Outgoing southern Brooklyn Congressman Max Rose announced on Sunday that he will not run for mayor in the 2021 election cycle.
“Representing New York’s 11th Congressional District has been an incredible honor and privilege,” Rose wrote in a Twitter post. “While I won’t be a candidate for mayor this cycle, I am not going anywhere in the fight to make our city and country live up to their promise.”
The announcement comes weeks after the recently-defeated congressman filed with the Campaign Finance Board to jump into the crowded mayoral race on Dec. 10. Rose told the New York Times that he was “exploring a bid,” but did not make his candidacy official.
A Park Slope native and Army veteran, Rose was elected to represent a swath of southern Brooklyn and Staten Island in the House of Representatives in 2018. The district — which encompasses Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Bath Beach, as well as parts of Gravesend and Bensonhurst — is the most conservative area in the city, having voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
In his two-year term, Rose focused on bipartisan legislation and distanced himself from many of his left-leaning peers, such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But Rose’s centrist positioning failed to save him in his November reelection bid, which he lost to Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis during a no-holds-barred race full of blistering attack ads.
Rose did not explain why he declined to enter the mayoral race, or what his political future might look like, but said that he plans to spend more time with his family.
“My son Miles just learned how to crawl and is getting awfully good at standing on his own,” he wrote on Twitter. “So wish Leigh and I luck in 2021 because, at this rate, Miles will be walking in no time — and God willing, we will adopt another beautiful baby into our family.”
Rose’s withdrawal from the race hardly narrows the more-than-30-candidate field for the mayorship, which includes Borough President Eric Adams, former de Blasio staffer Maya Wiley, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Comptroller Scott Stringer, non-profit executive Dianne Morales, CitiGroup executive Ray McGuire, and potentially, US presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
