The New York mayoral race is down to three main candidates after incumbent Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of re-election over the weekend.
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa are already trying to capitalize on Adams' withdrawal as the race enters its final stages.
It's hard to predict what effect Adams' withdrawal will have on the race, but the impact could be minimal. Adams will remain on the ballot because the deadline to withdraw his candidacy has passed, and polls conducted in September showed his support among New York voters to be low.
Here's what the latest change in the race means:
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state legislator and self-described democratic socialist, has emerged as the presumptive front-runner in the race after defeating Cuomo decisively in the primary.
Cuomo and his supporters have called for both Adams and Sliva to drop out of the race to create a more favorable situation for a one-on-one rematch with Mamdani. Even Republican President Donald Trump said he thought the former Democratic governor had a better chance than Plum, mocking his own party's nominee for "not exactly the best timing" for him.
Experts say Adams' withdrawal alone may be too little, too late, to help Cuomo catch up.
"I don't know if this dramatically changes the overall picture of the race," said Basil Smickle, a Democratic political strategist and professor at Columbia University. "If it had happened earlier in the summer or after the primary, I think there would have been a lot more time to set up the Cuomo-Mamdani matchup." But Cuomo said Sunday night that the incumbent mayor's withdrawal "changes the whole dynamic of the race." "The focus is now on me and Mr. Mamdani," he said. "This is a two-man race." Trump again weighed in on the race Monday, threatening that New York would "get no" federal funds if the front-runner, Mamdani, was elected. "Remember, he needs money from me as president to fulfill all his FAKE communist promises," Trump wrote on social media. "He won't get anything, so what's the point of voting for him?"
Cuomo has repeatedly tried to send a similar message. After the president announced he was sending the National Guard to Washington, Cuomo warned that Trump would do the same to New York if Mamadani took office.
"Trump will smack it like a pancake", Cuomo wrote on social media in August.
Meanwhile, Mamdani had already launched a new campaign on Monday to portray Cuomo as Trump's preferred candidate in the heavily Democratic city.
"We know that Andrew Cuomo is going to be the best thing that could happen to Donald Trump because he's not just clearing the way or looking at Andrew Cuomo with a genuine belief in what Cuomo is going to deliver to the people of the city, but that Cuomo is going to clear the way for Donald Trump's agenda," Mamdani told reporters on Monday.
Sliva, the colorful founder of the crime-fighting group "Angels" Guardian Angels, refused to suspend their campaign, even after Trump's comments.
"If you want to do anything for Cuomo, you have to get rid of Sliva, and Sliva is not going to drop out," said George Artz, a veteran political consultant for the New York Democratic Party. "Nothing is going to happen unless Sliva is taken out [of the race], then it gets interesting."
Sliva, who lost the last mayoral election to Adams by nearly 40 percent, welcomed the mayor's withdrawal from this year's race.
"I will not observe shiva [a seven-day mourning period in Judaism during which relatives are exempt from many of their daily religious duties – [ed. note] for Eric Adams," he said Monday on Fox 5's "Good Morning New York."
When asked if he would step down, Sliva said that after the Democratic primary, people had called on him to "step down for Eric Adams."
"What happened?" he said, pointing directly at the camera. "I'm the only consistent candidate and I'm in the race to win."
In his statement on Sunday, Adams said he was dropping out of the race because a now-dismissed federal corruption case had made some in the city distrust him, while blaming "constant media speculation" about his future for his inability to raise funds and campaign.
In the weeks leading up to his withdrawal, Adams had been approached by Trump administration officials to see if he would suspend his campaign in exchange for a federal government job to clear the way for Cuomo.
Adams will continue his term as mayor, campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro said in a statement, but added that "over the next few days" he will "take time to be with his family and friends".
Adams did not say what he plans to do after leaving office, but when announcing his withdrawal from the race, he said: "Although this is the end of my re-election campaign, it is not the end of my public service."
Translated from English: Plamen Yotinski, BTA