UPPER WEST SIDE — Mayor Bill de Blasio is going back to Iowa after all.
Just months after the cancellation of his planned presidential forum in Iowa focusing on progressive issues, the mayor and first lady Chirlane McCray announced they're going to the state this week to campaign for Hillary Clinton.
"Chirlane and I are proud to head to Iowa, roll up our sleeves and work to get out the vote for Hillary. Her bold progressive vision is exactly what our nation and our party need now," de Blasio said in a statement.
The campaign appearance comes after the mayor failed to endorse Clinton, his former boss, for months, saying he wanted to hear a "progressive vision" from her.
De Blasio's announcement on national television, which came on the same day Clinton officially announced her long-awaited campaign, drew the ire of Clinton supporters who accused the mayor of grandstanding.
De Blasio's non-endorsement coincided with his and McCray's founding of The Progressive Agenda Committee, a group composed of some of the country's leading liberal Democrats that was designed to push issues such as a higher minimum wage and paid sick leave into the spotlight of the presidential campaign.
The group rolled out a 13-point agenda in Washington, D.C., that de Blasio compared to the Republican "Contract with America." The mayor traveled to Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin to talk about income inequality.
De Blasio finally endorsed Clinton in October after no candidate would commit to his planned presidential forum on inequality, and he has been an enthusiastic supporter of his former boss ever since.
The mayor has criticized Republicans Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and said that Clinton has a better vision and the ability to push that vision through Congress than Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.
When news came that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg might consider a run, de Blasio went on the attack, saying that the former mayor was too rich to be president and reiterated his strong support for Clinton.
"This country is not going to turn to billionaires to solve problems created by billionaires," de Blasio said of Bloomberg.
"My candidate for president is Hillary Rodham Clinton. She will be the next president of the United States. I'm absolutely convinced of that."
De Blasio emphasized that he will only make the trip if cleanup efforts from this week's snowstorm are complete and no other emergency events occur, according to his statement. He and McCray are scheduled to be in Iowa from Friday until Tuesday.
