Former Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is at peace with his decision to bow out of the race for an open congressional seat in Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn.

“There’s always a lot of factors, but I had talked to a lot of people in the community and I heard their voices,” he told NY1. “And then I looked at the different public opinion surveys, and it was pretty clear: people were looking for something different.”

In an exclusive interview with NY1 on the day he posted an emotional video to Twitter ending his bid, the Democrat referenced the telling conversations he had with voters.

What You Need To Know

  • The former mayor says he had "come to grips" with voters' opinions of him

  • De Blasio says he'll see if there's enough remaining funding to address his campaign debt from his 2020 presidential run

  • He leaves behind a very crowded field for the lower Manhattan and Brooklyn district, where 12 others are competing

“A lot of people talked to me about things I had done as mayor that mattered to them that I had done as mayor — that was very positive and gratifying — but you could tell there was still a hesitation,” he said.

The two-term mayor was at the helm during the worst of the pandemic and implemented universal pre-K, but also was deeply unpopular.

In the crowded House race, he polled in the low single digits.

“It’s still so recently, everything that went on with COVID, everything that went on with mayor,” he said. “I’ve got to come to grips with that and realize that it’s just, it’s time to do something very different.”

That something will not be another shot at electoral politics, he said.

De Blasio’s unsuccessful bid for Congress follows a failed campaign for president and a flirtation with running for governor.

“I don’t see it. You never know what the future brings, but I don’t see it,” he said.

De Blasio leaves a packed field that has 12 others vying to represent the newly drawn district spanning lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, including his home neighborhood of Park Slope.

He still has $450,000 in his campaign coffers, and NY1 asked if it will go toward his considerable debt he racked up from his White House bid.

“Well, the first thing is we have to pay all the expenses related to this congressional campaign,” he said. “And a lot of people came and helped me and participated and I have to do right by them, then we’ll figure out from there, if there’s anything left over, what to do.”

De Blasio would not say whether he planned to endorse a former rival, adding that he is focused on the difficult decision he made after two months of campaigning.

“It has been a humbling experience, but in many ways, that was something that I needed to learn from,” he said, “that it was time to step away from this kind of work and go to a different type of work.”