Adams running for reelection as an independent

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced that he is running for reelection as an independent in the mayoral race, as he has faced long odds of being able to win as a Democrat. 

Observers had been watching for what Adams would do ahead of Thursday’s filing deadline for the race as he had not yet formally submitted his signatures to be on the ballot in the Democratic primary. He previously said he would run as a Democrat and was collecting signatures, but questions lingered.

"I have always put New York’s people before politics and party—and I always will," he said early Thursday in a post on social platform X. "I am running for mayor in the general election because our city needs independent leadership that understands working people."

Adams revealed his plans in an interview on Monday with Politico, which first reported his independent candidacy.

The mayor said in a video posted on X that the "bogus" criminal case against him dragged on too long, causing a primary campaign to be impossible to mount.

"But I'm not a quitter, I'm a New Yorker," he said. "And that is why today, though I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forego the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent in the general election."

The news comes a day after a federal judge formally dismissed the corruption case against Adams following the Justice Department’s request in February that the charges be dropped. The case alleged the embattled mayor had for years sought and accepted bribes from wealthy foreign businesspeople and a Turkish government official in exchange for favors. 

Adams has maintained his innocence and argued without evidence that the case was politically motivated because of his criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. 

At the end of brief remarks he gave Wednesday reacting to the case being dropped, Adams responded to a reporter’s question about the election by saying he was running and would win. But with the Democratic primary less than three months away, he had barely taken any public steps to indicate he’s launching a campaign. 

The Big Apple mayor hadn’t participated in any forums for Democratic candidates, hadn’t held campaign events and only raised small amounts of money relative to the other major candidates in the race. That, along with the significant hurdle he would likely face winning the Democratic nomination, raised speculation that he would seek reelection outside the Democratic primary. 

Despite emphasizing his innocence, his already-poor approval rating plummeted since he was indicted in September, and a majority of New Yorkers have consistently said in polling that they believe he should resign. 

Adams has also trailed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) as the party frontrunner in recent polling, usually receiving support in the high single digits or low double digits. State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (D) has begun overtaking Adams for second place more recently. 

But he may still have significant difficulty running a successful independent campaign in the heavily Democratic city with such low favorability ratings. A recent survey from Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill found Adams well behind in a hypothetical three-way matchup with Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the 2021 GOP nominee who is running again. 

Cuomo, who officially entered the race last month, led with 43 percent to Sliwa’s 13 percent and Adams’s 11 percent. 

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg won reelection in 2009 as an independent, but the Republican Party did not nominate another candidate and gave him its party line on the ballot. Bloomberg was also much more popular than Adams currently is.

Adams, despite seemingly warming up to the Trump administration in recent weeks, had already ruled out switching to the Republicans.

Updated at 8:50 a.m. EDT.