(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SAYING: "I'm a New Yorker.

I've known Trump's a bully.

This is not news to me or anyone else here and I know how to take him on." The Mayor of America's largest city officially joined the 2020 presidential race on Thursday.

(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SAYING: "I'm Bill de Blasio and I'm running for President because it's time we put working people first." He's presenting himself as a champion of progressive issues from free childcare to criminal justice reform.

And he touted his record, now in his second term in city hall.

(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SAYING: "We are raising the wage to $15 an hour...You will have paid sick leave." He's not the first mayor to consider trading Gracie Mansion for the White House.

Rudy Giuliani made a run in 2008.

Michael Bloomberg very nearly made a go for it in 2016, and had contemplated doing so again in 2020.

But big-city mayors don't have a great track-record of winning national elections.

The closest was Grover Cleveland.

He was mayor of Buffalo.

But he was also New York's governor in between.

De Blasio faces an uphill battle to stand out among nearly two dozen Democrats, including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.

According to a recent poll, most New Yorkers feel unenthused about the mayor's presidential aspirations.

His popularity took a hit after his administration got tangled up in a federal investigation of key De Blasio donors in an alleged pay-to-play scheme.

The mayor was cleared of wrongdoing.

He'll hit the road almost immediately - traveling to Iowa and South Carolina this weekend.