NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Mayor Eric Adams slammed the state’s former governor Andrew Cuomo for blowing the Democratic primary race, running as an independent and potentially splitting the vote against Zohran Mamdani.
“He created this scenario that created an opportunity to divide the vote instead of being unified around Mamdani,” Adams told Bloomberg Radio on Thursday. “He had his chance, $25 million spent — now it’s time for me to have an opportunity and we will win and beat him.”
Adams, 64, is running for reelection in November as an independent after dropping out of the Democratic primary earlier this year amid faltering poll numbers and a corruption scandal. The former police captain will face democratic socialist Mamdani, 33, who won the Democratic mayoral primary last month, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, Cuomo and another independent, Jim Walden.
A recent Slingshot Strategies poll found Adams in fourth place among the candidates appearing on the ballot in November. Just 11% of those polled said they would vote for Adams in the general election if it were held today.
Adams said only a fraction of people voted in the Democratic primary and his campaign plans to register 1 million new voters, as well as campaign for independent votes.
Adams became the first mayor in modern New York City history to be indicted on federal corruption charges, but President Donald Trump’s Justice Department ordered the charges dropped this year. Adams has maintained his innocence.
Trump’s actions have raised concerns about whether Adams would be beholden to the Republican president’s immigration agenda, spurring a slew of departures from City Hall. An Emerson College poll in May found 69% of city voters had an unfavorable view of the mayor.
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