Former NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Gives Up Run for New York Governor

19 Jan 2022, 04:59 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has given up his run for the 2022 New York governor’s race.

De Blasio, 60, said he will end his candidacy on Tuesday after hinting at a run for many weeks. He had filed paperwork to create a committee called “New Yorkers for a Fair Future,” set up a website and released a state education plan.

“No, I’m not going to be running for governor in New York State,” de Blasio said in a Twitter post. “But I am going to devote every fiber of my being to fight inequality in the state of New York.”

The outgoing mayor would have faced a competitive 2022 Democratic primary. Incumbent Kathy Hochul, who took office in August after Andrew Cuomo resigned, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and U.S. Representative Tom Suozzi have all announced runs. Attorney General Letitia James, who announced plans to run for governor in late October, dropped out of the race Dec. 9 and will seek re-election to her current office. Cuomo, who stepped down after sexual harassment allegations, isn’t legally barred from running again.

A Siena College poll released Tuesday showed Hochul increasing her name recognition among the state electorate, with 46% of registered voters saying they would elect Hochul over her likely opponents in the Democratic primary if the contest were held tomorrow.

Just 6% said they would select Representative Tom Suozzi, the Long Island Congressman planning to run against her. Roughly 11% would choose New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and 12% would have voted for de Blasio. The poll sampled 806 registered voters in New York state between Jan. 9-13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

De Blasio in recent weeks has sought to highlight his record as mayor and how it could relate to statewide change. He’s heralded his expansion of pre-K, 3-K and after-school and summer programs in the city and he released a plan in November calling for similar initiatives at the state level to provide free year-round schooling, financed by tax increases for the wealthy.

“There’s a lot more to do, that’s why I put out the plan,” he said during a briefing last month. “There’s a lot more to do in this state to actually reach working families in a way they deserve.”