Mayor Eric Adams declared last Friday that he is staying in the New York City mayor’s race because he is the only candidate who can defeat Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
“I am running, and I’m going to beat Mamdani, and I’m going to continue the success that the city has witnessed,” Adams said during the news conference at Gracie Mansion — the mayoral residence — amid reports that he had been moving closer to scoring a plum post in President Trump’s administration.
Four days later, a poll released by Siena College and The New York Times found that just 9% of surveyed voters supported the incumbent mayor. The poll seemed to line up with many other recent polls, with Adams running third or fourth and/or with single-digit support.
As it stands right now — and as the Siena/New York Times poll showed — Mamdani leads the four-person field with a plurality, and the candidates opposing him must consolidate behind the strongest polling amongst them, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to have a chance at defeating him.
If the surveys are right, Adams appears to have little to no chance of winning re-election in the crowded contest against Mamdani, Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. That begs the question: Why is Hizzoner staying in a race in which, in all likelihood, he will lose?
Mayor Eric Adams addresses supporters at his Harlem campaign office on Aug. 20, 2025, attacking opponents over rent-stabilized apartments and touting his administration’s affordable housing recordPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud
One theory: Leverage for Adams
Veteran political consultant Ken Frydman said Adams has yet to exit the race because he is leveraging his position as the incumbent mayor to secure the best landing spot possible once his term concludes at the end of the year.
“Understandably, he is trying to maximize the power of incumbency until his term ends at midnight on Dec. 31,” Frydman told amNewYork. “He’s trying to maintain his position in these apparent negotiations with the Trump administration about his next job.”
Adams met with top Trump adviser Steve Witkoff in Florida last week, his spokesperson Todd Shapiro confirmed on Friday, to discuss job opportunities within the Trump administration, according to several published reports. He was even offered an unspecified post at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Politico reported last week, and is being considered to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported.
The mayor was also reportedly set to travel to Washington, D.C., at some point this week to meet with Trump’s advisers again.
There’s also the possibility that Adams could accept a job offer in the private sector, according to the Daily News, as a reward for suspending his campaign and putting rival Cuomo in a better position to defeat Mamdani.
All of that came before Adams hastily convened the Friday press conference to tell reporters that he is not going anywhere. He spent much of that address blasting both Mamdani and Cuomo as “spoiled brats” — referencing their privileged backgrounds.
Another theory: Spite
One Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter freely, said spite for Cuomo might be a “significant motivator” for Adams’s remaining in the race.
“He sees Andrew Cuomo as someone who has wronged him, and he doesn’t view being a spoiler for Cuomo as a bug, but a feature of his campaign,” the strategist said of Adams. “He will prevent Andrew Cuomo, who he thinks boxed him out of the primary and a chance to win reelection, from being elected mayor.”
Adams called Cuomo “a snake and a liar” during his Friday remarks and asserted he is the latest victim in the former governor’s pattern of undermining Black rivals’ political campaigns.
Cuomo on Tuesday told reporters that it “isn’t accurate or true” that he spoiled the chances of Black pols, including former Gov. David Paterson and former state Comptroller Carl McCall, for his own political gain.
The mayor has also slammed Cuomo for running against him in the general election after privately saying he would not compete in a field that includes him.
Still another theory: Controlling the narrative
Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former state Democratic Party chair, said that while Adams may still be exploring job prospects, he had to say he was staying in the race last week in order to get control over the reported rumors about it.
“He needed to say something because the reports were too frequent and becoming too detailed about what deal was being offered,” Smikle said. “It was important for him to come out and say something, just to keep the conversation from escalating.”
Smikle said it is also “conceivable” that even if Adams is entertaining offers, he is staying in the race because he wants to go down fighting. Furthermore, the mayor may be concerned about the optics of taking a job with Trump, who is quite unpopular in the five boroughs.
“That actually tracks with where most elected officials are,” Smikle said. “Particularly if they’ve been in office for a long time, if they’re going to lose, they want to lose it on a field of battle. They don’t want to step aside unless it’s for something extraordinary. At the end of the day, the story will not be that he stepped aside for the good of the city, the story will be he stepped aside to join the Trump administration. And that’s something that he’s going to have to reconcile within his own career.”
Despite the theories and speculation, Shapiro, speaking on behalf of the Adams campaign, said the mayor isn’t budging from the race at all.
“The mayor had a press saying he’s conference staying in the race,” Shapiro told amNewYork in a Tuesday interview. “You can’t believe political experts because during the primary Mamdani wouldn’t have won. Don’t count out Eric Adams; he’s in it to win it.”