Dark-horse socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani staged a stunning upset Tuesday night by knocking off former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary.
“Tonight we made history,” Mamdani told supporters at his victory party after midnight. “In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘It always seems impossible until it is done.’ My friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.”
The 33-year-old Queens assemblyman defied polls and expectations as he notched a likely insurmountable 7-point lead over Cuomo, the three-term governor who hoped to make a political comeback after resigning in disgrace in 2021.
“Tonight is his night. He deserved it, he won,” a seemingly shell-shocked Cuomo, 67, said as he conceded to Mamdani.
The first round of the ranked-choice voting contest had Mamdani ahead with 43.51% of votes, followed by Cuomo’s 36.42% and city Comptroller Brad Lander’s 11.31%, Board of Elections unofficial results show. Mamdani carried roughly 432,000 votes to Cuomo’s 362,000, the results show.
The state lawmaker didn’t crack 50% of votes, so the contest will still be decided July 1 once the other rounds of ranked-choice votes are calculated.
But the first-round totals still put the avowed democratic socialist within sight of becoming New York City’s next mayor.
Cuomo conceded he lost the primary as he addressed his campaign’s watch party — and signaled he may not run in the November general election on an independent line, as widely assumed.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said, as he praised Mamdani’s grassroots campaign, which mobilized young, far-left voters with catchy campaign promises and slogans focusing on affordability.
“It’s affordability, stupid,” quipped longtime New York City political operative Kevin McCabe, in a reference to Bill Clinton, about the issue that decided the race.
A win by Mamdani is bound to have sweeping impacts beyond the Big Apple and signal the rising power of the Democrats’ progressive wing, especially over aging party stalwarts such as Cuomo.
His near-insurmountable lead hints he could be replicating what his backer and fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did in 2018, as she ran as a charismatic outsider to topple entrenched Democrat Joe Crowley — only he did it across the whole city, a political veteran told The Post.
Cuomo could barely be seen actually on the campaign trail as he relied on his name recognition, backing of powerful unions and attacks against Mamdani’s thin legislative record and ample history of criticizing Israel.
The scandal-scarred ex-governor entered the race in March as the clear frontrunner, but saw his polling lead steadily chipped away by Mamdani, who waged a social media-friendly campaign heavy on proposed freebies — which he plans to pay for by hiking taxes on billionaires and businesses.
“He should’ve learned a lesson from the terrible, Rose Garden race that Joe Crowley ran against AOC. Like Crowley, Cuomo was arrogant and grossly underestimated his opponent,” said Democratic operative Ken Frydman.
1 comment:
Glad Cuomo lost, worried Mandani won, sliwa walden or bust
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