Debate and AOC Endorsement Have Cuomo Feeling the Warmth

Former governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, who runs for New York mayor as an unbiased, speaks throughout a Democratic mayoral major debate at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Heart studios in New York on June 4, 2025.
Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Photographs

At Wednesday night time’s mayoral debate, Andrew Cuomo lastly got here head to head with the eight Democratic challengers making an attempt to upend his candidacy. And on Thursday morning, Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her long-awaited endorsement in a transparent effort to knock Cuomo off his front-runner perch.

The congresswoman introduced Thursday that she can be endorsing Queens assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, putting him first within the ranked-choice major. Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist who first entered the legislature in 2021, has persistently polled in second place behind Cuomo for months and has slowly begun to shut the hole because the June 24 major attracts nearer.

“Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated an actual capacity on the bottom to place collectively a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that’s strongest to guide the pack,” she instructed the New York Occasions in an interview. “Within the last stretch of the race, we have to get very actual about that.”

Ocasio-Cortez mentioned she plans to rank Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams second on her poll, comptroller Brad Lander third, former comptroller Scott Stringer as her fourth alternative, and Brooklyn state senator Zellnor Myrie fifth.

The congresswoman’s choice of the extra average Adams as her second alternative seems to be an acknowledgement of the speaker’s energy with Black and Latino voters, a key facet of Cuomo’s base. “Even when the whole left coalesced round anybody candidate, an ideological coalition remains to be inadequate for us to win,” Ocasio-Cortez instructed the Occasions. “We have now to have a real working-class coalition.”

In the course of the debate, the candidates relished the chance to go after Cuomo, usually utilizing an unrelated query to launch a volley on the longtime front-runner. Mamdani invoked the previous governor when requested how he would cope with President Donald Trump if elected mayor.

“I’m Donald Trump’s worst nightmare as a progressive Muslim immigrant who really fights for the issues that I imagine in, and the distinction between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my marketing campaign isn’t funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.,” he mentioned. “I don’t have to choose up the telephone from Invoice Ackman or Ken Langone. I’ve to choose up the telephone for the greater than 20,000 New Yorkers who contributed a mean donation of about $80 to interrupt fundraising data and put our marketing campaign in second place.”

Given an opportunity to reply, Cuomo went after Mamdani’s robust on-line presence, saying that whereas he’s superb on Twitter, he “really produces nothing.”

“Donald Trump would undergo Mr. Mandami like a sizzling knife by way of butter. He’s been in authorities 27 minutes. He handed three payments. That’s all he’s executed,” Cuomo mentioned. “He has no expertise with Washington, no expertise in New York Metropolis. He can be Trump’s delight.”

The opposite challengers additionally landed blows in opposition to Cuomo. Former state assemblymember Michael Blake took a query about public security and used his time to allude to the quite a few allegations of sexual harassment in opposition to the previous governor. “The individuals who don’t really feel secure are younger ladies, moms, and grandmothers round Andrew Cuomo. That’s the best menace to public security in New York Metropolis,” Blake mentioned.

Cuomo has lengthy denied the claims in opposition to him and, in the course of the debate, famous that a number of district attorneys finally declined to file prices in opposition to him.

When the previous governor was requested to offer an instance of a remorse he had from his time in politics, Cuomo mentioned he regretted the state of the Democratic Social gathering that may go on to permit Trump to develop into president. Adams instantly jumped on his response. “No private regrets. No regrets in relation to slicing Medicaid or well being care. No regrets in relation to slicing baby care. No regrets in relation to slow-walking PPE and vaccinations within the season of COVID to Black and brown communities. Actually? No regrets?” she mentioned.

Cuomo contested her characterization, saying that Medicaid went up beneath his tenure and that he was a pacesetter in the course of the pandemic and pressed the Trump administration for extra sources in the course of the disaster.

Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Mamdani comes as early voting is about to start out June 14. Although the congresswoman revealed her entire slate, the opposite mayoral candidates weren’t able to make their very own decisions recognized. When requested by the moderators whom they meant to rank second behind themselves, not one of the 9 challengers had been keen to disclose their slates publicly.