Eric Adams Will Run for NYC Mayor as an Independent

“Although I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forgo the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent candidate in the general election,” he said.

In the video, Mr. Adams denied the corruption allegations, but acknowledged that he 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 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, significantly jeopardizes 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. While it may be too early to know how Mr. Adams’s exit will affect the race, Mr. Cuomo’s moderate stances seem closest to Mr. Adams’s.

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. Indeed, Mr. Adams, in public and private conversations, had long maintained that he still had a path to victory, even contemplating running as a Republican.

Mr. Cuomo has sought to capitalize on Mr. Adams’s fall, securing a flurry of endorsements and campaign donations from many of the mayor’s allies.

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.

Ruth Messinger, the Democratic nominee for mayor in 1997, said that it would be difficult for Mr. Adams to win in the general election and 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, who is weighing which of the left-leaning candidates to support, 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.

The dismissal appeared to have invigorated Mr. Adams, who spoke defiantly in his first comments after the judge’s decision. Standing outside Gracie Mansion on Wednesday, he sought to assure New Yorkers that he did nothing wrong and was ready to move on. As he left, the mayor told reporters that he would run for a second term and predicted, “I’m going to win.”

The judge’s decision to permanently dismiss his 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 during the final months of his term.

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

Beyond his criminal case, several other investigations into his inner circle led to a series of resignations last fall. 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.

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 showed him in third or fourth place in the Democratic primary behind Mr. Cuomo and left-leaning candidates.

George Arzt, a former aide to Mayor Edward I. Koch who has known Mr. Adams for decades, put his chances of winning at 1 percent or less.

“He’s not a legitimate contender,” he said.

Ester R. Fuchs, a political science professor at Columbia University and a former adviser to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, agreed: “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.”

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.

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 after serving as a state senator and the Brooklyn borough president.

Last 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.

He found empathy from Mr. Trump, who 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.

Mr. Adams has spoken repeatedly about the importance of securing a second term, lamenting how the city’s first Black mayor, David N. Dinkins, 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 becoming mayor was the “thrill of a lifetime” and said 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.”