Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo reentered the New York City mayor’s race as an independent candidate last week after suffering a double-digit loss at the hands of Zohran Mamdani in the June 24 Democratic primary.
While Cuomo says he is “in it to win it,” he comes into the general election as an underdog — with a significant disadvantage compared to the primary.
The moderate Cuomo has lost much of the institutional support that buoyed him during the Democratic contest — including a coalition of numerous local and national pols, the city’s most powerful labor unions, and deep-pocketed donors. He was also supported by a super PAC that spent over $22 million on boosting his campaign and slamming the democratic socialist Mamdani in the final weeks of the race.
Among Cuomo’s primary supporters, several have already declared for Mamdani, others are throwing in with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams — who is also running a longshot independent campaign, and many more are still holding their powder.
Cuomo is attempting to run a different sort of campaign than he did in the primary, in which he limited interactions with the media and the public and projected an air of inevitability around his candidacy.
Campaign reboot is Cuomo’s last hope
This time around, Cuomo says he is focused on hitting the streets and pressing the flesh. He appears to be following Mamdani’s lead in using highly produced social media videos to communicate with voters.
“I played it safe, which is very uncharacteristic for me, as you know, but it was a mistake, and New Yorkers deserve a more vigorous debate,” Cuomo said of his primary campaign on Fox5 last week.
But is Cuomo’s new strategy enough to propel him to a win in the general election after Democratic voters, who hold a 7-to-1 advantage in the city, already rejected him in the primary?
Democratic strategist Alyssa Cass, who ran former city Comptroller Scott Stringer’s failed mayoral campaign this year, said that if Cuomo could not win the primary with all of the advantages he had in that race, there is no path for him in the general.
“There wasn’t a path for Andrew Cuomo with tens of millions of dollars, the support of most elected Democrats, and the business community,” Cass told amNewYork. “If there wasn’t a path for him with it, I’m not sure how there could be any path without it.”
The major unions and several elected officials who backed Cuomo have defected to Mamdani, while some of the big-money donors who fueled his super PAC, like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, are going with Adams.
When asked how Cuomo will forge ahead without the Democratic establishment behind him, his spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said: “We’re running a more energetic and focused race where we’re speaking directly to New Yorkers and communicating the governor’s plans to make New York City a more affordable place.”
“Most New Yorkers are not hardcore Trumpers, nor do they believe socialism is the answer, and they are going to be the ones who decide this race,” he added.
Polls indicate Mamdani momentum
Slingshot Strategies, where Cass is a partner, published a poll earlier this month showing Mamdani leading Cuomo by a 10-point margin in November’s general election.
A string of other recent public polls also have Mamdani with a significant lead over Cuomo and his other competitors: Adams, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and independent attorney Jim Walden. Cuomo has been polling second to Mamdani in those surveys — flipping the dynamic through most of the primary, where Cuomo held a significant lead over Mamdani and every other candidate for most of the race.
After a few weeks of internal campaign deliberation, the former governor reentered the contest with the proposal that the anti-Mamdani candidates commit to dropping out and consolidate around whomever is leading amongst them come September. However, that seems quite unlikely as Adams and Sliwa have both made clear that they are not going anywhere.
Trip Yang, another Democratic strategist who is not working for any of the mayoral candidates this cycle, said he believes Cuomo’s only path is to convince Adams and Sliwa to support him.
“If these other two candidates could actively not fundraise and campaign and support Cuomo, or implicitly support Cuomo, so it’s more of a one-on-one with Cuomo and Mamdani, that is Cuomo’s best hope,” Yang said. “The math just isn’t mathing for there to be multiple candidates against Mamdani.”
Cuomo borrowing from Mamdani playbook?
Part of Cuomo’s campaign strategy pivot post-primary is an attempt to appeal to the younger, social media-savvy voters that helped drive Mamdani to victory.
For Mamdani, clips posted online showing casual interactions with voters, patronage of local businesses, and rides on the Subway helped juxtapose the Assembly member against Cuomo’s comparatively lacking ground game. Now, with Democratic primary voters decisively favoring Mamdani, Cuomo is looking to shake more hands and garner traction on TikTok, X, and Instagram.
The former governor relaunched his campaign with a roughly 90-second video in which he wore a short sleeve shirt, smiled at the camera, and interacted with voters on Upper East Side streets. Cuomo’s campaign has since posted other such vidoes, including one that purports to show him helping a man jumpstart a car and another where he speaks to voters at several businesses on Staten Island.
But Yang said Cuomo’s embrace of social media videos seems like a cheap imitation of Mamdani’s approach.
“He’s trying to copy Zohran Mamdani’s people-powered sunny style,” Yang said. “It’s just not gonna work. It’s just not authentic. Why would voters choose a Dollar Tree version of that approach to campaigning, when Democrats have already elected Zohran Mamdani as their nominee?”
Azzopardi insisted that Cuomo’s attempt to more effectively utilize social media platforms is about reaching a greater number of voters, rather than duplicating Mamdani’s playbook.
“You’re not going to out-Mamdani Mamdani, and that’s not the plan,” Azzopardi said. “But part of bringing our vision straight to New Yorkers is going where they are, and a lot of New Yorkers use social media for news and information.”
Cass similarly said the communication pivot is unlikely to be enough for the Cuomo camp.
“It wasn’t that Zohran just did social media. It’s that he did social media that both entertained and connected,” Cass said. “Those are not things that have ever been Andrew Cuomo’s strong suit. So, they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You certainly can’t teach a dog as old as Cuomo those new tricks. It’s not about checking the box. It’s about connecting with people, and he didn’t.”
Though Cuomo can adjust his tactics, Cass said, it is difficult to turn around his public image at this point in the race.
“He didn’t lose because he didn’t do social media, he lost because who he is, what he represents, and what he is offering is fundamentally misaligned with the moment,” Cass said. “You can’t change who you are.”
