Bill de Blasio lost big time during his 2020 presidential bid in 2020.
Now, the former Mayor of New York City is ending his campaign for Congress just two months after he announced his candidacy.
“It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that,” de Blasio said in a Tweet on Tuesday. “Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve. I am really grateful for all the people I met, the stories I heard and the many good souls who helped out. Thank you all!”
It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that. Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve. I am really grateful for all the people I met, the stories I heard and the many good souls who helped out. Thank you all! pic.twitter.com/gpt6V6WLUf
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 19, 2022
In a video statement, de Blasio also announced that the time has come for him to “leave electoral politics.”
“I’ve really listened carefully to people and it’s clear to me that when it comes to this congressional district, people are looking for another option. And I respect that,” he said. “Even though this is not going to work out, I hope you know how much I appreciate you and we’re gonna do a lot together to make this city better in the future.”
De Blasio’s exit from the 10th Congressional District race follows a poll released by the Working Families Party on Monday showcasing his lack of support among progressive Democrat voters. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they would not cast a ballot for the ex-mayor.
The former Democrat lawmaker also suspended his 2020 presidential campaign after garnering less than one percent of support in national polls.
Last fall, he considered running to succeed disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but ultimately dropped out of that race as well.
In de Blasio’s final year of tenure, his approval numbers were abysmal as New York City saw a surge in gun violence, rampant homelessness and nearly every category of major crime increase to record levels.
A poll conducted by the New York Post last June showed nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of 1,000 Democrat voters rated de Blasio’s performance as “poor” or “fair.”
NYC Mayor Eric Adams slammed his predecessor in an interview with the New York Post last month, noting he was “shocked” by the instability left behind by de Blasio.
“Let me tell you something: When I started looking into this, I was shocked at how bad this place is,” he said of the city. “I started peeling back layers and what it started to unveil to me is how we just had this good shell, but underneath — it’s bad.”