De Blasio, speaking at an unrelated news conference on Wednesday, said it would be “tough to conceive” continuing his campaign if he does not qualify for the Democratic debate in October.
“I think the logical thing to say is I’m going to go and try and make the October debates and if I can, that’s a good reason to keep going forward,” the mayor said. “If I can’t, I think it’s really tough to conceive of continuing.”
Even before de Blasio officially entered the race in May, he had met ample skepticism about the validity of his campaign, with his popularity in question even in New York City, where he was first elected mayor in 2013.
That skepticism has grown the longer de Blasio has stayed in the race, where he has struggled to gain traction in national polls and with donors. His continued candidacy stands in contrast to the decision last week by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York to end her campaign.
But for the first time, de Blasio acknowledged on Wednesday that he had set a rough deadline of Oct. 1 to decide whether to end his presidential bid.
The shift comes after de Blasio did not make the third upcoming Democratic debate this month after qualifying for the first two.
“I’m a human being, I have eyes to see,” he said. “Not making September, of course, that’s disappointing. And so, my view was, there’s still one good chance to do that. I’m going to see what I can do there and see if I can break through.”
For the fourth debate, candidates will, by Oct. 1, need to have 130,000 unique donors, with 400 donors per state in at least 20 states, and register at least 2% support in four national polls or in statewide polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
According to his last campaign filing, de Blasio had raised $1.1 million from just more than 6,600 donors.
The requirements are similar to those that applied to the Sept. 12 debate. Ten candidates met the thresholds, and several who did not, including de Blasio, suggested that the requirements were too stringent.
Gillibrand, who had far more money than de Blasio, ended her campaign after she did not qualify for the third debate.
“It’s important to know when it’s not your time,” Gillibrand said in a video announcing her decision.
Until Wednesday, de Blasio had uttered no such statements, even as he has struggled to break zero percent in most polls and has remained at the bottom of Democratic presidential candidates when it comes to fundraising.
But the mayor has refused to count himself out. Even on Wednesday, he reiterated the notion that political fortunes can be driven by a single social-media moment.
“People go from unheard-of to totally famous in 72 hours in America now,” de Blasio said. “A candidate like me who is not that well known yet, ask me in 72 hours, right, and something might change.”
So far, that moment has eluded de Blasio, but it has not been for a lack of trying.
De Blasio added his son Dante to his campaign and has regularly featured his biracial family, including his wife, Chirlane McCray, as he has made repeated trips to the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
The mayor has also tried to bolster his campaign by directly criticizing President Donald Trump. Last month, he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to appear on the Fox News host Sean Hannity’s program. Hannity is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in the media.
De Blasio then participated in a nationally televised town hall on CNN, where he took questions directly from likely primary voters.
The exposure has not helped. Just 376,000 viewers tuned in to watch the mayor’s town hall, a decrease of 25% from CNN’s normal Sunday night ratings.
Other candidates in de Blasio’s situation, like Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and the former Colorado governor, John Hickenlooper, abandoned the race last month.
De Blasio would be wise to soon follow suit, said Bruce Gyory, a political consultant and adjunct professor of political science at the University at Albany.
“Pete Buttigieg had a bit of a magic moment, and Kamala Harris did, too. But you’re not going to be the man out of nowhere,” Gyory said. “A magic moment can put you in a position, but like a long-distance runner, if you don’t have the stamina to sustain your kick, it peters out.”
De Blasio did recently manage to hit one milestone: Mary Snow, a polling analyst for Quinnipiac University, said that in its Aug. 28 national poll, de Blasio reached 1% in overall support for the first time in a Quinnipiac survey.
This article originally appeared in
.