NY Mayor de Blasio joins 2020 US race

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio yesterday said he will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, despite a panning by US media and polls which suggest he faces a tough fight.

De Blasio becomes the 23rd prospective Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump must be stopped. I am Bill de Blasio and I am running for president because it's time we put the working people first," he said in a video announcing his candidacy.

"I'm a New Yorker, I've known Trump's a bully for a long time. … And I know how to take him on," he added.

De Blasio, 58, who first ran as an unapologetic leftist in 2013, said the country's money is "in the wrong hands" and added that he knows how to challenge Trump on climate change, an issue on which the president has demonstrated skepticism.

As the Democratic mayor of the nation's largest city for the past five years, he coasted to re-election in 2013.

An eye-popping 76 percent of New York City voters said de Blasio should not enter the 2020 presidential race, compared with just 18 percent who said he should, according to a Quinnipiac University poll from early April.

Since Trump came to power, de Blasio has denounced the Republican president's hardening of immigration policy and has championed the fight against climate change.