Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to continue his longshot independent reelection bid on Friday afternoon despite sagging poll numbers against socialist frontrunner and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Adams, who has maintained for weeks that he would not exit the race, denied reports that he is considering taking a job in the Trump administration in a fiery press conference. His decision to stay in the race, pinned on his dislike for fellow independent candidate, former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, could doom an effort from anti-Mamdani forces to stave off a socialist victory in November.
“Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar,” Adams told a crowd of reporters. “I am in this race and I’m the only one that can beat Mamdani.”
Adams has faced considerable pressure to suspend his campaign as poor polling numbers and several corruption scandals clouded his path to victory. Some Republicans, centrist Democrats and New York business community leaders sweating over the prospect of a socialist mayor are attempting to narrow the field in an effort to unify the anti-Mamdani electorate around one candidate.
President Donald Trump has offered support for narrowing the number of candidates in the election. “If you have more than two candidates, you have a communist mayor of New York,” he told reporters on Friday, shortly after Adams announced his intention to stay in the race.
The president on Thursday evening called Mamdani a “communist” that needs to be defeated.
Trump’s advisors reportedly floated nominating Adams to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia to incentivize the incumbent mayor to pump the brakes on his longshot reelection bid. The president’s team has also offered Adams a position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Politico first reported.
Adams denied considering taking a job in this administration, claiming that he is committed to see the race through until election day.
“There’s a lot of reports that I’m in Washington on Monday,” Adams said. “Those reports are wrong. I’m not. I’ll be moving throughout this city, the five boroughs that made me mayor in the first place.”
Mamdani, the 33 year-old democratic socialist state lawmaker, is running with the Democratic Party’s backing after defeating Cuomo, 67, in the primary contest in June. He trolled Adams’ announcement on X by tweeting a clip from the movie “The Wolf Of Wall Street” of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character shouting “I’m not fucking leaving.”
The incumbent mayor notched just 7% of the vote behind Mamdani with 50%, Cuomo at 22% and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa at 13%, according to a July Zenith & Public Progress poll that was commissioned by an advisor to Mamdani’s primary campaign.
Some Republicans view Mamdani serving as New York City’s next mayor to be a useful foil for the GOP during the midterms. The National Republican Congressional Committee, House Republicans’ campaign arm, released a video in August featuring Mamdani that accused Democrats of wanting to “turn America into a socialist, crime-filled dystopia.”
The Empire State’s top Democratic officials including Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumerand House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have thus far declined to endorse Mamdani’s campaign.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who contributed to a Cuomo-aligned super PAC only to later endorse Adams’ candidacy after the former governor’s stunning loss to Mamdani in the primary contest, called on Adams to exit the race on Thursday.
“Eric’s polls have deteriorated substantially since the primary, and it has become increasingly clear that he does not have a chance to beat @ZohranKMamdani,” Ackman wrote on the social media platform X.
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