Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo targeted Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s age and lack of experience on Sunday, saying the candidate “never ran anything” in his resume.
Mamdani, 33, beat Cuomo in the Democratic Party’s primary race for the New York City mayor election, and Cuomo is now running as an independent candidate. Polling indicates Cuomo faces an uphill battle to best Mamdani in November, even if Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa were to drop out.
The former governor pointed to his political record and projects he’s worked on in New York on Sunday and contrasted it with Mamdani’s two terms as a state assemblyman. During this time, Cuomo said Mamdani only “passed three bills” and had the “worst attendance record” in the legislature.
“Mayor of New York should not be your first job, Maria. There’s no time for on-the-job training, when any given morning, God forbid, you could have a mass murder or a terrorist attack. New Yorkers get that. They know how important the mayor is and how you really need to know what you’re doing,” Cuomo said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.
Cuomo also said Mamdani’s mayoral bid is part of a civil war within the Democratic Party. He said the “extreme Left,” like Mamdani, are seeking to co-opt the party, with the mayoral candidate being “a banner carrier” for this movement. He added the movement wants to win New York City “as a crown” that says their movement is “dominant.”
Cuomo said his vision as New York City mayor includes growing business, hiring 5,000 police officers, and building housing at “50,000 units a year.”
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Cuomo said he would accept an endorsement from outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his independent reelection bid on Sept. 28. However, he would not accept a similar one from President Donald Trump, saying, “The tent isn’t that big.”
In July, Cuomo said he did not pay enough attention to voters under 30 years old, saying this voting bloc “exploded” in the primary election. He also said the high heat diverted some of his voters, saying he “should have run a better campaign.”
