NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams dropped his campaign for reelection on Sunday, providing a boost to rival candidate Andrew Cuomo, a centrist former New York governor and Israel supporter, against the anti-Israel frontrunner, progressive Zohran Mamdani.

Adams, a staunch supporter of Israel who has positioned himself as an advocate for the city’s Jewish communities, was polling far behind Cuomo and Mamdani ahead of the November 4 vote.

The incumbent was weighed down by his dealings with the Trump administration as well as corruption allegations in the city government and his inner circle. The accusations led to a federal indictment against Adams, which the Trump administration later dropped.

Adams announced that he was quitting the race in a lengthy video posted to social media, saying he no longer saw a path to victory, partly due to the city’s campaign finance board denying him matching funding for his run.

“Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams said. “I hope you will see, despite the headlines and innuendo, I always put you before me.”

The announcement by Adams came after months of speculation about whether he would remain in the race, amid heavy pressure on Mamdani’s challengers to narrow the field and consolidate moderate voters. Adams and Cuomo shared a similar base of moderate, Black and Jewish voters.

Adams, who was running as an independent, was generally polling in the single digits, so his departure is unlikely to upend the race, even if it does boost Cuomo’s chances.

The announcement narrows the race to three candidates — Mamdani, Cuomo, and the Republican Curtis Sliwa, who has vowed to remain in the race despite polling far behind his two rivals. The longshot candidate Jim Walden also dropped out earlier this year.

Despite ending his campaign, Adams’s name will remain on the ballot because the deadline to formally withdraw from the race has passed. His announcement means that he will no longer campaign or ask his supporters to vote for him. He will serve out the remainder of his single four-year term as mayor, which ends at the close of the year.

Adams did not endorse a rival in his announcement, but appeared to take aim at Mamdani, a far-left 33-year-old with little experience in government who has promised far-reaching changes if elected. Cuomo is a moderate with decades of experience in office, including serving 10 years as New York governor before resigning in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations.

“Too often, insidious forces use local government to advance divisive agendas with little regard for how it hurts everyday New Yorkers,” Adams said. “Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer [is] to destroy the very system we built.”

He added, “That is not change, that is chaos. Instead, I urge New Yorkers to choose leaders not by what they promise, but by what they have delivered.”

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani holds a campaign event with the healthcare workers’ union on September 24, 2025, outside of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/AFP)Adams made combating antisemitism a priority as mayor and was popular among parts of the city’s Jewish population, particularly in Brooklyn, where he served as a police officer and local elected official before becoming mayor. In recent months, he established an antisemitism task force in the mayor’s office, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, and established a New York-Israel business council.

He is a firm supporter of Israel, maintaining that position even as Israel has become increasingly unpopular among the public, according to polls. On Friday, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, saying he had thanked the premier for “defending the Western world and our way of life.”

In an illustration of the divide between Adams’s pro-Israel administration and the hostility of the current frontrunner, Mamdani accused Netanyahu of genocide after the UN speech. Mamdani has vowed to arrest the prime minister if he travels to New York, citing an International Criminal Court warrant on war crimes charges, though New York’s mayor likely lacks the authority to do so.

Cuomo has voiced some criticism of the war in Gaza in recent months, but generally maintained a pro-Israel line.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and antisemitism were major campaign issues ahead of the mayoral primary in June, but have receded since then. Candidates are more focused on everyday issues like affordability and crime. Adams sat out the primary to run in the general election as an independent.

Cuomo lost the primary to Mamdani in a stunning upset and is now also running as an independent in the general election. As the Democratic Party candidate, Mamdani is the heavy favorite and is far ahead in polls.

Cuomo applauded Adams in a Sunday statement, saying his choice to drop out “was not an easy one, but I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition.”

“We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them,” Cuomo said.

Mamdani said in his own reaction, “Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Adams and Cuomo’s actions. But they won’t decide this election.”

“New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Jewish community advocates hailed Adams for dropping out and for his support.

“Mayor Adams has been a strong ally of the Jewish community throughout his tenure and we want to commend his support immediately following 10/7/23, which was deeply appreciated,” said Sara Forman, the head of the New York Solidarity Network, a pro-Israel political group, referring to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. “We sincerely hope his successor, no matter who it is, will follow his strong example when it comes to combating antisemitism.”

The Orthodox Union praised Adams’s decision and thanked him for his friendship.

“We express gratitude to Mayor Adams for all of his efforts throughout his tenure to provide security and protection for NYC’s Jewish community and institutions, and for his outspoken support of the community and of the State of Israel during this difficult time,” the statement said. “In this decision, he has demonstrated leadership and prioritized his concern for the city’s future.”

New York City is home to the largest Jewish population of any city worldwide. Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in the city, although the rate of antisemitic incidents has slowed in recent months, according to police data.

Under Adams’s stewardship, the city’s crime rate declined and its economy recovered from the COVID pandemic, but a series of scandals tied to his administration marred his campaign, as did his federal corruption case and his friendly dealings with the Trump administration, which is unpopular in the largely Democratic city.

The Jewish vote for the mayoral race is difficult to gauge because surveys have reported varying results, likely due to relatively small sample sizes for Jews.

Recent polls have shown Adams, Cuomo, and Mamdani as the favored candidates for Jews, with Mamdani generally in the lead.

A July poll of Jewish New Yorkers by the New York Solidarity Network found that Mamdani was the leading candidate with 37% support, while just over half said Mamdani was antisemitic, and 58% said the city would be less safe for Jews with him as mayor.