NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Pressure builds for Sliwa to follow Eric Adams in exiting NYC mayoral race.

Cuomo’s camp wants Sliwa to follow Adams, which could give the former governor the best chance against Mamdani. However, Sliwa has opposed efforts to get him to drop out.

“I don’t surrender,” Sliwa said at a campaign stop earlier this week in response to pressure for him to exit the race. “I don’t retreat.”

Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit organization focused on unarmed crime prevention, said he has received large bribes to drop out, but he has declined them and threatened to name names if the offers continue. However, public pressure has continued to mount, especially from the Cuomo campaign and the former governor’s supporters.

Former independent candidate Jim Walden framed Sliwa’s possibly dropping out as “saving New York.”

Face with a terrible choice, a less terrible choice, and a Republican, a large plurality of New Yorkers seem determined to go with the terrible choice.