The New York Times will no longer endorse political candidates outside presidential elections, the newspaper announced on Monday.
US newspapers have a long history of endorsing candidates, but the New York Times is joining some other publishers in moving away from the tradition – including the Miami Herald and Alden Global Capital, which owns titles such as the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and the Denver Post.
In a statement to CNN, the New York Times’s head of opinion, Kathleen Kingsbury, said the change will be effective immediately.
“While elections everywhere remain critical to the lives and experiences of our audience, the editorial board is ceasing the endorsement process for New York elections,” Kingsbury said. “We remain a journalistic institution rooted in New York City, both historically, today and in the future.”
A reason for the sudden change was not given.
The New York Times’s editorial board – an arm of its opinion section – had endorsed local-level candidates in Senate, congressional and state legislative races for years.
Perhaps most notably, the paper will not be endorsing anyone in next year’s mayoral race despite the paper having done so since 1897. The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, will face off against several rivals. But now none will be championed by the paper, which is a new hurdle for those seeking more attention for their platforms.
By endorsing the sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia in the 2021 mayoral primary race, the paper put a spotlight on the candidate, who eventually lost to Adams.
Candidates running for president, however, will still have an opportunity to vie for – and potentially secure – an endorsement from the paper that many hold in high regard, though it does not necessarily translate into victory.
The liberal paper endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, which she lost to Donald Trump. In the 2020 Democratic primary, it endorsed two candidates for the first time: Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. Joe Biden won the primary and then defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential race.
Notably, the editorial board did not endorse Biden’s re-election campaign this year and instead asked him to step down after his poor performance in a 27 June debate against Trump, who is seeking a second presidency.
Biden heeded calls from across his party to withdraw his candidacy and endorsed the vice-president, Kamala Harris, to run against Trump. But the New York Times has yet to endorse any candidate for the 5 November election.
