Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio ended his Congressional campaign on Tuesday after coming in near last in a recent poll.
“I’ve really listened carefully to people and it’s clear to me that when it comes to this congressional district, people are looking for another option. And I respect that,” he said in a video statement.
It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that. Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve. I am really grateful for all the people I met, the stories I heard and the many good souls who helped out. Thank you all! pic.twitter.com/gpt6V6WLUf
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 19, 2022
“Even though this is not going to work out, I hope you know how much I appreciate you and we’re gonna do a lot together to make this city better in the future,” he added.
De Blasio garnered support from just 3 percent of likely voters in a Working Families Party poll. That put him at the bottom of a list of more than dozen candidates competing to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District.
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera and Assemblywoman Yuh-line Niou tied for first with 16 percent each, followed by former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman at 10 percent, Representative Mondaire Jones (D., N.Y.) at 8 percent and former New York City Council candidate Maud Maron with 2 percent.
The survey found that a whopping 49 percent of voters said they would definitely not support him.
The 10th Congressional District was redrawn by court-appointed special master Jonathan Cervas earlier this year. While it previously covered the West Side of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s coastal neighborhoods, as well as Borough Park and Kensington, the redrawn district includes parts of lower Manhattan and the western neighborhoods of Brooklyn, including Park Slope, where de Blasio has a home.
De Blasio’s run for Congress comes three years after he similarly ended a 2020 presidential bid after failing to garner more than 1 percent support in Democratic primary polling.
A poll from September 2019 — just before he ended his fourth month campaign for president — showed de Blasio polling at 0 percent in New York City, 0 percent in the suburbs and 0 percent upstate in the presidential primary. He had just 33 percent favorability in New York City at the time.