On Sunday Sep. 28, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced in a video posted to X that he would discontinue his reelection campaign.

“The constant media speculation about my future and the campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams cited as his main reasons to drop out. 

Adams’ first term and his reelection campaign had been racked with scandals including a criminal indictment for allegedly abusing his position as mayor to receive free travel and illegal campaign funding. The path to victory for Adams narrowed when he lost the Democratic Party nomination to Zohran Mamdani. Adams ran the rest of his campaign as an independent. 

In recent polls from Quinnipiac, Adams was polling 3rd place behind frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. 70% of respondents stated Adams was not honest and 60% of respondents said no when asked if Adams “cares about the needs and problems of people like you.” 

“This city is overdue for a break from mayors that are in the pockets of billionaires that weaponize the police force to run a city that was only ever hurt by it. What New York needs is a mayor who understands what it means to live and breathe as a New Yorker,” Alexandra Zhgenti, New York resident and junior Political Science major at the University, commented.

Following the scandals, New Yorkers had been anticipating an election without an Adams victory, but it was not on their radar that he would withdraw, especially following several statements of his continued persistence to stay in the race.

“Well, yes, he wasn’t polling more than 10–12, 15% at best, and especially lately it’s around 10%, so he had no chance of winning, right? Cuomo has a better chance,” George Picoulas, a clinical assistant professor of political science at the University, stated. 

“He lost the nomination. He’s the sitting mayor, and this is very, very rare a precedent to lose your party’s nomination as a sitting mayor,” Picoulas added. 

Adams exiting the race raised the larger question of just how big a factor media coverage and public scrutiny could be in a candidate’s decision to withdraw.

“The mayor has been ineffective in many ways regarding policy, but also, he has a lot of problems with alleged corruption. The Trump administration decided to drop this. We don’t see this in politics, that a president interferes with an investigation of a political person like that,” Picoulas commented.

In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department made the request to have Adams’ case dismissed. Reports had circulated that Trump had been considering a nomination for Adams to be the ambassador to Saudi Arabia and have Adams leave the race to prevent Mamdani from winning the election. 

“The public noticed, you know, the corruption. Even if it’s an alleged corruption is not yet proven in the court of law, but we have eyes and ears and we see who’s doing what,” Picoulas stated. 

Now the question is, what does Adams’ drop from the mayoral race mean for Cuomo and Mamdani?

“It’s very hard to see this effect, or say with any sort of accuracy what the effect will be. It’s not automatic that Adams’ supporters will go to Cuomo, where some of them might go to Mamdani, and they don’t,” Picoulas commented. 

In addition to low polling, the indictment hindered Adams’ ability to run a successful re-election campaign, to some extent.

“Well, there were problems even before the official indictment of his performance and also his incorruptibility.. The indictment tipped the scale irreversibly against him,”  Picoulas noted. 

In the last mayoral election, roughly 11% of voters within the 18-29 bracket said voter fatigue has continued to be a presence amongst New Yorkers.  

“We all have to do some work to get young people actually registered and vote. It matters. Elections do matter, and elections have consequences, as we see on the local, state and federal levels. Regardless of your political affiliation and preferences,” Picoulas stated. 

Time will tell come Nov. 4 when voters will determine who will become the next New York City Mayor.