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Enjoying a surge of support from progressive and younger voters, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is a big step closer to becoming mayor of the nation’s most populous city.
While the Associated Press had yet to project a winner in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary Tuesday night, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo saw the writing on the wall, telling supporters at an election night party that Mamdani “won.”
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assembly member from Queens who is originally from Uganda, topped former three-term governor and nine other candidates in a crowded primary field in an election that was determined by ranked-choice voting. He will be considered the frontrunner in November’s general election in the nation’s most populous city, which is heavily blue.
“Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night, and he put together a great campaign,” Cuomo said Tuesday. “He touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote. He really ran a highly impactful campaign. I called him. I congratulated him. I applaud him sincerely for his effort.”
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“Now I want to look at all the numbers, as they come in and this ranked choice voting and, what the numbers actually say and do,” Cuomo said.
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As the unofficial results of the first round of voting trickled in, in which Mamdani was leading as of Tuesday night, Cuomo told his supporters that his campaign would be “having conversations” about how to proceed to help both the Democratic Party and New York City moving forward.
And a Cuomo campaign aide, following the former governor’s speech, said Cuomo is leaving the door open for a possible run as third party or independent candidate in November.
“Again, I want to applaud the assemblyman for a really smart and good and impactful campaign. Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won. And, we’re going to take a look. We’ll make some decisions,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani, who, among other things, proposed to eliminate fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, make CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freeze rents on municipal housing, and “free childcare” for children up to age five, was boosted recently after winning an endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The backing of the progressive rock star and New York City’s most prominent leader on the left was followed a week later by an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the progressive champion and two-time Democratic presidential nominee runner-up.
With multiple candidates on the left running in the primary, the endorsements by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders helped to consolidate the support of progressive voters behind Mamdani.
Once far down in public opinion polls, Mamdami surged the past couple of months to second place as he narrowed the gap with Cuomo.
Cuomo’s campaign in the closing weeks of the primary criticized Mamdani as a “dangerously inexperienced legislator” while touting that the former governor “managed a state and managed crises, from COVID to Trump.”
“The mayor of the city of New York is the CEO of one of the largest corporations on the globe. This is not a job for a novice,” Cuomo said on the eve of the primary. “This is not a job… for on-the-job training. We need someone who knows what they’re doing on day one because your lives depend on it.”
Cuomo and his campaign also targeted Mamdani for his controversial and defiant stance against Israel, which critics suggested touched on antisemitism.
“We are against calls to globalize the intifada, declaring open season on Jewish people. We are against those who would glorify Hamas terrorists, who are destined to kill Jewish people,” Cuomo said on the eve of the primary as he took aim at Mamdani.
But the attacks apparently weren’t enough to dissuade New York City voters.
Mamdani now advances to November’s general election, where he’ll face Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the volunteer crime-fighting patrols known as the Guardian Angels. Sliwa, for a second straight election cycle, is the Republican nominee for mayor.
Also on the ballot in November is incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat elected in 2021, who is running for re-election as an independent. Adams earlier this year dropped his Democratic primary bid as his approval ratings sank to historic lows.
Adams’ poll numbers were sinking even before he was indicted last year on five counts, which accused the mayor of bribery and fraud as part of an alleged “long-running” scheme to personally profit from contacts with foreign officials.
The mayor made repeated overtures to Trump, and the Justice Department earlier this year dismissed the corruption charges, so Adams could potentially work with the Trump administration on its illegal immigration crackdown.
And because New York City allows candidates to run on multiple party lines, Cuomo could run as an independent or third-party candidate in the general election, adding to the electoral drama.
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