{"id":215660,"date":"2025-09-10T14:06:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/215660\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T14:06:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:06:26","slug":"why-is-eric-adams-staying-in-the-mayors-race-despite-low-polls-experts-offer-a-few-possible-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/215660\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Eric Adams staying in the mayor\u2019s race despite low polls? Experts offer a few possible reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Eric Adams declared last Friday<\/a> that he is staying in the New York City mayor\u2019s race because he is the only candidate who can defeat Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am running, and I\u2019m going to beat Mamdani, and I\u2019m going to continue the success that the city has witnessed,\u201d Adams said during the news conference at Gracie Mansion \u2014 the mayoral residence \u2014 amid reports that he had been moving closer to scoring a plum post<\/a> in President Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Four days later, a poll released by Siena College and The New York Times<\/a> found that just 9% of surveyed voters supported the incumbent mayor. The poll seemed to line up with many other recent polls,<\/a> with Adams running third or fourth and\/or with single-digit support.<\/p>\n

As it stands right now \u2014 and as the Siena\/New York Times poll showed \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Eric Adams addresses supporters at his Harlem campaign office on Aug. 20, 2025, attacking opponents over rent-stabilized apartments and touting his administration\u2019s affordable housing recordPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud
\nOne theory: Leverage for Adams<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstandably, he is trying to maximize the power of incumbency until his term ends at midnight on Dec. 31,\u201d Frydman told amNewYork. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to maintain his position in these apparent negotiations with the Trump administration about his next job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mayor was also reportedly\u00a0<\/a>set to travel<\/a> to Washington, D.C., at some point this week to meet with Trump\u2019s advisers again.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the possibility that Adams could accept a job offer in the private sector<\/a>, according to the Daily News, as a reward for suspending his campaign and putting rival Cuomo in a better position to defeat Mamdani.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cspoiled brats\u201d \u2014 referencing their privileged backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Another theory: Spite<\/p>\n

One Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter freely, said spite for Cuomo might be a \u201csignificant motivator\u201d for Adams\u2019s remaining in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sees Andrew Cuomo as someone who has wronged him, and he doesn\u2019t view being a spoiler for Cuomo as a bug, but a feature of his campaign,\u201d the strategist said of Adams. \u201cHe will prevent Andrew Cuomo, who he thinks boxed him out of the primary and a chance to win reelection, from being elected mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams called Cuomo \u201ca snake and a liar\u201d during his Friday remarks and asserted he is the latest victim in the former governor\u2019s pattern of undermining Black rivals\u2019 political campaigns.<\/p>\n

Cuomo on Tuesday told reporters that it \u201cisn\u2019t accurate or true\u201d that he spoiled the chances of Black pols, including former Gov. David Paterson and former state Comptroller Carl McCall, for his own political gain.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

Still another theory: Controlling the narrative<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needed to say something because the reports were too frequent and becoming too detailed about what deal was being offered,\u201d Smikle said. \u201cIt was important for him to come out and say something, just to keep the conversation from escalating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smikle said it is also \u201cconceivable\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat actually tracks with where most elected officials are,\u201d Smikle said. \u201cParticularly if they\u2019ve been in office for a long time, if they\u2019re going to lose, they want to lose it on a field of battle. They don\u2019t want to step aside unless it\u2019s 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\u2019s something that he\u2019s going to have to reconcile within his own career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the theories and speculation, Shapiro, speaking on behalf of the Adams campaign, said the mayor isn\u2019t budging from the race at all.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor had a press saying he\u2019s conference staying in the race,\u201d Shapiro told amNewYork in a Tuesday interview. \u201cYou can\u2019t believe political experts because during the primary Mamdani wouldn\u2019t have won. Don\u2019t count out Eric Adams; he\u2019s in it to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Eric Adams declared last Friday that he is staying in the New York City mayor\u2019s race because…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":215661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[40294,5229,5297,13572,117862,117863,5288,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-215660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2025-mayors-race","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-andrew-cuomo","11":"tag-assembly-member-zohran-mamdani","12":"tag-basil-smikle","13":"tag-ken-frydman","14":"tag-mayor-eric-adams","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115180390884507242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}