New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce presidential run
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will announce that he's running for president Thursday, a spokesperson confirmed to CBS News. The long-anticipated declaration makes de Blasio the 24th person and third mayor angling for the job in 2020. He plans to head to Iowa Thursday night and South Carolina over the weekend to campaign.
De Blasio represents more people — 8.6 million in New York City — than several of the governors running. But only 36 percent of New Yorkers say they have a favorable opinion of him, according to a recent poll from Quinnipiac University.
The mayor, who was elected to a second term in 2017, has stumbled and faced political defeats as he has flirted with a presidential run. A press conference resembling a campaign event on the "NYC Green New Deal" that the mayor held in Trump Tower turned to chaos as supporters of President Trump heckled him, CBS New York reported.
And earlier this year, the mayor faced criticism after Amazon pulled out of a project that it said would have brought 25,000 jobs to New York. De Blasio had championed Amazon's move to the city.
De Blasio's predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, was also rumored as a potential 2020 candidate but said in March that he would not run.