Mayor Adams barnstormed the Bronx on Friday, hitting five campaign stops in a few hours, presenting himself as a potent candidate for reelection even as his campaign has acknowledged he’s weighing the possibility of dropping out of the race.
Adams has entertained conversations about leaving the race to pursue jobs in the Trump administration or in the private sector in recent weeks, the Daily News has previously reported, and Adams’ top advisor Frank Carone told The News on Thursday the campaign planned to commission an internal poll that will help guide that decision.
But on Friday, Adams said the polling wasn’t to determine whether he’d stay in the race, but that he’s surveying voters to figure out the “right messaging” for his campaign. The mayor also claimed that fellow independent candidate Andrew Cuomo is behind news reports that he was having conversations about taking a job with the Trump administration.
“What I’m concerned about is the undermining of my campaign, all these rumors, all of these lies,” he said heading into a senior center in Concourse Village. “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. I mean, why don’t we start reporting the truth? I’m campaigning.”
The mayor claimed that the churn of news around his possible exit from the race resulted in three fundraisers for his campaign being cancelled. Adams also slammed the media and the city’s Campaign Finance Board, which has repeatedly denied him matching funds due to issues raised by his corruption indictment, which was dismissed by Trump’s administration as part of a controversial deal.
“It’s unfair. It’s not right, and you’re not doing it to any other candidate [except] for me,” Adams said.
During his Friday swing, the mayor visited several spots in the South Bronx, including a mosque, the Yankee Stadium subway stop and a center for nonviolence.
At the senior center, Adams touted his record to the crowd of around a hundred seniors and stopped to snap selfies with smiling women. The mayor told the crowd there that the “number one thing” he hears when out and about in the five boroughs is “God bless you.”
“And I want to tell you this, God has blessed me. God has blessed me because my story is your story,” he said.
At the mosque, speaking to a group of dozens of men, he touted his travels to Africa and said he’s stood with Muslim New Yorkers for years.
“I’m not a new friend brothers. I’m an old friend, a friend that has been consistent throughout the years, and so the Muslim that’s running for mayor, ask him, where has he been?” Adams said of opponent Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim and the Democratic mayoral nominee favored to win November’s election.
With the election in just over seven weeks, the mayor is facing pressure from those opposed to Mamdani to step out of the race in order to pave the way for Cuomo to challenge Mamdani head-to-head.
“I think they need to have one candidate,” President Trump said on Fox & Friends on Friday. “And it would look to me like Cuomo, frankly, is leading the other two.”
Speaking at a press conference in Brooklyn, Cuomo dismissed the polling proposal floated by Adams’ campaign as redundant, noting all public surveys are already showing the incumbent with little apparent path to victory.
“Another poll?” Cuomo scoffed. “We don’t have a poll, is that what it is?”
Adams’ polling numbers have been consistently showed him landing in last place behind even Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, with several placing him in single digits.
“Every day, he is only serving to be a spoiler, and every day he stays in the race he continues to be a spoiler and help Mamdani,” Cuomo said. “He can continue to try to get a job in the Trump administration, maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, that’s up to him, but he’s not a viable candidate and all he’s doing is help elect Mamdani,” the ex-governor added.
Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 5:50 PM EDT
