City Council Speaker Corey Johnson Drops Out Of Mayor’s Race

NEW YORK CITY — The crowded race for the often-if-not-always thankless job of New York City’s mayor has one fewer candidate.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced Thursday that he was dropping out of the race. He said in a statement his campaign was on pause for the past six months amid the coronavirus pandemic and the national reckoning over racial injustice.

“This challenging time has led me to rethink how I can best be of service to this city, and I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right path for me,” he wrote in the statement.

Johnson, a Democrat, entered the race as a prominent city official with a wide progressive following. But that took a hit amid a controversial budget deal that cut —or actually didn’t — $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget.

His exit from the race leaves several other city officials, including Comptroller Scott Stringer, and prominent candidates clamoring to take Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spot in Gracie Mansion come 2021.