Eric Adams to Run as an Independent, Skipping Democratic Primary

Mayor Eric Adams faced an uphill battle in the June 24 Democratic primary, which has drawn a crowded field of candidates. He will run for re-election as an independent instead.

Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said on Thursday that he would not run for re-election in the Democratic primary in June, an acknowledgment of the growing backlash against his embrace of President Trump and his record-low approval ratings.

Mr. Adams said he would instead run as an independent in the general election in November — an uphill battle in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one.

His announcement comes a day after the five-count federal corruption indictment that he faced was dismissed by a judge, following the Trump Justice Department’s decision to abandon the prosecution.

Mr. Adams released a six-minute video saying that the case had made it difficult for him to run in the June 24 primary. He said that he was still a Democrat but that he would “appeal directly to all New Yorkers” as an independent in the general election.

In the video, Mr. Adams again denied the corruption allegations, but acknowledged that he had made mistakes.

“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. “Let me be clear, although the charges against me were false, I trusted people that I should not have and I regret that.”

The collapse of the mayor’s primary campaign was a stunning setback for a charismatic leader who once called himself the “future of the Democratic Party.” But in recent months, as Mr. Adams publicly avoided criticizing Mr. Trump, he began to distance himself from party orthodoxy.

“People often say, ‘You don’t sound like a Democrat. You seem to have left the party,’” Mr. Adams said in a January interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality. “No, the party left me, and it left working-class people.”

The decision by Mr. Adams to abandon his bid for the Democratic ballot line, which was first reported by Politico, would seem to significantly dampen his hopes for a second term.

At least nine Democrats are seeking to replace him, including former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who leads in polls. Mr. Cuomo has secured a flurry of endorsements and campaign donations from many of the mayor’s allies.

The mayor’s announcement confirms what had been apparent for months. He had taken few concrete steps to launch a serious campaign. He did not hold campaign events or hire a campaign manager. Two key advisers refused to say if they would join his campaign again. His signature-gathering operation to get on the ballot was limited.

By bowing out now, the mayor will have more time to raise money and prepare for the general election. Mr. Adams, who contemplated running as a Republican, doubled down on his alliance with Mr. Trump on Wednesday, praising the book “Government Gangsters” by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who condemns federal officials whom he calls the “deep state.”

Mr. Adams has started to fiercely attack Mr. Cuomo, and the two men could face each other in the general election, along with Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels and the likely Republican candidate. Jim Walden, a lawyer and former prosecutor, is also planning to run as an independent.

Mr. Walden challenged Mr. Adams to a debate on Thursday. “Make no mistake,” he wrote on social media. “Eric Adams decided to follow in my footsteps out of desperation, not principle.”

Mr. Walden was one of the few candidates not present at a candidate forum on Thursday held by the Rev. Al Sharpton, the first such event attended by Mr. Adams this year. The candidates appeared one at a time, answering questions and highlighting their platforms.

Mr. Cuomo highlighted the infrastructure projects he completed as governor, and avoided any criticism of Mr. Adams. “They call it democracy,” Mr. Cuomo later told reporters. “Mayor Adams can run as an independent if he chooses.”

Mr. Adams defended his record as mayor, asserting that his legal case has “overshadowed our success.”

“I wanted to run in a Democratic primary, but I have to be realistic,” Mr. Adams said. “I have to let New Yorkers know what I have done.”

Ruth Messinger, the Democratic nominee for mayor in 1997, said that the winner of the Democratic primary would probably be the next mayor.

“It’s part of a pattern of Eric focusing on what might be good for Eric,” she said.

Ms. Messinger said that forcing voters to choose among Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Adams and Mr. Sliwa would be a “terrifying outcome.”

Mr. Adams had faced a deadline on Thursday to submit petitions to get on the primary ballot. He must still submit petitions to get on the ballot in November, but he will have months to distance himself from the corruption case.

But even before his indictment, Mr. Adams’s approval rating had fallen to record lows. His tenure has been marked by questions of ethics, management style, ideology and even honesty.

The mayor often boasted of his own swagger, but some voters questioned his late nights on the town and his integrity. He said he was vegan, then acknowledged that he ate fish. He said he long carried a photo of a fallen officer in his wallet; in fact, his staffers printed it from Google during his first weeks in office and stained it with coffee to make it look old.

By this year, only 20 percent of voters approved of Mr. Adams, and more than half said he should resign, according to a poll by Quinnipiac University. Some polls have shown him in third or fourth place in the Democratic primary behind Mr. Cuomo and left-leaning candidates, including Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, and Brad Lander, the city comptroller.

Ester R. Fuchs, a political science professor at Columbia University and a former adviser to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said the mayor had a difficult path ahead: “It’s nearly impossible to win on an independent line in the general election. I don’t see any path to victory for him given the baggage that he has.”

In the video posted Thursday, Mr. Adams mentioned a precedent from 1969 that he is hoping to replicate: John V. Lindsay, the incumbent mayor, lost the Republican primary, ran in the general election and won.

And two decades earlier, Vincent R. Impellitteri, who was serving as acting mayor, won an independent bid after losing the Democratic nomination to a candidate backed by Tammany Hall.

To follow their leads, Mr. Adams would have to reverse a decline in his political fortunes that began last year.

In September, he was indicted on five counts of bribery conspiracy, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Prosecutors accused him of helping fast-track the approval of a new high-rise Turkish Consulate in Manhattan, despite safety concerns, in exchange for unlawful donations and free and heavily discounted luxury travel.

Several other investigations into his inner circle led a series of officials to resign. Then, the respected technocrats he brought in to replace them resigned in February after Mr. Adams was accused of a quid pro quo with Mr. Trump to get his indictment dropped.

Mr. Adams has denied the quid pro quo and argued that the investigations of his administration were politically motivated. He has said that he should be judged by results: lower crime rates and higher job numbers.

Mr. Trump expressed an openness to pardoning the mayor and argued that both men had been the victims of political persecution. The mayor said he would not publicly criticize Mr. Trump, angering Democrats who have assailed the president’s agenda and his calls for mass deportations.

The judge’s decision to permanently dismiss Mr. Adams’s case — he did so with prejudice, meaning the Trump administration cannot revive the charges — could help the mayor’s contention that he is not beholden to Mr. Trump.

The mayor, a former police officer, has always been ideologically fluid. He was registered as a Republican for a period during the 1990s. In 2021, he ran for mayor as a Democrat on a public safety message.

As New York’s second Black mayor, Mr. Adams has spoken repeatedly about the importance of securing a second term, lamenting how David N. Dinkins, who was the city’s first Black mayor, only served one term.

But Mr. Dinkins, who lost his bid for a second term to Rudolph W. Giuliani, never confronted the investigations that Mr. Adams has faced.

Even the mayor appeared to be coming to terms with his limited path forward. He told reporters recently that his first term had been satisfying.

“That was the meat and potato,” he said. “Term 2 is the gravy. I have a full stomach with the meat and potatoes.”

Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.