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Mayor Adams’s campaign was left foundering after repeated scandals, a federal indictment and his courtship of President Trump.
Sept. 28, 2025, 1:08 p.m. ET
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City announced on Sunday that he would abandon his foundering campaign for a second term, upending the race to lead the nation’s largest city just five weeks before Election Day.
Mr. Adams had publicly insisted that he would see his campaign through despite dismal poll numbers. But behind the scenes, he was exploring potential exit ramps to avoid an embarrassing finish, with his advisers at one point engaging in negotiations with President Trump’s about an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia.
Those talks fell apart, and on Sunday, Mr. Adams called it quits in a nearly nine-minute video message posted to social media. He gave no indication that he had a specific job lined up after he leaves office.
Instead, in remarks prepared for delivery, the mayor conceded that despite his best efforts, he could not see a path to a second term. He blamed “repeated rumors of my departure” and a decision by the city’s Campaign Finance Board to deny him public matching funds for throttling his campaign.
Rather than endorsing one of his rivals, Mr. Adams urged voters to view both Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner, and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-party candidate, with suspicion.
Without naming Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, the mayor warned that “insidious forces” were pushing “radical, divisive agendas” in city politics.
