New York mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo escalated their attacks against each other on the campaign trail Monday, less than 24 hours after Mayor Eric Adams’ exit from the race effectively set up a two-man clash in the race’s final weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, slammed Cuomo, the former governor who is running as an independent, over his \u201crecord of disgrace.\u201d Meanwhile, Cuomo blasted out statements criticizing Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman, over a litany of his past statements and challenged him to a slate of debates ahead of the November election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The back-and-forth suggests that Mamdani, who has held a consistent lead in the polls, aims to deny Cuomo the momentum he is seeking after Adams dropped out. Cuomo hopes he can cobble together an anti-Mamdani coalition that would allow him to close the gap with just over five weeks to Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But given Adams’ relatively low standing in the polls, political strategists who are watching the race closely said they were skeptical that his decision to end his campaign would alter Mamdani\u2019s status as the front-runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fact that this happened when we\u2019re five weeks out, that suggests to me there isn\u2019t much of an opportunity to significantly change the narrative of this race,\u201d said Basil Smikle, a Democratic strategist who previously was the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. Smikle also noted that early voting begins Oct. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVoters are really starting to lock in,\u201d he continued. \u201cA lot of momentum has been building [for Mamdani] since the primary. Not only has he raised more money, but he\u2019s also gotten a lot of endorsements. There has to be a really compelling move for the voter to sort of radically change how they view this race \u2014 and I don\u2019t know that that\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani defeated Cuomo in the June Democratic primary, prompting Cuomo to continue his bid as an independent. Adams was elected as a Democrat in 2021 but decided to seek re-election as an independent following federal corruption charges that the Justice Department ultimately sought to dismiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public polling of the race conducted before Adams dropped out has shown Mamdani well ahead of Cuomo, with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa trailing even further behind and Adams running a distant fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even with Adams out of the race, Cuomo doesn’t have a straightforward path to consolidating the anti-Mamdani vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For one, Adams\u2019 name will remain on ballots this fall, since his decision to drop out came after the deadline to print them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while polling that has been conducted to test whom voters support in the event of Adams’ exit has shown Cuomo benefiting, a substantial number of those voters also flock to Sliwa. Those surveys indicate that Cuomo\u2019s strongest shot at the mayoralty would come from a one-on-one race against Mamdani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani, at a brief campaign event in Washington Heights, in uptown Manhattan, ripped Cuomo over what he said were cuts his gubernatorial administration made to a state housing program that had provided rental subsidies to people who\u2019d lived in homeless shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing next to a woman he said was affected by those cuts, Mamdani said, \u201cWhat we see still on that ballot showcased by Andrew Cuomo is a record of broken promises, a record of disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said a Cuomo win would \u201cclear the way for Donald Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within the hour, the Cuomo campaign blasted out an email criticizing Mamdani for what it said was his refusal to apologize for having called the New York Police Department \u201cracist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cuomo has frequently attacked Mamdani over comments in 2020, when he called the NYPD \u201cracist\u201d and \u201canti-queer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cuomo also challenged Mamdani to five debates \u2014 one in every borough of New York City \u2014 before the Nov. 4 election. Cuomo also attacked Mamdani in a statement as \u201ca 33-year old, dangerously inexperienced social media influencer who is not up to the task of being Mayor,\u201d calling him \u201cunqualified\u201d and \u201cuntrustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani has more recently softened the years-old comments about the NYPD, saying he made them during \u201cthe height of frustration\u201d following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in 2020, and he said this month he\u2019d apologize for the remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later Monday, at a candidate forum at a studio in the Apollo Theater, Mamdani and Cuomo, appearing separately, took less hostile approaches, discussing issues like affordability, education, homelessness and how to deal with threats from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event, hosted by a nonprofit volunteer service group and billed as a mayoral forum to address Black women, put the candidates front and center before one of the city\u2019s most crucial voting blocs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cuomo and Adams had both leaned heavily on Black communities across New York City for support. A New York Times analysis of the results of the June Democratic primary found, for example, that Cuomo carried more than twice as many precincts where more than 70% of the residents are Black than Mamdani did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mamdani has focused on making inroads with various Black communities in recent months, putting his campaign\u2019s focus on affordability at the center of those efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polls released this month by The New York Times\/Siena College and Quinnipiac University, before Adams dropped out, both showed Mamdani leading Cuomo among Black voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Trump weighed in on the race Monday, threatening on social media to withhold federal funding to New York City if Mamdani is elected in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City. Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises,\u201d Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social. \u201cHe won\u2019t be getting any of it, so what\u2019s the point of voting for him?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump in recent weeks has also criticized Sliwa, saying this month in a television interview that he is \u201cnot exactly prime time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sliwa, in his appearance at Monday\u2019s event in Harlem, addressed the insult and rejected any insinuation that he would follow Adams in exiting the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGuess what, I ain\u2019t droppin’ out,\u201d he said, raising his voice. \u201cLet the people vote on Nov. 4.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n