been a major factor in the race as multiple recent public polls showed him in a distant fourth place, with Mamdani staked to a double-digit lead ahead of Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

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Adams was elected as a Democrat in 2021, but, earlier this year, he decided to seek re-election as an independent after facing federal corruption charges and then seeing them dropped by Trump’s Department of Justice, which argued that it needed Adams’ cooperation on the president’s immigration and deportation agenda.

Adams was indicted on federal charges, including bribery and campaign finance violations, in September 2024. The Department of Justice alleged that he “used his prominent positions in New York City government to obtain illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel.”