With eight weeks left in the race for New York City mayor, powerful interests — including New York City business leaders and advisers to President Trump — are feverishly trying to clear the field for a one-on-one matchup between Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner, and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

But in an interview at The New York Times’s headquarters on Tuesday, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee and one of the candidates facing pressure to exit the race, flatly refused to entertain the idea.

“No, no, no. A thousand times no,” Mr. Sliwa said. “I can’t be bought. I can’t be leased. I can’t be rented. I am not corruptible.”

As business leaders have lined up behind Mr. Cuomo since his loss to Mr. Mamdani in the Democratic primary, Mr. Trump’s advisers have discussed asking Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent and polling at the back of the pack, to suspend his campaign in exchange for a nomination as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

If Mr. Adams and Mr. Sliwa were to drop out, the contest between Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo would be much closer, according to a New York Times/Siena poll released on Tuesday.

But Mr. Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels crime patrol group and received the support of 15 percent of likely voters in the poll, said on Tuesday that leaving the race was not on the table.