June 25, 2025
Yesterday’s NYC Mayoral Primary outcome defied most of the polling forecasts and all of the “Establishment” endorsements that former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo had collected. The upstart Democratic Socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani led all candidates in the preliminary round of ranked voting. More significantly, he bested Cuomo by more than 7 points and nearly won a majority of all votes by drawing a 44% share. Cuomo (36%) had blanketed airwaves and mailboxes for weeks in a failed attempt to paint Mamdani as dangerously radical. Mamdani’s platform called for making NYC more affordable with initiatives including a rent freeze, free bus transportation and free childcare. Mamdani’s strategic alliance with Brad Lander (11%) asked voters to rank them first and second and not to rank Cuomo at all. That ensured Mamdani will surpass the 50% threshold when those votes are added to his total. The general election in November won’t use Ranked Choice voting.
Cuomo’s pitch for more police fell flat among the voting cohort that showed up yesterday as did his claim to greater governing experience. He did, after all, leave office under a cloud of controversy that highlighting his experience only reminded voters of. While winning the Democratic Primary usually translates to a more or less automatic win in November here, it’s a little more complicated this year. Cuomo might, and Adams will, appear on the Fall ballot on different lines, so it’s shaping up to be a 3 candidate slugfest with plenty of time for these men to pitch themselves to the general electorate. But for now, the upset last night has shone a spotlight on the limitations of polling, conventional wisdom, and the impact of scads of PAC spending.
Photo: screencap via NYC Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) YouTube.
