Socialist Zohran Mamdani boasted Saturday he’s the lefty candidate who’ll beat ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in next month’s Democratic mayoral primary — while taking a victory lap for scoring a key endorsement from the Working Families Party.
“We are right where we want to be,” crowed the Queens assemblyman during a Brooklyn rally surrounded by WFP supporters.
“We are clipping at his heels, and we are going to beat him on June 24,” added Mamdani in a reference to the upcoming Democratic primary. Mamdani is polling second, behind only Cuomo, in the highly contested race.
“We’re going to do so because we’ve built the most competent campaign in this cycle.”
The Working Families Party, which will have its own line in November’s general election, announced Friday Mamdani is their top choice heading into the Democratic primary.
The far-left party — which is pushing a slate of candidates in the Democratic primary in hopes of defeating Cuomo through the city’s rank-choice voting system — tapped City Comptroller Brad Lander as its second choice, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams third and state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos fourth and fifth, respectively.
Primary voters can pick up to five candidates in ranked order for the race. Mamdani is the huge favorite to get the WFP line in November, assuming he or Cuomo wins the Democratic primary.
Mamdani told supporters to follow the WFP’s guidance and rank the other preferred candidates in the order selected by party honchos, urging them: “Remember not to rank Andrew Cuomo.”
“Over the next 24 days, we will make it clear to New Yorkers that we are going to win the city that they deserve and that we are finally going to send Andrew Cuomo back to the suburbs,” he added.
A PIX 11/ Emerson College poll released Wednesday had Mamdani holding his own with Cuomo for 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting before being eliminated with a nine-point spread, 54.4% to 45.6%.
With less than a month to the primary, only a small fraction of voters appear to be up for grabs, with 3.5% of voters still undecided, according to the survey conducted May 23 to May 26.
“These are serious times and [New Yorkers] know Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate in this race with the management experience and record of results to fix what’s broken and put the city back on the right track,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
