(AP with TJV) — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that he is ending his campaign for a U.S. House seat in New York, dropping out after two months by saying it’s clear “people are looking for another option.”
The Democrat was running in a crowded primary for a deep-blue congressional district that includes his Brooklyn home and parts of southern Manhattan.
“I’ve listened really 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,” de Blasio said in a video posted online Tuesday.
His campaign was launched months after his tenure as mayor ended and was the latest attempt by de Blasio to further his national political ambitions.
He considered running for governor of New York but opted not to challenge incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul. He also had a short-lived run for president in 2019, which lasted two months longer than this year’s congressional campaign.
But by the time his second term ended on Dec. 31, 2021, his tenure was also marked by a series of gaffes, high-profile conflicts, and strained relationships with progressives and the city’s police.
Pay for play was common in the de Blasio administration, as scandal after scandal was quietly buried by the local media, with the exception of the NY Post. The handling of the NYC mental health program, Thrive, by de Blasio’s wife resulted in nearly a billion squandered dollars, and many unanswered questions. Still, the Democrat party-sympathetic media covered the mayor very politely, burying the negative press and alleged corruption.
Even with the local broadcast and print media, ignoring de Blasio’s scandals, the public began to reject the mayor and his approval ratings continued to plummet.
The De Blasio vaccine mandates, nauseated millions of Americans and was the final nail in the coffin for the mayor. De Blasio in full tyrant mode, during his final months in office, banned all people who did not take the mRNA COVID vaccine from almost all public places, banishing hundreds and thousands of unvaccinated New Yorkers from all leisure, including unvaccinated children. Americans watched in horror, as police removed children from family restaurants for not being vaccinated. The vaccine extremism, while the media will never admit it, was reviled by most New Yorkers and shocked the entire world. Never has the word seen, such a reactionary, draconian attempt at medical segregation. The reaction was so fierce conservative activists teamed with left-wing BLM activists against the vaccine segregation.
The “key to NY program” which demanded vaccine checks at restaurants, theaters, museums, and almost every possible indoor venue, will be de Blasio’s legacy.
Many will also remember the mayor for painting BLM on the sidewalk after several days of violent protests across the city, which included attacks against the police.
The former mayor seemed to acknowledge that in his video announcing he was ending his campaign, saying, “I’ve made mistakes. I want to do better in the future.”
De Blasio also said he wants to keep serving the public: “I’m going to find a different way to serve,” he said.
Recent polling had placed de Blasio near the bottom of the field of 13 Democrats seeking to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District. Other candidates in running in the Aug. 23 primary include U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who currently represents a Hudson Valley seat but decided to make a 2022 campaign further south in the metropolis, along with New York City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who last served in Congress in 1981, and Daniel Goldman, the former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to House Democrats in the first impeachment inquiry against former president Donald Trump.
Rep. Jerry Nadler represents New York’s 10th district now but will no longer live in it after redistricting.