TOM KLINGENSTEIN: The Only Way To Stop Mamdani Is To Vote Cuomo

With the election less than a month away, New Yorkers face a stark choice: turn out to vote for Andrew Cuomo or watch the city become a socialist experiment under Zohran Mamdani as mayor. Take a look at Mamdani’s…

Tom KlingensteinOct 7, 20254 min read

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With the election less than a month away, New Yorkers face a stark choice: turn out to vote for Andrew Cuomo or watch the city become a socialist experiment under Zohran Mamdani as mayor.

Take a look at Mamdani’s campaign website. Central to his socialist platform is “free everything” — free groceries, free buses, even free baby baskets. The No. 1 problem in NYC? Too few baby baskets. Who knew? This isn’t a serious way to run a city facing crime, homelessness, and housing crises.

Republicans in New York City must understand the stark reality in front of them — Curtis Sliwa can’t win. Moderate Democrats, independents, and Republicans must unite behind Cuomo and turn out in record numbers. That is the only way to stop Mamdani’s radical agenda, which would take the greatest city in the world and destroy it.

Voters need to wake up to how fundamentally destructive his ideas are. In addition to free baby baskets, Mamdani’s platform includes much more radical lunacy:

Replacing police with social workers to handle domestic disputes. Women supposedly think this is a fine idea.
Turning subway stations into “hubs” for the homeless. Will anyone want to ride the subway again?
“More affordable housing” and “freezing rent.” In practice, this means more illegal immigrants and declining real estate values.
Raising taxes on the top 1%. Sounds good—until more wealthy New Yorkers pack up for Florida.
Prioritizing “LGBTQAI” protections

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for a group that makes up roughly 3% of the population, while ignoring policies that affect the vast majority. (And no one seems to know what the “AI” stands for.)

Fighting “corporate exploitation” instead of encouraging businesses to move to New York City.

Raising taxes on corporations—another great way to keep them out of the city.

“Free healthcare,” which in practice would mean third-world healthcare standards.

Dismantling successful education programs such as the Gifted & Talented programs for elementary students. To oppose charter schools, meanwhile, limits opportunities for hardworking families.

Pushing a hostile anti-Israel agenda. Mamdani has aligned himself with anti-Zionist and pro-BDS movements, refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and declined to disavow “globalize the intifada”—positions that alienate mainstream New Yorkers and sow division.

There’s no “watered-down” version of his plan that’s workable.

Mamdani claims to champion the needy, but he’s a card-carrying member of the elite—completely disconnected from the struggles of working New Yorkers. He was raised in privilege: his mother is a filmmaker and his father a Columbia University professor. He attended the elite Bank Street School for Children and later graduated from the expensive private Bowdoin College. Despite his radical housing rhetoric, Mamdani himself lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens, while benefiting from a system that many ordinary New Yorkers struggle to access.

If voters stay home, Mandani will win and reshape New York City in ways that make it less safe, less prosperous, and less livable.

The bottom line: turnout is everything. Cuomo voters need to show up, and they need to bring their anti-Mamdani friends and family with them. Every low-propensity voter who turns out for Cuomo is effectively a vote against Mamdani. Even mobilizing half of them could swamp Mamdani’s support. It’s time for Republicans and independents to face reality: Cuomo is the only way to stop Mamdani—before it’s too late.

Tom Klingenstein is the chairman of the Claremont Institute, a public speaker, a writer, a philanthropist and a playwright.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Bingjiefu He / Wikimedia Commons)

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