Mayor Eric Adams will drop out of the June Democratic primary and instead run for re-election as an independent, he said Thursday. The announcement comes a day after a federal judge dismissed the case against him and reflects the reality that he has become deeply unpopular among the city’s Democratic voter base.
In a six-minute video posted to social media, Adams confirmed weeks of speculation about his plans, saying that “there isn’t a liberal or conservative way to fix New York, but there is a right way and a wrong way.”
“Though I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forgo the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent candidate in the general election,” Adams said.
He said he had collected 25,000 signatures to appear in the June 24 primary, but that the time it took for a judge to dismiss his case had made it impossible for him to mount a true campaign.
To reach the November general election ballot, Adams must submit 3,750 voter signatures by May 27.
Should his efforts be successful, they would transform New York’s usually sleepy general elections into a lively three-way contest between the winner of the Democratic primary — in which former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is currently a heavy favorite — and the Republican nominee, which is likely to be Curtis Sliwa. But the mayor still has a remote chance of victory in a city where Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans and independents.
His decision marks a significant shift for a man who once called himself the “future of the Democratic Party,” but has seen his star fall in the wake of his corruption indictment, governing struggles, and other investigations that ensnared some of his top aides. Still, Adams has long been a conservative Democrat who sparred with his party’s liberal wing, and seemed to foreshadow his decision in a January interview with right-wing media star Tucker Carlson, in which Adams said that the Democratic Party “left me, and it left working-class people.”
Cuomo may benefit electorally from Adams’ dropout. Since the two share a base of Black outer-borough voters, the mayor’s withdrawal from the primary could give Cuomo an even clearer path to victory.
In his announcement video, Adams acknowledged that his criminal case had shaken voters’ confidence — and came closer than ever before to apologizing for his conduct, saying that “although the charges against me were false, I trusted people I should not have, and I regret that.”
In a preview of his campaign strategy, he also criticized the leading Democratic mayoral candidates. Adams said voters should “ask them where they were, what they did over the last four years to address” public safety and affordability.
“Some were advocating against more police, even if they are for them now. Some were fighting the pro-growth strategies of our administration. Some even sought to limit housing production,” he said. And, in a veiled attack on Cuomo’s record as governor, he added: “Some voted to give more of your tax dollars to other cities and towns in this state while refusing to change laws that let dangerous criminals run wild on our streets.”
“I humbly put my record up against any of these other candidates,” Adams said.
