On the last Sunday before early voting begins in the 2025 New York City mayoral election, the race’s remaining candidates pounded the pavement and the airwaves to kick off the final stretch of the campaign.
With just 16 days to go until Election Day, set for Nov. 4, and six days until the start of early voting next Saturday, here is how each candidate spent their Sunday.
Mamdani’s busy Sunday after birthday
Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, kept busy on Sunday, starting the day on the trail with an address to the congregants of St. Albans Congregational Church in St. Albans, Queens. Mamdani has made a habit of visiting churches on Sundays and addressing congregants about his plans for affordability, housing, and public safety.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, turned 34 on Saturday, and asked supporters to celebrate his birthday by signing up for a canvassing shift. In September, Mamdani, having hit the Campaign Finance Board’s fundraising cap, asked for volunteers to stop giving money to his campaign and instead sign up for a canvassing shift.
The candidate has amassed a historic, youth-led ground operation composed of over 75,000 volunteers knocking doors across New York City’s five boroughs. On Sunday, Mamdani stopped by a canvassing event in Astoria, Queens before heading to Queens College for a Metro IAF Mayoral Action Forum. It was unclear if other candidates planned to participate in the forum.
After the forum, Mamdani planned to head to Coney Island to participate in a campaign-sponsored “Cost of Living Classic Signature Soccer Tournament.” The candidate, who has focused almost entirely on New York City’s affordability crisis throughout the duration of his campaign, has hosted various activities for the public, including a citywide scavenger hunt and a paper-shredding event.
With just over two weeks until Election Day, Mamdani is leading in most polls by a wide margin. All major polls taken since August show Mamdani leading by at least eight points, with most predicting a Mamdani victory by double digits and some showing the Assembly member with a margin of victory over 20 points.
Cuomo makes radio, TV Rounds
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost the Democratic nomination to Mamdani in June and who is now running on an independent party line, spent Sunday on radio and TV, slamming Mamdani’s campaign and reflecting on Thursday’s mayoral debate.
Cuomo started on 77 WABC’s “The Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis” at 8 a.m., where he said the debate made clear that Mamdani’s plans have no financial future. Catsimatidis called Cuomo “the real Democrat” and said that Mamdani “got this nomination by accident because of ranked-choice voting.”
“Basically, you have a civil war going on in the Democratic party,” Cuomo said, citing the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member. Cuomo said that DSA and its members, which include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, are “radicals.”
Though Cuomo cannot run on the Democratic party line, having lost the primary, he still identifies as a Democrat and worries that the election of a democratic socialist as mayor would deeply hurt the city.
He reiterated his longtime argument that Mamdani, who has served in the New York State Assembly for five years, lacks the management and political experience necessary to run a city as enormous and wealthy as New York, which boasts 300,000 city employees and a budget bigger than that of some countries.
Cuomo called Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee and Guardian Angels founder, who is polling third according to most polls, a “spoiler” for the race.
“A vote for Curtis Sliwa is really a vote for Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo said, calling on Sliwa to drop out of the race.
In an interview on ABC 7’s “Up Close with Bill Ritter,” which was filmed Friday and aired Sunday, Cuomo said his viability in the race is dependent on whether both his opponents remain in the race come election day: “The math is tricky,” he said.
Cuomo said Sliwa is remaining in the race as a “spoiler” placed by the “Republican party bosses” who “want to see Zohran Mamdani win for their own political purposes.”
Ritter asked Cuomo about a radio interview he gave Friday in which he said that President Donald Trump, a staunch critic of Mamdani, could call Sliwa and get him to drop out of the race — Sliwa has indicated that he is committed to staying in the race no matter what. Ritter asked Cuomo whether, if this were to happen and Cuomo were to win because of a narrowed field, he would be “beholden” to Trump.
Cuomo said that during his term as governor and Trump’s first term as president, he had “battle royale” with Trump, denying that he would be unwilling to battle with Trump over issues pertaining to New York City.
He then sat for an interview on CBS 2’s “The Point With Marcia Kramer,” where he discussed the debate and the state of the race. He also celebrated on Sunday the launch of a new “Southeast Asians for Cuomo” coalition.
Sliwa visits synagogue, street festival, and rally against shelter
Republican candidate Sliwa, meanwhile, started his day at the 5th Avenue Synagogue’s “Defeating Mamdani Event” to speak to congregants about the race.
Later in the morning, Sliwa joined a “No More Shelters Rally” led by Chinese American community members at southern Brooklyn’s Coyle Street to call for the city to reverse plans to build a homeless shelter in the neighborhood.
The group New Yorkers First, which supports Sliwa in the race for mayor, organized the event after plans for affordable housing on Coyle Street were reportedly converted to plans for a homeless shelter without community approval.
“The Stand for Coyle Street Rally represents growing frustration citywide with top-down policy reversals that ignore the needs and concerns of local residents,” the news release from New Yorkers First reads.
After participating in the rally, Sliwa headed to Whitestone, Queens, for the Italian Heritage Street Festival. Sliwa was set to sit for a 5 p.m. Fox News interview and visit ISKCON Temple in Brooklyn at 6:20 p.m.
