Disgraced former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo officially announced he is contesting the New York City mayoral election to be held in November, despite his June 24 primary loss to socialist Democratic New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
Cuomo confirmed his run as an independent in a video, captioned “In it to win it,” which he posted to X on Monday afternoon. He will appear on the general election ballot under the “Fight and Deliver” ballot line, and is set to face Mamdani, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams — who is also contesting the race as an independent.
“The fight to save our city isn’t over,” Cuomo said in his announcement video, adding that “only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary.”
“Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the Democratic primary did not go the way I had hoped,” Cuomo continued. He went on to claim that Mamdani “offers slick slogans but no solutions,” while New York City “deserve[s] a mayor with the experience and ideas to make it happen.”
The former governor’s post of the video had received significantly fewer likes than Mamdani’s reply asking for contributions to his campaign, as of one hour after it went live. The video also notably received more replies than likes, a social media phenomenon widely referred to as a “ratio.”
Cuomo’s video promoted “lower rent, safer streets,” affordable childcare, and a better housing market, many ideas that his socialist opponent, Mamdani, has advocated. Mamdani is a former rapper who had controversially marked himself as both “Asian” and “African American” in a 2009 college application.
The assemblyman has backing from many left-wing political efforts, including one with ties to a China-based billionaire and a super PAC that accepted $1,000 from a Muslim cleric with links to the architects of various terrorist attacks.
Cuomo conceded the June Democratic primary hours after polls closed. On July 1, following ranked-choice voting tabulation, the New York City Board of Elections released the voting results with Mamdani receiving 56% of the vote share in the final round.
Cuomo resigned as Governor of New York in 2021, following a sexual harassment report. Cuomo had dismissed his interactions with women as “endearing” and “joking” in his resignation speech. The ex-governor, who was first elected in 2010, admitted in June that he had regretted his decision to resign.
The New York Democrat had also come under fire for his administration’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a March 2020 rule issued by his Department of Health — which prevented prevented nursing homes from turning down some patients diagnosed with COVID-19 — at least 4,000 residents of New York nursing homes died, the Daily Caller News Foundation had first reported in 2021.
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