Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will not run for governor of New York, he announced on Tuesday.
De Blasio is opting out of a race that is dominated by incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, instead saying he will continue to fight against income inequality and teasing an additional announcement in “the days ahead.”
“I am not going to be running for governor of New York state, but I am going to devote every fiber of my being to fighting inequality in the state of New York,” he said in a video posted on Twitter. “And let’s keep this fight going because we proved change can happen in New York.”
De Blasio previously said he was seriously considering a run for governor. In November, while serving as mayor of New York City, de Blasio unveiled education reforms and alluded to plans to take the proposal statewide.
“I’m going to be in public service no matter what, Joe. You know that,” he told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe at the time. “And I’m going to be focused on getting this done because what matters here is how do we change the lives of people in this state.”
I am not going to be running for Governor of New York State, but I am going to devote every fiber of my being to fighting inequality in the state of New York. pic.twitter.com/cBZ03BpO0s
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) January 18, 2022
Recent polling has indicated there would be some level of support for de Blasio, who was expected to mount a primary challenge from the Left. The former mayor came in a distant second, earning 12% support compared to Hochul’s 46% in a Siena poll released Tuesday. The poll was taken from Jan. 9-13 by 806 New Yorkers through both phone and web. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Hochul’s dominance in the gubernatorial primary appears to have deterred other big-name competition in the race as well. In December, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has constantly polled well behind the governor, announced in December she was suspending her campaign for governor, saying she would instead run for reelection for attorney general.
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De Blasio served two terms as mayor but left office on Jan. 1, when he was succeeded by Mayor Eric Adams, due to the city’s restrictions limiting mayors to two consecutive terms. De Blasio is eligible to run for mayor again in 2025.
