New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Sunday that he is dropping out of the mayoral race, abandoning his campaign for re-election.

In an over eight-minute announcement posted to social media, Adams said “I know I cannot continue my campaign.” In the video, Adams declined to endorse any of his rivals in the election, instead urging whoever takes over for him “to continue what we’ve done.”

Adams, who was running as an independent, had trailed in the polls virtually from the beginning. The race is now between Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani; former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also running as an independent; and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Rumors surrounding Adams’ departure from the race swirled after The New York Times reported in September that Adams was in talks with the Trump administration about a potential ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia. Adams denied that he was leaving the race, saying “no formal offers” had been made.

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Trump has voiced concerns about Mamdani, who he falsely claimed is an illegal immigrant, and suggested offhandedly that it would be easier to beat Mamdani if he only had one opponent, saying, “I don’t think you can win unless you have one-on-one, because somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead.”

In a September interview with Chris Hayes, Mamdani called Trump’s threats to interfere in the city’s mayoral election and “straighten out New York” an “affront to our city’s democracy.”

Adams, a former New York city police captain, was first elected as mayor of the U.S.’s largest city in 2021. He was indicted by the Dept. of Justice under the Biden administration in September 2024 on bribery and campaign finance charges for allegedly accepting foreign campaign contributions and lavish gifts from Turkish nationals. A federal judge later dismissed those charges with prejudice, rejecting the Trump-led DOJ’s effort to withdraw the case while preserving its ability to indict him again.

The general election is on Nov. 4.