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What Happens if Eric Adams Drops Out of the NYC Mayor’s Race?
Depending on the timing, his name could remain on the ballot even if he stops campaigning.
This article originally appeared in The City.
NEW YORK - The mayor’s race has taken another turn this week as the president has moved to put his thumb on the scale of New York’s local election.
President Donald Trump is reportedly pushing Mayor Eric Adams to ditch his campaign for reelection, and is prepared to offer him a position in his administration to entice him to go.
Adams, who’s been polling in the single digits, has denied there’s any truth to those claims, saying “I have never been promised a job” on Thursday.
But he has a history of saying one thing and doing another with his campaign, like when he repeatedly vowed that he would run as a Democrat in this year’s primary — even claiming he’d gathered 25,000 voter signatures to do so — then abruptly announced on the day those petitions were due that he would instead run as an independent.
The reports of Trump’s involvement in the race came just a day after another independent, Jim Walden, abruptly suspended his campaign, leaving four major candidates in the race for mayor: Adams, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who the Trump administration is also reportedly pushing to drop out. Both Adams and Cuomo are running independently, without a major-party ballot line.
So, can Adams drop out now, and what happens if he does? Here’s what to know:
What happens if Adams (or anyone) drops out of the mayor’s race?
A key upcoming date to keep in mind: the ballot certification deadline, which falls on Thursday, Sept. 11, this year.
That’s the date on which the city Board of Elections will certify the lineup of candidates whose names and parties will appear on voters’ ballots in November.
If Adams drops out before then and the board accepts his elimination, things are fairly simple: His name will be removed from the ballot by election officials.
That fate is what awaits Walden, who suspended his campaign ahead of the certification date.
What happens if Adams drops out of the race next month, or closer to the Nov. 4 general election?
Things get a bit more complicated if Adams, or any candidate, drops out after the ballot is certified on Sept. 11. In that case, their names will likely still appear, even if they stop campaigning.
That’s what happened in June’s Democratic primary when state Senator Jessica Ramos dropped out weeks before the election and threw her support to Cuomo.
She made that surprise announcement about a month after the ballot had been certified in early May, and her name still appeared on Primary Day ballots. She garnered 4,273 first-round votes, or 0.4% of all those cast.
However, there is a scenario where a candidate is eliminated from the lineup and their votes will not count at all, election officials said.
If a candidate has a specific, legal basis for being disqualified from the ballot — including death, not being a resident of the city on Election Day or being nominated for a judgeship — and the ballots with their name have already been printed, “the Board's practice has been that the candidate would remain on the ballot, but the votes are not counted,” said Vincent Ignizio, deputy executive director of the city Board of Elections.
If he drops out, what happens to all of the money Adams raised to run?
If Adams were to drop out, his nearly $4 million unspent campaign funds could be transferred to another political committee, i.e. used to run for citywide office in the future. It could also be used to pay off any potential penalties from the city Campaign Finance Board, which has been actively investigating his campaign.
Even if he drops out, he would still need to continue filing disclosure statements with the Campaign Finance Board through next year.
In the unlikely scenario that Adams receives the millions in public matching funds that the CFB has repeatedly denied his campaign, and that he’s suing it to try and collect, his campaign would be required to return that money if he then exited the race.
Money raised through special interest groups, like the independent expenditure group Empower NYC that has backed Adams, would be unaffected by his decision to drop out. Those groups and their funds would remain intact and can be used to boost a different candidate or support Adams in a future run.
What if he resigns from office before the end of his term?
As THE CITY has previously reported, if Adams resigns, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would take over as mayor. The New York City Charter — the code governing how the city runs — mandates that Williams should in normal circumstances call a special election to find a replacement. However, it’s likely that the office would be vacated with too little time left in the term to hold a special election, per the charter, so Williams would serve until the next mayor takes office in January.
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