NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams denied that he would decide whether to continue his reelection campaign after conducting a poll — just a day after his campaign spokesperson said that was his plan.
“When you run for office, you do everything from polling to focus groups to modeling,” he said to reporters at a Bronx campaign stop Friday. “We want to know what the right messaging is to speak with our voters. That’s the role. How did that turn to, ‘That’s going to determine if I’m staying in or staying out?’ — that is not true.”
Adams’ response that he was only polling on his messaging seemed to contradict previous statements from campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro to NBC New York and campaign adviser Frank Carone to the Daily News that he would use the polling data to determine whether or not he would continue his mayoral campaign. Adams himself also alluded to that plan in a meeting with members of the Association for a Better New York, a business group, suggesting he was open to leaving the contest, The New York Times reported.
But on Friday, Adams suggested journalists were trying to undermine his campaign.
“All these rumors, all these lies. Folks had me going to Saudi Arabia. They had me going to HUD. They had me going to the Yankee game. They had me going to Washington on Monday,” Adams said, referring to news stories. “The media should not be the hidden anti-Eric Adams votes. … This is hurting my ability to campaign. It’s unfair. It’s not right. And you’re not doing it to any other candidate but me.”
The confusion is just the latest turn in an ongoing saga of whether or not the mayor will continue to campaign for reelection. He has so far resisted enormous public pressure from the likes of President Donald Trump and other critics of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani to drop out of the race. Polling suggests Mamdani would easily win in a split field, but he could be defeated if the race effectively became one-on-one.
Several polls published this week have shown Adams earning between 7 and 12 percent of the vote, sitting in fourth place behind Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Adams defiantly insisted he would stay in the race at a press conference last Friday after a week of reports that he was considering suspending his campaign. But there was immediate doubt that Adams would actually keep campaigning until November, even from his allies, POLITICO reported.
Shapiro brushed off the apparent contradiction. “If the mayor said that, that’s true,” he said. “Let him decide how this poll is going to be structured, whatever kind of poll he’s going to do. He’s not backtracking on anything.”
Adams had a busy campaign schedule Friday, Shapiro noted, and he has a crowded schedule Saturday too, including an endorsement rally with fraternal organizations for Black firefighters and police officers.
At a separate campaign event Friday, Cuomo addressed his polling lead over Adams.
“ I believe at the end of the day, the race is going to be between me and Mr. Mamdani,” Cuomo said. “Those are the only two viable choices.”
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