NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that he's staying in the NYC mayoral race as an independent following a crushing defeat by Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in June’s Democratic primary.
The governor made the announcement Monday in a social media video, saying, "Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that the Democratic primary didn't go the way I hoped."
"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," he continued.
"The fight to save our city isn't over," Cuomo said. "Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary. The general election is in November, and I'm in it to win it. My opponent Mr. Mamdani offers slick slogans but no real solutions."
Asked Monday about Cuomo's plans to stay in the race, Mamdani said: “I think he’s struggling to come to terms with what [primary] Tuesday meant. We spent an entire campaign being told that it was inevitable for Andrew Cuomo to become the next mayor. And he believed that himself. And what we saw was New Yorkers’ hunger for a new kind of politics. A politics focused on working people."
Mayor Eric Adams recently said Cuomo was “wasting time and dividing voters.” Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa said he is the only candidate with “a real path to victory” against Mamdani, not the mayor or former governor.
Adams, beset by floundering poll numbers and a now-defunct federal indictment, announced earlier this year that he’d run as an independent. A third independent candidate, Jim Walden, is also still in the race.
Earlier this month, Mamdani won the most primary votes of any mayoral candidate in the city's history, beating Cuomo by a stunning 12 points despite the former governor leading most polls and entering the race as the apparent frontrunner.
Political analyst Ben Max said Cuomo staying in the race "makes it more of a free-for-all," though he added that "polls early on have shown Cuomo has the best shot of anyone to defeat Zohran Mamdani."
"In the unlikely event that Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa agree to stop campaigning and back Cuomo, that would give Andrew Cuomo a decent chance at defeating Zohran Mamdani," Max said.
Mamdani remains the favorite in early polling, while Adams and Cuomo have previously called on each other to drop out of the race.
Mamdani's surprise primary victory has breathed new life into Adams' candidacy as some Democrats look for an alternative to Mamdani after Cuomo's primary defeat. The mayor raised over $1 million in one night at a Manhattan fundraiser last week.
Mamdani’s sizable upset win in the primary has led to calls from all directions for the other candidates to coalesce around a candidate that can be a formidable opponent to him in the November election.
Critics of the assemblyman say his progressive proposals—including free buses and government-run grocery stores—are too radical, while supporters say his main message of a more affordable New York resonated with Democratic voters, who came out in record numbers to support him.