Baltimore mayor won’t seek reelection

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Friday she will not seek reelection, stepping aside after fallout over the case of Freddie Gray and subsequent rioting in the city.

“I’ve realized that every moment that I’ve spent planning for a campaign or reelection was time that I was taking away from my current responsibilities from my city,” she said during a press conference.

{mosads}”Because of that, I have made the decision to not seek reelection,” she said.

“I haven’t lost a campaign since middle school,” she said. “It’s not that I didn’t think that I could win, I just had to ask myself at what cost.”

The Baltimore Sun reported that she briefed her staff Friday and has no plans to seek another office.

The announcement comes ahead of the trials for six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Gray, who died in April while in police custody. Rioting erupted in the city on the day of his funeral.

Her administration agreed this week to pay $6.4 million to the family of Gray and accept civil liability in the case while not acknowledging any wrongdoing on the part of police.

Rawlings-Blake has a national profile beyond that case, becoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June and serving as secretary for the Democratic National Committee. 

Several potential candidates challenging Rawlings-Blake for mayor acknowledged her announcement in media reports and thanked her for her service. 

She entered political life in Baltimore in 1995, when she was elected to the city council, and will have served for seven years as mayor when she leaves office in 2016.