Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will stay in the New York City mayoral race as an independent candidate despite his stunning loss in the Democratic Party’s primary election to self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
“The fight to save our city isn’t over,” Cuomo said in a video published on Monday on the X social media platform. “The general election is in November and I’m in it to win it.”
Mamdani, a little-known member of the New York state assembly when he launched his campaign, scored a surprise victory over Cuomo, a centrist Democrat who served as the state’s governor for 10 years before resigning in 2021 amid sexual abuse allegations.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old Uganda-born Muslim of Indian descent, won 56% of votes versus Cuomo’s 44% in the ranked-choice voting system used in last month’s primary.
Cuomo, 67, a veteran politician who became an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump during the global pandemic of 2020-21, said in the video that only a small percentage of the electorate voted in the primary.
He also hopes to make Mamdani’s lack of experience into a campaign issue.
“My opponent Mr. Mamdani offers slick slogans, but no real solutions,” Cuomo said in the video.
Mamdani and Cuomo will face the current mayor, Eric Adams, and the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol, in November’s general election.
Adams decided against running in the Democratic primary, with his popularity sliding in the wake of a series of corruption scandals and the perception that he was beholden to Trump after the administration dropped federal charges against him.
Mamdani’s victory has caused unease amongst some Democrats, worried that his left-of-center political views may make New York City an easy target for Republican attacks.
Some Democrats are also concerned that Mamdani may trigger an exodus of businesses and wealthy residents from the city, the nation’s financial capital and its largest population centre.
The day after Mamdani’s victory, Trump called him a “100% Communist Lunatic,” while the Republican party’s congressional campaign arm promised to tie him to every vulnerable Democrat in next year’s midterm elections.
Minutes after Cuomo’s video was released, Mamdani responded by posting a link to a donation page for his campaign. Within an hour, his post received over 26,000 likes, compared with around 800 for Cuomo’s video.
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