He won’t Cuo away.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed Monday that he’ll mount an independent run for New York City mayor – but vowed to drop out if he’s not in the lead to beat socialist Zohran Mamdani come September.
Cuomo officially announced his intent in a video released on X that acknowledged his drubbing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary but not the chorus of high-profile calls for him to stay out of the general election race.
“The general election is in November and I am in it to win it,” the failed comeback candidate said, arguing that only a fraction of New Yorkers had voted in the June primary.
The announcement followed Cuomo pledging that he’d ditch his bid if he’s not leading anti-Mamdani candidates in September.
“If it’s me, fine. If it’s not me, I will defer,” Cuomo told The Post outside his Manhattan apartment.
The plan had been initially proposed by longshot independent candidate Jim Walden as a way to make it a more-competitive two-person race and increase chances of defeating Mamdani.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, will face Republican Curtis Sliwa and three independents – Mayor Eric Adams, Cuomo and Walden – on November’s ballot.
The upstart Queens assemblyman currently leads the five-candidate pack of mayoral hopefuls with 40% of the vote, a new poll by Data for Progress found.
Cuomo holds a distant second place, with 24%, followed by Adams’ 15% and Sliwa’s 14%, the poll found.
The crowded, divided field has stoked already raging fears among many New York poohbahs, including former Gov. David Paterson and billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, that Mamdani will walk away with the election.
The bigs have been mulling whether to coalesce behind Adams or Cuomo as the shot to thwart Mamdani.
The socialist is expected to meet Tuesday and Wednesday with local business leaders, whose reactions to his potential election have ranged from skepticism to outright panic.
“I go into each of these meetings knowing what I know, knowing what I believe and interested in what I can also learn from each and every one of the people who have made the city what it is,” he said in a statement to the New York Times Monday, vowing to listen to the business bigwigs.
Mamdani, during an unrelated news conference, also said he won the primary because his campaign focused on working New Yorkers as Cuomo and Adams tripped over themselves to “make deals in backrooms with billionaires.”
“What we saw was New Yorkers’ hunger for a new kind of politics focused on working people,” Mamdani said. “A politics where far more New Yorkers than before could see themselves in it, in those same policies. And I understand that it is difficult for the former governor to come to terms with that, because it is a repudiation of the politics that he has practiced, that he has known for so many years.”
Adams, meanwhile, quickly blasted Cuomo’s pledge as self-serving.
“He knew that I already made it clear I was not going to be in the Democratic primary. I was going to be in the independent line. He knew that Mamdani was going to be on the Working Families Party line. So why did he all of a sudden say, ‘Now I’m going to join the independent petition?’” Adams told reporters at an unrelated event.
“He knew the scenario. His desire was to – I’m going to force Eric out of the race.”
Hizzoner accused the ex-gov on Monday of backhandedly using Walden to launder a selfish bid to stay in the race after his embarrassing primary loss to Mamdani, calling it a “Cuomo concoction.”
“This is a typical Andrew Cuomo playbook,” Adams said. “You send someone out, make the announcement independently, and then you come later, it seems like you’re the fairest person.”
Adams noted that poll numbers leading up to the primary had Cuomo ahead by double digits.
Mamdani trounced Cuomo 56% to 44% in the final ranked-choice primary tabulations.
“If we’re going to use these methods of making the determination that they have already proven inaccurate, why are we going to put the risk of New Yorkers by someone who has not kept his word?” Adams said. “As he has a consistent record of not keeping his word, why are we going to trust him now?
“He just can’t help himself, and you can’t trust him at his word.”
Adams wasn’t the only New Yorker less than jazzed by Cuomo’s bid.
The X post announcing Cuomo’s return to the race quickly developed a “ratio” – which is social media speak for receiving more replies than likes or retweets, a sign of an intensely negative reaction.
The social media phenom Mamdani was among the commenters, snarkily posting a link to contribute to his campaign.
Mamdani’s reply received 33,000 likes as of Monday afternoon, while Cuomo’s own post only received 1,000.
Other commenters and X users made dark jokes referring to the accusations of sexual harassment that led Cuomo to resign as governor in 2021.
“True to form, Andrew Cuomo once again refuses to accept that no means no,” Mamdani’s fellow socialist Assembly member Phara Souffrant Forest (D-Brooklyn) tweeted.
Sliwa’s campaign, when asked for comment on Cuomo’s choice, merely repeated a statement released Sunday as rumors swirled about the ex-governor staying in the general election race.
“While they play musical chairs on a sinking ship, I’m out campaigning in NYC, listening, leading, and fighting to win it for the people,” Sliwa said of Adams and Cuomo.
— Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton
