Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that he will continue his run for New York City mayor after losing to Zohran Mamdani in last month’s Democratic primary.
“I’m in it to win it,” Cuomo said in a post on X.
Cuomo stepped down as New York governor in 2021 after being hit with numerous sexual harassment allegations, but had been considered the front-runner in the Democratic primary due to his longstanding political ties and influence in the Democratic establishment.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, wound up surging ahead of Cuomo in the final weeks of the campaign as he touted a progressive vision for a new direction for the city.
In his post on Monday, Cuomo sharply criticized Mamdani as offering “slick slogans but no real solutions.”
“We need a city with lower rent, safer streets, where buying your first home is once again possible, where childcare won’t bankrupt you,” he said, leaning into the messaging that was at the core of Mamdani’s campaign. “That’s the New York City we know, that’s the one that’s still possible. You haven’t given up on it and you deserve a mayor with the experience and ideas to make it happen again — and the guts to take on anyone who stands in the way.”
He also seemed to acknowledge complaints from some of his supporters that he had not campaigned enough during the primary.
“Every day I’m going to be hitting the streets, meeting you where you are, to hear the good and the bad, problems and solutions, because for the next few months it’s my responsibility to earn your vote. So let’s do this,” he said.
And while he and his allies repeatedly hammered Cuomo’s experience fighting back against President Donald Trump as a foundational piece of his bid, the idea that the city needed an experienced hand to stand up to Trump, Cuomo only mentioned Trump in passing during his remarks. Instead, he grounded most of his pitch to voters on everyday issues, including affordability concerns Mamdani leveraged into his successful bid.
Mamdani responded to the news on X with a message that criticized both Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running a third-party bid in the fall.
“While Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams trip over each other to win the approval of billionaires in backrooms, our campaign remains focused on working New Yorkers and their clear desire for a different kind of politics,” he wrote.
And in the hours ahead of Cuomo’s announcement, as footage surfaced of Cuomo filming a video on the streets of New York, Mamdani needled his opponent on X by accusing him of trying to copy the Democratic nominee’s successful social video strategy.
While Cuomo didn’t outline the mechanics for how he’ll run in November, he’s expected to run on the ballot line belonging to the “Fight and Deliver” party, which he created a few months ago to plan for this very scenario and give him a Plan B if he failed to win the Democratic nomination.
Cuomo conceded the primary on election night last month, but it was unclear at the time whether he would continue on as an independent.
“Tonight was not our night. Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night, and he put together a great campaign, and he touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote, and he really ran a highly impactful campaign. I called him. I congratulated him,” he said at the time. “He deserved it, he won.”
In addition to Mamdani and Adams, Cuomo will also face former prosecutor Jim Walden, who is also running as an independent, while Guardian Angels founder and radio show host Curtis Sliwa is the Republican nominee.
Mamdani’s opponents have argued that they could have another chance to defeat him in the general election, even though the city leans overwhelmingly Democratic. They have sought to frame the Democratic nominee as too liberal to be palatable to general election voters, a frame Mamdani has bucked by arguing his campaign is “relentlessly focused on the needs of working people.”
One of those Mamdani critics, former New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson, called on the rest of the field to eventually fall behind the candidate who appears to be best positioned to defeat Mamdani in the fall instead of all remaining in the race.
In a letter to his supporters announcing his decision, Cuomo evoked Paterson’s call, arguing that “all of us who love New York City must be united in running the strongest possible candidate against Zohran Mamdani in the November general election for mayor.”
