Former Mayor Bill de Blasio Pulls Out of 10th Congressional District Race

Former Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio announced that he has pulled out of the race for the congressional seat in the 10th Congressional District.

De Blasio made the announcement on Tuesday, July 19th, on Twitter. “It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that,” de Blasio tweeted. “Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve.” 

The former mayor was eager to step into a new role and make up for the disappointing moments he experienced while he was the leader of the city.

De Blasio previously mentioned how he had some regrets from the two terms he served as mayor. “In 2017, I won my second term with two-thirds of the general-election vote but by last year, my popularity had tanked. Why? I failed to give New Yorkers a clear sense of where I was taking them.

I lost my connection with the people because I mistook real policy for real popularity. I let a focus on individual initiatives, no matter how noble or substantive, distract me from offering an overarching vision for the future,” he wrote in May of this year. 

His ambitions to represent the 10th congressional district have ended in disappointment. De Blasio has struggled in the polls and had no noteworthy endorsements.

According to a recent poll by Data for Progress, de Blasio received support from only 5 percent of respondents, low numbers for a name as well known as the former mayor.  

When de Blasio announced his candidacy for the congressional seat, voters in the district expressed a skepticism inspired by de Blasio’s time in the mayor’s office.

“I think it’s an ego move, and I think it’s very silly,” said Cass Vanini, a 50-year-old video editor and co-op member who lives very close to de Blasio. “He’s got to be one of the most unpopular ex-mayors.” 

Still on Bill de Blasio Withdrawal from district Race…

Bruce Gyory, a senior government and policy advisor at law firm Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips attributed the anti-de Blasio stance in the district to recency bias, considering the fact that de Blasio was mayor just last year.

Gyory said that if de Blasio had waited, there might have been a chance that he would have fared better. “He probably should have given his electoral ambitions time for there to be a kind of renaissance of his reputation, rather than the more immediate recollections of frustration that any two-term mayor would face,” he said. 

De Blasio looked to win the race to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District, which is made up of parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

The race to win the congressional seat is highly contested with 12 candidates besides de Blasio participating. De Blasio’s campaign recently announced they succeeded in raising over $500,000 in funds, a sizable amount but less than the millions canvassed by his two main opponents.

He ran for president in 2019 and, according to reports, had flirted with the idea of running for governor before he decided to run for the congressional seat.