New York City Mayor Eric Adams has deleted his re-elected bid. It is expected to help Andrew Cuomo’s former governor, but will it be enough to stop the mum ticks?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams ends his reelection campaign
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has finished his long shot bid to run over a second term leading the nation’s largest city.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on September 28 that he had dropped his bid for reelection raised hopes that Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, Zohran Mamdani, could be stopped by former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who has run independently after losing the Democratic primary to Mandani.
Adams, a centristic Democrat like Cuomo, had placed independent bids after a federal charge on corruption charges that were withdrawn by the Justice Department after Trump took office.
However, if Republican candidate Curtis Swawa stays in the race, it’s unlikely that Cuomo will take the lead in Mamdani in recent polls.
Adams made a late exit
Basel Smickle, a professor at Columbia University and former director of the New York Democrats, said Adams’ decision to leave the race four weeks before early voting begins makes it difficult for Cuomo to his advantage. In fact, Adams’s name is still visible in the polls because it’s too late to be removed.
Smikle pointed to Mamdani’s major June uprising, consistently high votes, and more recently a wave of well-known support from former vice president Kamala Harris, Gov. Kathy Hochul and major community organizations. The top two Democrats from New York City on the Council — Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader and Charles E. Schumer, the Senate minority leader.
“I think the overall story will remain the same,” he said. “Zohran (Mamdani) has a younger candidate who has revitalized the race as more founding candidates.”
In opinion polls, mum dani thinks a lot
A few weeks before Adams’ Sunday’s announcement, the poll raced an effective showdown between Mamdani and Cuomo. Adams followed two top runners for months, but Sliwa, who is already at a disadvantage in the famous blue city, failed to cover competitive figures.
Now, with Adams leaving the race, his vote share could fall to Cuomo.
The problem with Cuomo is that Adams’ support is smaller than Mamdani’s lead. In the three most recent major polls released within the last two weeks, Mamdani held a double-digit lead 21-18 percentage points ahead of Cuomo. The poll showed a wide range of three between the three surveys, with Adams with only 7-9% support, with 9%, 11% and 17%.
In a Quinnipiac University poll of voters in early July, pollers ran a number of hypothetical tripartite races as Adams escaped the run. They found that Cuomo earned the biggest bounty with a 6-point boost, but Mamdani scored 1 point and Swawa’s support percentage remains the same. That leaves Mamdani with 46% support among potential voters, and 46% support among Cuomo, 17% swawah with 30% of support.
A New York Times poll and analysis on September 9 estimated similar results, with Adams’ supporters likely to throw weight behind Cuomo. The analysis modeled a positive, bidirectional race between Cuomo and the mum tick. Its two-way model shows a very competitive race, with 48% supporting mum ticks and 44% supporting Cuomo.
Even if all Adams supporters gathered in Cuomo, Smikul said the former governor “is still a long way to go from filling that gap.”
Adams does not approve Cuomo
On September 5, news outlets reported that the Trump administration was considering serving Adams as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador. Adams initially said he had not received a formal offer and always wanted to be mayor of New York City, but declared his decision to leave the race on September 28th, with a nine-minute video address posted on X.
“A South Jamaican child who grew up with learning disabilities would have thought one day he would become mayor of the world’s largest city,” Adams said in his speech.
To “weak” his campaign, Adams promoted the administration’s policies on housing, crime, education and social services before denounced the media and independent urban institutions that manage the city’s campaign finance system. He also claimed he was “illegally charged for fighting for this city,” and that he referenced a now wise federal complaint, accusing the mayor in 2024 of accepting his country’s travels and political donations to take action that would benefit his country.
Adams did not support the candidate for the address, but appears to be veiled insults by Mamdani and his progressive platform, saying, “Extremism is growing in politics.”
In particular, Trump does not support Republican Curtis Swawa, the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol group.
Adams, the 65-year-old Democratic mayor who was elected in 2021, has been facing calls for dropping out of the race for months, plagued by scandals, resignation and allegations of corruption. That pressure came from Washington recently, and Trump pushed for a one-on-one race with Mamdani, 33, who represents part of Queens in the New York State Legislature.
The remaining three candidates in the race quickly issued a statement on September 28th in response to Adam’s news.
Mamdani, whose campaign focuses on living expenses in the city, has issued a video statement denounced the mayor’s record.
“A city that was already difficult has become nearly impossible for those who call it home,” he said. “But a new day is here. In the past year, tens of thousands of people have built the biggest grassroots campaign our city has ever seen. We knocked on millions of doors and made the city affordable. In just five weeks, we can turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and New Yorkers can be proud.”
A spokesman for Daniel Kurzyna Curtis Sliwa’s campaign did not mention Adams at all in response to the news.
“Curtis Swa is the only candidate who can defeat Mamdani,” Kurjina said. “Our team, our resources and funding are unparalleled. Most importantly, we have the best solution to help working people stay in New York City and feel safe.”
In a statement, Cuomo hit a different tone, but said he believes Adams “puts the happiness of New York City ahead of his personal ambitions.” Cuomo also said he could destroy New York City, adding that “it’s not too late to stop them,” but that it didn’t go into further details.
“Mayor Adams has a lot to be proud of his achievements,” Cuomo said in a statement on September 28th. “Only in New York, a child who grew up in a Bushwick tenement, who once worked as a squeegee boy and a postal clerk, becomes mayor. Whatever the difference we have, Eric Adams’ story is undoubtedly a testament to the resilience, the spirit of this city.”
Contribution: Eduardo Cuevas, US TOD.
Kathryn Palmer is a political reporter for USA Today. You can contact her kapalmer@usatoday.com And with x @Kathrynplmr.
