Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Friday morning she will not seek 2016 re-election. She wants to put her focus on helping the city progress rather than her campaign.

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Friday morning that she will not seek re-election.

This decision comes just as the city is preparing for the trials of six police officers charged in 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s death from a spinal cord injury while in police custody. Baltimore also recently approved a $6.4 million dollar settlement for Gray’s family.

Rawlings-Blake said at a press conference:
"I've realized that every moment I spent planning for a campaign or re-election was time that I was taking away from my responsibilities to the city…because of that, I’ve made the decision not to seek re-election."

Observers noted after the unrest following Gray’s death and the candidates vying to succeed her, Rawlings-Blake faces a harder chance in winning the 2016 election. But she was confident she could win as she she commented that she hadn’t lost a campaign since middle school.

She said: 
"It's not that I didn't think I could win, I just had to ask myself the question at what cost.”

Her focus will now revolve around moving the city forward rather than campaigning.

Rawlings-Blake, the first black woman to head the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has served in her office since 2010 and her term will expire in 2016.

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