Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio quits congressional race and electoral politics

Former New York City Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio says he's exited the state's super-competitive House Democrat primary – and his career in electoral politics. 

In a Tuesday tweet, the former mayor and current Park Slope, Brooklyn, resident said he was withdrawing from a crowded primary field to represent the state's 10th congressional district.

"It's clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that," he tweeted. "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."

Previously, de Blasio ran for president in 2019 and toyed with the idea of a run at the governorship before announcing his bid for Congress..

Neal Kwatra, a campaign adviser to the former mayor, whose approval rating hovered around 37% toward the end of his mayoral term, told Politico "there was a cognitive dissonance with what we were seeing on the campaign trail and in the streets and what we were finding in the research." 

According to a recent poll, just 5% of likely primary voters supported de Blasio.

The crowded Democratic primary field for the district that encapsulates a swath of Lower Manhattan and the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, is populated by the likes of City Council Member Carlina Rivera (who is currently leading the pack with 15% of support), Assembly members Yuh-Line Niou and Jo Anne Simon, Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, and U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who was pushed out of the district he currently represents by DCCC chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.