Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo sits on stage after protestors interrupted his speech throughout a Democratic mayoral discussion board at Medgar Evers Faculty in Brooklyn on April 23, 2025.
REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
With roughly seven weeks to go on this 12 months’s Democratic mayoral main, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to guide the sphere by a large margin, whereas Queens Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani is the one different candidate who has gained important momentum.
However will candidates’ anticipated large spending on TV promoting within the coming weeks be sufficient to shake issues up? Right here’s the place the 2025 NYC Mayor’s race stands proper now.
Cuomo dominating polls
Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid a number of allegations of sexual harassment that he denies, has led the crowded race in a sequence of public polls since launching his marketing campaign on March 1. He’s filling the average lane as soon as occupied by incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who opted out of the Democratic main and launched an unbiased bid within the normal election after his federal corruption case was dismissed final month.
The previous governor has by far gained essentially the most help from institutional pols, resembling Brooklyn and Queens Democratic Celebration Chairs Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Gregory Meeks, respectively, and labor unions, together with 32BJ SEIU and 1199SEIU. He has raked in over $1.5 million in non-public donations and is buoyed by hundreds of thousands extra raised by a brilliant PAC backing his run, although the town Marketing campaign Finance Board (CFB) denied him an important tranche of matching funds final month.
In a Friday interview on Pix11, Cuomo reiterated his central marketing campaign message that he jumped into the race as a result of the town is “in crisis” and he believes he can repair it.
“We’re in a bad place, and I’m a New York City boy, through and through. I love this city,” Cuomo stated. “I was worried that we are at a pivot point, and if we don’t get our act together quickly, you’re gonna see this city decline. And I just couldn’t sit by and let that happen.”
Mamdani rising as predominant different
Queens Meeting Member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani talking at a rally in Metropolis Corridor Park towards front-runner Andrew Cuomo’s file on housing. Friday, April 18, 2025.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
The Democratic socialist Mamdani has seen his marketing campaign proceed to rise within the polls. He constantly locations second behind Cuomo whereas nonetheless trailing the previous governor by double digits. Nonetheless, Mamdani’s easy platform seems to be resonating with many citizens, which is clear in his standing because the strongest fundraiser within the race.
“We have built a movement that transcends race and class, a movement that reaches from the sandy beaches of Coney Island to the cricket pitches of Van Cortlandt Park,” Mamdani stated throughout a Sunday night time rally in Brooklyn attended by over a thousand supporters. “Ours is a movement that asks New Yorkers to reimagine what we think is possible—and we’ve built it together, side by side, door by door.”
In the meantime, most of the different main candidates—together with metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Brooklyn state senator Zellnor Myrie—have failed to achieve traction. That has remained true at the same time as every of them has notched their very own main endorsements.
‘Getting late early’ for the Democratic subject
Mayoral candidates Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos, and Scott Stringer attend a local weather candidates discussion board.Picture by Gabriele Holtermann
Democratic strategist Journey Yang stated Cuomo and Mamdani are main the sphere in first and second place resulting from title recognition, institutional backing, and grassroots help, respectively.
“It’s really Cuomo’s name ID and perceived political strength, getting all of these endorsements, that has him out in the lead and Zohran running a very energetic, free-spirited, authentic economic-populist style of campaign that has him surging to second place,” Yang advised New York News Metro. “Aside from that, you have a bunch of the other candidates bunched up together.”
Since even earlier than formally leaping into the race, Cuomo’s rivals have been attacking him practically each day over his file as governor and the scandals — together with the sexual misconduct allegations and his dealing with of COVID-19 in nursing houses — that introduced down his administration. They’ve additionally hit him over skipping most mayoral boards, holding restricted press availabilities, accepting contributions from Trump donors, and utilizing AI for analysis in crafting his housing plan.
One other Democratic strategist, Evan Stavitsky, stated that with simply weeks to go till the June 24 main, candidates are operating out of time to chip away at Cuomo’s lead and alter the form of the race.
“Yogi Berra famously said, ‘it’s getting late early out there,’” Stavitsky stated, quoting the legendary New York Yankees catcher. “He was talking about baseball, but the same holds true for the mayor’s race. The closer that we get to the start of early voting with nothing to shake up the dynamic of the race, the harder it is for someone to surge to the top who can provide a credible challenge to Andrew Cuomo.”
Is TV Cuomo’s worst enemy?
Though not one of the assaults on Cuomo to this point seem to have affected his numbers, that dynamic might change now that candidates are spending cash to advertise their unfavorable messaging about him on TV.
“The one potential Achilles Heel for Cuomo is that his unfavorables are fairly high, which means that there’s the potential for his numbers to drop if negative and contrast ads against Cuomo were running on paid media,” Yang stated. “All of these various candidates, they should spend their millions of dollars on TV ads, direct mail, digital buys, attacking Cuomo, so his numbers drop.”
Nonetheless, if candidates expend their assets on going after Cuomo, they threat dropping the chance to introduce themselves to voters and promote their very own platforms, Yang stated.
That pressure is already seen in advertisements launched by Mamdani and Myrie over the previous couple of weeks, with Mamdani utilizing his spot to distinction himself with Cuomo and Myrie selecting to give attention to his personal biography.
Moreover, Yang stated there’s a “collective action problem” that arises when making an attempt to get varied candidates who all wish to be mayor to behave in live performance. He stated that whereas the Working Households Celebration endorsed a slate of 4 candidates — Mamdani, Lander, Speaker Adams, and Myrie — as an alliance towards Cuomo, these contenders are all nonetheless looking for themselves first.
Stavisky argued that even when candidates collectively hit the airwaves to assault Cuomo there is no such thing as a assure that may make a distinction, given that he’s a identified entity a lot of whose baggage has been public for years.
“He’s really well known and really well defined in the minds of voters,” Stavisky stated. “He may have a ceiling to his support, but he also has a much higher floor.”
