New York City Mayor Eric Adams withdrew from the city’s Democratic primary on Thursday and said he would instead run for reelection as an independent, a move intended to buy him time to save a campaign deeply wounded by a bribery scandal and liberal anger over his warm relationship with President Donald Trump.
In a video announcement, Adams said he will not run in the Democratic primary in June because his recently dismissed criminal case “dragged on too long” while the “false accusations were held over me,” preventing him from campaigning.
The decision came after intense speculation over whether Adams would remain in the Democratic primary, which has attracted several serious opponents, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In a practical sense, the move will allow Adams to skip directly to the general election in November, giving him more time to campaign unencumbered by the weight of his criminal charges. But it will also further distance Adams from the city’s heavily Democratic electorate and party organization, potentially weakening his chances of winning a second term.
The mayor, who had not formed much of a formal reelection apparatus, has struggled to raise money in recent months and suffered a blow when he was denied access to millions of dollars in public matching funds for his campaign because of questions about gaps in his recordkeeping.