Eric Adams announced Thursday that he won’t seek the Democratic nomination for mayor and instead run as an independent in this fall’s general election — a move that drastically reshapes the dynamic of the race.
Adams, who just earlier this week claimed he would vie for the Democratic nod, attributed his abrupt shift to Wednesday’s dismissal of his federal corruption indictment, which has still left him severely politically vulnerable.
“The dismissal of the bogus case against me dragged on too long, making it impossible to mount a primary campaign while these false accusations were held over me, but I’m not a quitter I am a New Yorker and that is why today, although I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forego the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent candidate,” he said in a pre-recorded video released by his campaign.
The announcement comes as the embattled Democratic incumbent has faced significant challenges. His approval ratings have plummeted to historic lows, his fundraising has all but screeched to a halt, he has little visible campaign infrastructure, and critics and former allies alike have raised concerns that he’s beholden to President Trump because of the administration’s successful efforts to drop his federal corruption indictment.
In his video announcement, Adams maintained that he has done nothing wrong, but for one of the first times expressed regret in the context of his indictment, the first against a sitting New York City mayor in modern history.
“I know that the accusations leveled against me may have shaken your confidence in me and that you may rightly have questions about my conduct, and let me be clear, although the charges against me were false, I trusted people I should not have, and I regret that,” he said.
The switch to an independent run comes after Adams has fared poorly for months in polls of the Democratic mayoral primary set for June 24, typically placing third or fourth in most surveys, a low ranking for a sitting mayor.
Running as an independent will give him more time to both build up his campaign coffers and convince voters to support him in the November election for four more years.
But it also sets up a four-way general election between Adams, whoever clinches the Democratic nomination, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and fellow independent Jim Walden.
New York City is deep blue politically, and in recent decades, winners of Democratic mayoral primaries typically go on to become the head of City Hall. Candidates running on independent ballot lines have historically not fared well in local citywide elections.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has consistently polled as the front-runner to win the Democratic primary, but there are more than a half dozen other candidates vying for the nomination, too, including Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, City Comptroller Brad Lander and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
The mayor had previously expressed openness to run as an independent, telling reporters earlier this week “as the process moves forward, you’ll see our announcement” when asked whether he is running in the Democratic primary.
“When I’m ready to roll out my official reannouncement and my plan, I will do so, and I’m going to make sure all of you are invited to it,” Adams said at a City Hall press conference in March when he was asked if he was considering running as an independent if he didn’t get enough signatures to get on the June primary ballot.
Adams has flipped party affiliation before. In the mid-1990s, he became a registered Republican, only to flip back to Democrat in the early 2000s before running successfully for his first elected position as a state senator representing central Brooklyn.
After his September indictment, Adams attempted to cozy up to Trump by refusing to criticize him, meeting with him several times and even hopping on a last-minute late night bus to attend his inauguration in January.
It appears that work paid off, at least in securing the legal victory for Adams in having his case dismissed, but political observers say that it also took a hit to his reelection prospects.
“People often say, ‘Well, you know, you don’t sound like a Democrat, you seem that you’ve left the party,’” Adams told Tucker Carlson during a January interview. “No. The party left me.”
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