Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
After months of speculation about the status of his largely dormant and seemingly doomed reelection campaign, New York City mayor Eric Adams announced that he is no longer seeking the Democratic nomination and will, instead, run as an independent candidate in the general election. His announcement comes just one day after U.S. District Judge Dale Ho officially dismissed the federal government’s pending corruption case against him, which accused Adams of soliciting illegal bribes from foreign nationals in exchange for luxury travel perks.
In a six-minute direct-to-camera video shared to social media on April 3, Adams said that more than 25,000 city residents signed his Democratic petition, but the drawn-out process of dismissing the case against him made it impossible to mount a reelection campaign for the June 24 primary. The mayor said that while he’s running as an independent, he still identifies as a Democrat.
— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) April 3, 2025
“I firmly believe that this city is better served by truly independent leadership, not leaders pulled at by the extremists on the far left or the far right. But, instead, those rooted in the common middle, the place where the vast majority of New Yorkers are firmly planted,” Adams said.
Adams once again professed his innocence, but he acknowledged the impact the corruption charges have had on his reputation with New York voters. “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,” he said. “And let me be clear, although the charges against me were false, I trusted people I should not have, and I regret that.”
The mayor then turned to the other candidates in the race, urging voters to check their records on addressing their concerns with public safety and rising costs. Without naming anyone directly, Adams said some of his opponents opposed the creation of new housing or the addition of more police officers while advocating for it now in their campaigns. In a not-so-subtle dig against former governor Andrew Cuomo, the current mayoral front-runner, Adams said that some of his challengers “sat at home and did nothing.”
“All the candidates will tell you that they have solutions to all that. You should hear them out. But you should also ask them where they were and what they did over the last four years to address those concerns before they were running for more,” he said.
While running as an independent will give Adams more time to make his case to New Yorkers, it’s not immediately clear if his reelection chances will improve. A recent Data for Progress poll showed Cuomo receiving 39 percent of the vote in the first round of ranked-choice voting, followed by Queens assemblymember Zohran Mamdani with 15 percent and comptroller Brad Lander with 8 percent. Adams trailed behind in fourth place, receiving only 7 percent.
As news of Adams’s reelection shift spread, the mayor’s mayoral challengers began to weigh in on his decision. In a statement, Mamdani said, “Regardless of what party Adams flees to, New Yorkers deserve better than a self-interested, disgraced mayor who has and always will put his needs before their own.”
Brooklyn state senator Zellnor Myrie similarly criticized Adams’s move, invoking Cuomo and the president. ““Let me get this straight. Donald Trump’s doing his best every day to destroy our country. Andrew Cuomo’s trying to use our city for own personal redemption tour. And now Eric Adams… don’t even get me started. This isn’t leadership, this is a circus,” he said.
Lander resurfaced an old social media post that predicted that Adams could translate his local success following his 2021 mayoral win to a future Democratic Party presidential nomination. “This aged well,” he quipped.
