Disgraced former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is attempting to rebrand his campaign strategy for New York City mayor — weeks after losing in the Democratic primary to socialist Zohran Mamdani, Politico reported on Wednesday.
Cuomo’s recent moves to revamp his messaging strategy include expanding his presence on social media and ramping up his attacks against Mamdani’s campaign, according to Politico. The report comes as Mamdani, a Democratic socialist and New York state assemblyman, is widely seen as the frontrunner in the mayoral race, having defeated Cuomo and a slew of other candidates in the June 24 Democratic primary.
Cuomo, who is continuing to run for mayor as an independent, said in an August X post that “New Yorkers need to know: can the assemblyman [Mamdani] keep up the pace of holding down a full time job?”
“It’s not looking good,” Cuomo added.
In July, the former governor also blasted Mamdani as a “do-nothing assemblyman” and a “fraud” in a social media post. Additionally, Melissa DeRosa, a top Cuomo strategist, slammed Mamdani as a “nepo baby” in an Aug. 5 post to X.
Mamdani’s mother is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, and his father is a professor at Columbia University. Cuomo is notably the son of the late Mario Cuomo, who served as New York’s governor from 1983 to 1994. The elder Cuomo was widely speculated to be considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 1988 and 1992, but ultimately declined to run in both elections.
“In case you forgot, I’m Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, grandson of Andrea. Welcome to the heavyweight bout, @ZohranKMamdani,” Cuomo wrote in August in a post to X. “This is a two man race. You look tired already. It’s just the second round.”
Cuomo, who is 67 years old, has also recently leaned into using more Gen Z slang in his campaign messaging strategy, Politico reported. Mamdani has prioritized attempting to energize young voters throughout his mayoral campaign.
Still, former Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a longtime critic of Cuomo, told Politico in an interview that Cuomo “appears to be trying on different personalities” and different political messaging “in a clinical, cynical manner.”
“It’s an age of authenticity, which rewards a Donald Trump, rewards a Bernie Sanders and rewards a Zohran,” de Blasio told the outlet. “Andrew is not giving people a reason to believe. He appears to be trying on different personalities, different messages, in a clinical, cynical manner. Voters see right through it.”
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told Politico in response to the ex-mayor’s comments that “the only thing de Blasio did authentically was drive the city’s trajectory into the ground for 8 years.”
“Talking about authenticity from a guy who changed his name, dyes his hair and walked the cornfields of Iowa instead of doing his job only to get 0 percent in the polls is rich,” Azzopardi told Politico. “The only thing de Blasio did authentically was drive the city’s trajectory into the ground for 8 years, but admittedly, at that he was very good.”
Cuomo served as governor of New York from 2011 to 2021 and ultimately resigned in disgrace amid sexual harassment allegations. However, Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.
“We know that no amount of reinvention through a new online persona can distract from the fact that we just had a Democratic primary where New Yorkers spoke loudly and clearly, where we defeated Andrew Cuomo’s campaign by 13 points,” Mamdani told reporters on Monday.
Cuomo’s mayoral bid was notably faced with some campaign finance setbacks earlier this year.
“Attacking Zohran for inexperience and for policy positions that are too far left out of the mainstream are still effective attacks,” Democratic consultant Austin Shafran told Politico. “But personal attacks that reek of hypocrisy won’t move the negatives much on Zohran. For every point he scores he’s going to lose half a point for throwing stones when he grew up in a glided [gilded] glass house.”
A spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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