NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Andrew Cuomo is weighing his next move after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani clinched the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City by a staggering 12-point margin over the former governor.
The ranked-choice tabulations released by the city Board of Elections on Tuesday showed Mamdani with 56% of the vote after after lower-ranking candidates were eliminated in the primary, while Cuomo garnered 44%. The city uses a preference voting system that allows votes for the eliminated candidates to transfer until one candidate gets a majority. Mamdani’s lead expanded from 7 points on June 24.
A spokesman for Cuomo, who has secured a spot on a third-party line in November, said Tuesday that “we’ll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps,” and that while the results were “a look at what motivates a slice of our primary electorate, it does not represent the majority.”
For Mamdani, the results confirmed what the first round of counting showed within minutes of polls closing last week: a decisive victory for the 33-year-old state lawmaker, who ran on a progressive platform of taxing millionaires, freezing rents and making buses free.
“Last Tuesday, Democrats spoke in a clear voice, delivering a mandate for an affordable city, a politics of the future, and a leader unafraid to fight back against rising authoritarianism,” Mamdani said in a statement.
His surprisingly strong showing has rattled the city’s political and corporate establishment, which largely saw Cuomo — the former three-term governor and once-frontrunner in the race — as the best option against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent in the general election.
Cuomo, 67, was attempting a comeback after resigning in disgrace almost four years ago amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies. A Cuomo-backed PAC raised $25 million from the city’s real estate and financial industry, including $8 million in donations from former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Now, some of Cuomo’s backers are weighing pivoting their support to Adams, who has held meetings with strategists and donors in the wake of the primary.
Cuomo had said he would await the results of the latest vote tally before deciding the future of his campaign, but the final count only confirmed Cuomo’s unpopularity. He was the target of a concerted “Don’t Rank Evil Andrew” campaign among progressive Democrats who asked voters not to put Cuomo anywhere on the ballot.
Mamdani, meanwhile, had a cross-endorsement agreement with city Comptroller Brad Lander and former state lawmaker Michael Blake, with each asking his supporters to rank the other on their ballots. As candidates like Lander and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams were eliminated, more of their votes went to Mamdani than Cuomo. Mamdani picked up almost twice as many transferred votes as Cuomo.
In data from last week’s first-choice voting, Cuomo failed to gain traction in the outer boroughs and underperformed even in his Manhattan base, where turnout lagged behind the gentrifying neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens that were Mamdani strongholds.
Cuomo secured the third-party ballot line as a backup plan and missed a Friday deadline to drop out of the race while he waited for a potential silver lining from the ranked-choice vote. Republican talk show host Curtis Sliwa and independent former prosecutor Jim Walden are also running in November, further fracturing any anti-Mamdani bloc.
Mamdani’s convincing win reshapes the November mayoral contest and makes him a national leader among the progressive wing of the Democratic party. He’s already gotten the attention of President Donald Trump and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin, who has had to navigate the enthusiasm of the party’s left with centrists who fear that Mamdani’s rise could alienate voters in congressional swing districts.
Mayor Adams, who abandoned the Democratic primary after his popularity collapsed amid bribery allegations, must now meld those center-left and conservative voters into a cross-party coalition.
Adams’ job-approval ratings had plunged after he was charged with bribery, and fell even further when the Trump administration directed the Justice Department to drop the charges, raising questions about Adams’ relationship with the White House.
On Tuesday, Trump called Adams a “very good person,” saying he “helped him out a little bit” after what Trump called his “phony” indictment.
He added that he will be watching Mamdani closely.
“We don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” Trump said.
— With assistance from Jennah Haque