(The Center Square) — A defiant New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to stay in the race to secure re-election, despite trailing behind the top two candidates and a behind-the-scenes effort by President Donald Trump to influence the outcome of the November election.
Adams, a Democrat running a long-shot bid in the mayor’s race as an independent, said late Friday he won’t be dropping out and dismissed claims that the president has offered him a job in exchange for bowing out of the crowded race.
“Serving New Yorkers as their mayor is the only job I’ve ever wanted,” he said in a statement. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made lowering crime, improving schools, building housing, and cutting costs for working families — and I remain the best person to lead this city forward. I’m running, and I’m going to beat Mamdani.”
In remarks at a Friday afternoon press briefing, Adams took aim at both Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — both of whom are leading him in the latest polls — by calling them “spoiled brats” and criticizing their affluent upbringing in an appeal to working-class New Yorkers to rally behind him.
“They were born with silver spoons in their mouths, not like working-class New Yorkers,” he said. “I’m a working-class New Yorker. They are not like us. They never had to fight, they never had to struggle.”
Adams’ defiant comments came after Trump said at a Friday White House event he’d like to see two candidates drop out so that voters can unite behind one candidate against Mamdani, the presumptive favorite in the election since defeating Cuomo in the primary.
Recent news reports have detailed how intermediaries on behalf of Trump have approached Adams’ campaign and Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa with offers for an administration position in exchange for him dropping his independent run for re-election. One report by the New York Times suggested that Adams was offered a job as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Over the weekend, Cuomo attacked Mamdani for lacking political experience and pushing “extremist left-wing policies” that would hurt New York City and the nation’s democratic institutions in a fiery op-ed that called on voters to reject his “radical” socialist politics.
“Leadership here requires competence and experience. Mamdani has neither,” Cuomo wrote in the New York Daily News. “His positions shift as the wind blows because, while he decries politics as usual, he is the ultimate politician: a coreless vessel who will say anything to get elected. He is an existential threat to New York City and the Democratic Party.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul has reiterated her position that Trump should stay out of New York City politics and said she wants the Nov. 4 mayoral election to be free of “interference” by the White House and Trump’s intermediaries.
“Contrary to what the President thinks, he’s not a king. He’s not a kingmaker. And he should not be anointing the next Mayor of New York City,” Hochul said in a Friday statement. “That is the right of New Yorkers to determine.”
