For months, Mayor Eric Adams had been projecting confidence about his chances in the Democratic primary in June.

“No one that's running for mayor has ever won mayor but me,” he said at a news conference on March 24.

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Eric Adams’ move to run as an independent sets up an unusually crowded and competitive November general election

  • If former Gov. Andrew Cuomo wins the June Democratic primary, the Working Families Party will run its own candidate in November

  • In that scenario, Adams, Cuomo and the Working Families candidate would then face Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden

But that bravado ran up against a harsh reality: The mayor is facing record-low approval ratings and major fundraising issues. Meanwhile former Gov. Andrew Cuomo eats into his base of support and wins endorsements from longtime allies like Brooklyn Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn.

By running as an independent, Adams eliminates the possibility of an embarrassing defeat in the primary that would have rendered him a lame duck for the rest of the year. Instead, he has seven months to campaign for the November general election without a federal corruption case hanging over his head.

Still, there will be forces working against him.

“We are working very hard to make sure that New Yorkers know that they don’t have to settle for the corrupt, scandal-ridden politicians of the past,” Ana Maria Archila, co-director of the New York Working Families Party, said.

The left-leaning WFP last weekend endorsed a slate of four candidates in the Democratic primary: Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The party is intent on stopping both Adams and Cuomo from winning.

“If Andrew Cuomo wins the primary,” Archila said, “he’s still the person that resigned in scandal because of sexual harassment allegations. He’s still the person that has a long history of abusing his power, much like Trump.”

In that scenario, the WFP would likely run a different candidate on its own party line in November.

In the primary, Archila said, “We are trying to help them win — one of them. If they don’t win but they do really well, they are well-positioned to run a robust fight in the general election.”

That would create an unusually competitive general election featuring Adams, Cuomo, Republican Curtis Sliwa, independent candidate Jim Walden and either Mamdani, Speaker Adams, Myrie or Lander representing the WFP.

Adams has come under fire from his own party for his increasingly warm embrace of President Donald Trump in recent months. Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday if he was going to make an endorsement in the mayor’s race.

“Well, it’s not something I’m thinking about yet,” Trump said.