New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday morning that he is ending his presidential campaign.
De Blasio shared the announcement during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” where the former candidate said it was “clearly not my time.”
The mayor did say he would continue to serve New York in his position as mayor.
Breaking: Bill de Blasio announces he is ending his presidential campaign pic.twitter.com/vL8GcX3xV5
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) September 20, 2019
While de Blasio will no longer by vying for the Democratic nomination, one could argue that he was never really in the running anyway.
Despite announcing his intention to run, he has consistently polled among the bottom of the Democratic candidate pool, usually at or below 1 percent.
As the Washington Post reports, de Blasio’s announcement came immediately after a new Siena College Research poll of New York voters shows him polling at 0 percent (in his own state!):
On Tuesday, the Siena College Research Institute released a new poll looking at New York state — but which also included a look at support in New York City itself. New York City, you’re likely aware, is the jurisdiction of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who entered the Democratic primary in May.
Once responses are weighted, de Blasio gets zero percent support in New York City, somewhat less than Biden, Warren or Harris get. Slightly less than Buttigieg gets. Slightly less than entrepreneur Andrew Yang gets.
— Advertisement — A representative for the Siena poll confirmed to The Washington Post that of the 389 Democrats included in the survey, precisely one person in the state said that de Blasio was his preferred presidential candidate. That one person was an older white man from New York City, meaning that it’s not impossible that de Blasio himself was polled.
And:
Put another way, the unweighted number of people in New York City who want de Blasio to be the Democratic nominee (one) is less than the unweighted number of people in Massachusetts who do (two).
This isn’t really new. De Blasio’s travails as a candidate are well established by now. New Yorkers didn’t want him to run, and now that he is running, don’t plan to vote for him.
De Blasio joins former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as the latest to drop from the running. Schultz dropped in the first week of September and Gillibrand dropped the last week of August.
In a tweet on Friday morning, President Trump facetiously called de Blasio’s announcement “big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years.”
“Part time Mayor of New York City, @BilldeBlasio, who was polling at a solid ZERO but had tremendous room for growth, has shocking dropped out of the Presidential race. NYC is devastated, he’s coming home!” the president added.
Oh no, really big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years! Part time Mayor of New York City, @BilldeBlasio, who was polling at a solid ZERO but had tremendous room for growth, has shocking dropped out of the Presidential race. NYC is devastated, he’s coming home!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2019