Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo misplaced billionaire Invoice Ackman’s backing within the 2025 NYC Mayor’s Race.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Billionaire hedge fund supervisor Invoice Ackman is throwing his assist behind Mayor Eric Adams’ uphill unbiased reelection effort and urging former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to step apart so Hizzoner can have a greater shot at besting Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Ackman, who donated $500,000 to Cuomo’s failed Democratic major marketing campaign, revealed in a prolonged Wednesday night time social media submit that he believes the present mayor is finest positioned to beat Mamdani — a democratic socialist Meeting member whom Ackman appears determined to cease.
Each Adams and Cuomo maintain unbiased poll traces within the common election. Adams’ marketing campaign is full steam forward, and Cuomo continues to be weighing whether or not to actively marketing campaign after getting trounced within the major.
Billionaire hedge fund supervisor Invoice Ackman is throwing his assist behind Mayor Eric Adams’ uphill unbiased reelection effort and urging former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to step apart so Hizzoner can have a greater shot at besting Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.Photograph by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA by way of Reuters
Ackman added that whereas he nonetheless holds Cuomo — who’s 67 — in “high regard,” it was “abundantly clear in his body language, his subdued energy and his proposals to beat Mamdani, that he is not up for the fight.”
In stark distinction, he praised Adams as “ready to go to battle, guns blazing with enormous energy.”
“Adams is a great campaigner who can lead the grassroots effort needed to defeat Mamdani, and as mayor, he has a great platform to tell his story,” Ackman added.
Though Ackman acknowledged that Adams’ scandal-scarred first time period has “not been without flaws,” he mentioned it has been “strong” total.
Ackman’s submit marks yet one more blow to Cuomo’s hopes of mounting a critical common election problem in a race that features Mamdani, Adams, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and unbiased lawyer Jim Walden. It comes after the Rev. Al Sharpton, a strong political chief within the metropolis’s Black communities, additionally urged Cuomo to step again, so Mamdani and Adams can duke it out.
In response, Cuomo spokesperson Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned, “Everyone is entitled to their own political opinion. We understand President Trump supports Eric Adams and does not believe socialism is the answer.”
Azzopardi was referencing Adams’ cozy relationship with Trump, whose Justice Division dismissed the mayor’s federal corruption case earlier this 12 months in what many consider was a quid professional quo for his cooperation on immigration enforcement. Ackman had endorsed Trump’s re-election final 12 months.
“Most New Yorkers are not Trumpers, and most New Yorkers are not socialists — the majority lies in the middle,” Azzopardi mentioned. “We will continue to assess the current situation in the best interest of the people of the City of New York.”
The Cuomo spokesperson additionally pointed to a survey performed by the conservative polling agency American Pulse Analysis & Polling that has Cuomo in second place at 29%, whereas Mamdani leads at 35%. It additionally exhibits Cuomo properly forward of Adams, who’s in final place at 14%.
Scaramucci stands by Cuomo
Nonetheless, businessman Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as a spokesperson within the first Trump administration, posted on X that he’s sticking by Cuomo within the common election. Scaramucci was additionally certainly one of Cuomo’s many monetary backers within the major.
In the meantime, Cuomo has additionally bled a lot of the organized labor assist that noticed him by the first.
Lots of the metropolis’s main labor unions that beforehand stood behind Cuomo, together with 32BJ SEIU and the Resort and Gaming Trades Council, have rapidly deserted him for Mamdani in gentle of the Meeting member’s resounding major victory.
