De Blasio Denies Presidential Hopes Ahead Of Iowa Trip

NEW YORK, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday again dismissed suggestions that he's planning to run for president ahead of his planned trip to a presidential proving ground.

Though he didn't explicitly rule out a 2020 presidential bid, de Blasio told WNYC's Brian Lehrer he plans to stay in City Hall for all of his second term despite his travel to Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday stirring rumors of ambitions for higher office.

“I just have ... one goal, which is four years as mayor of this city," the Democrat said during his weekly "Ask the Mayor" segment on "The Brian Lehrer Show."

De Blasio will fly to Des Moines Tuesday morning to give the keynote address at a holiday party for Progress Iowa, a political advocacy group that supports various left-wing causes around that state. He'll return to the city Wednesday morning.

When it was first announced last month, the trip prompted speculation about de Blasio's presidential ambitions, as Iowa hosts the first presidential primary caucuses and is a typical first stop for White House hopefuls.

De Blasio said the excursion, paid for by Progress Iowa, is part of his effort to bolster progressive political campaigns around the country and "rejuvenate" the Democratic Party after its loss last year to Republican President Donald Trump.

The mayor has called himself a "leading anti-Trump voice" and has recently been a vocal opponent of the Trump-backed tax bill making its way through Congress. He detailed his desire to take the progressive fight beyond "the edge of the five boroughs" in a blog post last month.

"As the leader of the largest city in the country and as a proud Democrat and progressive, I want to use my voice to support change in our party and in our country and particularly to support people and organizations who are making that change," de Blasio told Lehrer.

Campaigning in swing states like Iowa is particularly important because they could shift control of Congress back to the Democrats, putting the federal government's legislative branch back on New York City's good side, de Blasio said.

The Iowa trip is far from de Blasio's first foray onto the national stage. He's frequently fought the GOP on federal issues such as immigration and tax policy. In 2015 he unveiled a "Progressive Agenda" for Democrats nationwide, but the campaign went nowhere.

(Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in May 2015. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)