New York (CNN) — Andrew Cuomo announced Monday he will stay in the New York City mayoral race as a third-party candidate after his shocking loss in the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani.
Cuomo, the former New York governor, made his return to the campaign official with a video posted to his social media channels showing him walking the streets of Manhattan, shaking hands and talking selfies.
“Every day, I’m going to be hitting the streets, meeting you where you are to hear the good and the bad, problems and solutions, because for the next few months, it’s my responsibility to earn your vote,” Cuomo says in the video.
Cuomo’s decision potentially sets up the kind of November general election that New York City has not seen in decades. But it also leaves divided the opposition to Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who energized younger progressives but has stirred worry among some elected Democrats.
Mamdani dismissed Cuomo’s re-entry, saying he remains confident he will beat him again in the November election. Much of the city’s Democratic establishment has solidified behind Mamdani, including the city’s labor unions, which backed Cuomo in the primary.
“While Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams trip over themselves, to make deals in back rooms with billionaires, we are focused on fighting for working New Yorkers,” Mamdani said Monday flanked by members of the city’s American Federation of Musicians Local 802. “We are focused on the very people who make this city what it is and who are being pushed out of it.”
And he replied to Cuomo’s video on X with a link to donate to his own campaign.
Adams, the incumbent mayor who is also running as an independent, was also critical of Cuomo’s decision to stay in the race.
“Andrew is a double-digit loser in the primary,” Adams told reporters during an unrelated event on Monday. “He lost by 13 points. He had his opportunity. He spent $25 million to get his message out. New Yorkers heard it, he did not sell it, he didn’t get out and campaign.”
Cuomo, who will run in November as the “Fight and Deliver” candidate, will need to revamp his campaign operation and look for new ways to connect with supporters. During his concession speech on primary night, Cuomo acknowledged Mamdani had connected with the city’s youngest voters and ran an energetic campaign. By comparison, Cuomo limited his campaign appearances to weekend events and seldom appeared in front of reporters during the early stages of the primary campaign season.
During the one-and-a-half-minute video, Cuomo argued he could beat Mamdani and Adams in November with a larger pool of voters than the Democratic primary electorate. And he seemed to acknowledge some mistakes.
“Thank you for believing in me, in my agenda and in my experience, and I am truly sorry that I let you down,” Cuomo says in the video. “But as my grandfather used to say, when you get knocked down, learn the lesson and pick yourself back up and get in the game, and that is what I’m going to do.”
Campaign sources told CNN the former governor plans to ask other candidates besides Mamdani to drop out of the race in September if none of them are in the lead, and that he will plan to do the same – a plan initially floated by independent candidate Jim Walden. Adams has rejected that idea.
Also in the race is Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee.
The-CNN-Wire
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