When New Yorkers hit the polls in November, Jim Walden’s name will still be on the ballot alongside other candidates in the mayoral race.
Walden was running as an independent, but last week, he announced he was suspending his campaign.
The city Board of Elections, however, said Walden missed the deadline to apply to have his name removed from the ballot. Walden filed a petition to try to fight the decision, but Thursday, a judge ruled against him.
Walden urges his supporters to “stand behind the non-Mamdani frontrunner”
Walden’s campaign suspension came just days after a poll was released showing that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo could beat Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in a two-person race for mayor.
Walden, meanwhile, never rose above single-digit support in the polls.
“For months I have been steadfast in my view that, unless there is a one-on-one race in November, a Trojan Horse will take control of City Hall. I cannot spend more public money in the futile hope I am the one called to battle,” Walden wrote in a post on social media.
He urged incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa to also drop out if they continue to poll lower than Mamdani and Cuomo.
“As I have long said, please stand behind the non-Mamdani front runner as of October 1. Don’t vote for me. Any of the other candidates is better for New York City than an inexperienced radical. Of all times, now is not the time to lean further into leftwing extremism,” Walden said in a statement Thursday.
A poll released Tuesday shows Mamdani widening his lead over Cuomo in a four-candidate race, and still beating Cuomo, though by a narrower margin, in a hypothetical two-person race.