NYC Mayor’s Race: One more ride for the red beret, as Curtis Sliwa campaigns to the very end

NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa led his final full-day campaign push today, traveling across the city on the rails and roads, to garner more support on the eve of Election Day .

He started his pre-Election Day tour at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn. But he was not there to campaign. Rather, in an intimate ceremony, he remembered Debrina Kawam, a homeless woman burned alive on board a stationary F train on Dec. 22, 2024. He laid a wreath at the site of the horrific incident.

Sliwa called the attack on Kawam “barbarism on rails” that he said “shattered claims of falling crime.” NYPD statistics currently show an approximate 4% decrease in transit crime year-to-date compared to the same period in 2024.

“They tout numbers while New Yorkers live in fear,” Sliwa said.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, was charged with first- and second-degree murder the day after Kawam was killed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Zepeta-Calil was in the United States illegally.

Republican Candidate for Mayor Curtis Sliwa laid a wreath for Debrina Kawam, a homeless woman who was burned alive at Coney Island- Stillwell Avenue station while riding an F bound Manhattan train on Dec. 22, 2024.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Following the somber event, team Sliwa crossed New York Harbor to meet with Staten Island residents. Sliwa, a Republican and Independent in the race, has enjoyed years-long support in the mostly conservative borough. During the 2021 mayor’s race against Democrat Eric Adams, he garnered 66% of the borough’s vote.

Curtis Sliwa lays a wreath for Debrina Kawam.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

‘Cuomo should drop out,’ Sliwa supporters say

Donning his iconic red beret — something he has worn at least since founding NYC’s Guardian Angels unarmed subway patrol in 1979 — Sliwa met with political activist and patriotic artist Scott LoBaido, and NYC Council candidate John Shea, a Republican hoping to unseat incumbent Kamillah Hanks, a Democrat, for the borough’s North Shore 49th District.

LoBaido, a staunch Sliwa supporter, has appeared alongside the candidate at numerous press conferences across the city, including those addressing the state’s speed camera program and similar legislative initiatives. Throughout recent months, LoBaido vehemently opposed calls for Sliwa — a Republican — to withdraw from the race, particularly from supporters of candidate Andrew Cuomo.

“Cuomo should back out. He is the spoiler,” LoBaido shared on a Nov. 2 Instagram post.

Rich Azzopardi, a Cuomo campaign spokesperson, responded with a fiery statement that referenced Sliwa’s past admissions in the early 1990s that he fabricated stories about an alleged kidnapping and other incidents.

“Curtis can’t win. He can only be a spoiler,” Azzopardi said. “Their momentum is as fake as the subway crimes he confessed to fabricating to promote his vigilante group.”

After stumping in Staten Island, Sliwa will return to his hometown borough of Brooklyn. (He’s from Canarsie). Here, the candidate, who is polling in third place in the race, will rally alongside community members in Sheepshead Bay who oppose a homeless shelter that would be located in the vicinity of homes, schools and businesses.

Local homeowners have been opposing a proposed shelter for the area. According to CBS News , residents and area politicians, including Council Member Mercedes Narcisse said the development of the on-site building was originally pitched as affordable housing, not a shelter.

Sliwa attributes the planned shelter to Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and its “City of Yes” zoning overhaul plan, a program Sliwa strongly opposes.

“For over a year, this community has protested nonstop against Adams forcing a homeless shelter next to homes, schools, and small businesses,” Sliwa said in July.

Curtis Sliwa met commuters on the trains the day before Election Day 2025.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

More rallies and media spots later Monday

Meanwhile, as the day continued, Sliwa’s sister and media director of his campaign, Maria Sliwa, told amNewYork that Monday is “an exciting day for the Sliwa campaign,” as well as for NYC.

“Curtis, the People’s Mayor, has been campaigning nonstop daily in all the boroughs. He cares first and foremost about you, the people,” she said. “Tomorrow is the day that the people pick the next mayor — not the billionaires, paid influencers and professional politicians. This is democracy in action – one person, one vote.”

Sliwa has two media appearances scheduled for later Monday, including CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt” and “Hannity,” a program on Fox News. He will also rally for his campaign in Flatbush and Bay Ridge during the evening rush hour.

Not one to shy away from speaking to the press or the public, he also planned a late-night press availability and patrol in Manhattan, beginning at the entrance of Rockefeller Center Station on 47th Street and 6th Avenue.

With reporting by Lloyd Mitchell.