Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images
With little over one week left until the mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani’s momentum against Andrew Cuomo is drawing widespread opposition to stop him from winning the Democratic nomination and likely City Hall.
On Monday, the New York Times editorial board slammed Mamdani as unfit to be mayor. It was practically an anti-endorsement from the board, which announced last year that it would abstain from endorsements in municipal elections. “Mr. Mamdani would also bring less relevant experience than perhaps any mayor in New York history. He has never run a government department or private organization of any size. As a state legislator, he has struggled to execute his own agenda,” the board wrote.
The board reluctantly favored Cuomo over the 33-year-old upstart. “We do not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots,” it said. “His experience is too thin, and his agenda reads like a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio’s dismaying mayoralty. As for Mr. Cuomo, we have serious objections to his ethics and conduct, even if he would be better for New York’s future than Mr. Mamdani.”
The Times appeared to echo a similar anti-endorsement from the famously conservative New York Post editorial board that harshly denounced Mamdani’s campaign, calling the lawmaker a “uniquely awful menace, an utter guarantee of disaster for New York.”
Though the Times editorial board generally appeared less than enthused by Cuomo, the former governor took a victory lap and promoted the members’ praise of his record and rejection of Mamdani on social media. “I agree with the New York Times. Experience matters. This is not the time to learn on the job,” he wrote.
Opposition to Mamdani is also building on the airwaves. Politico reported Saturday that Fix the City, a pro-Cuomo super-PAC, is dropping $5.4 million worth of negative ads on Mamdani. One ad alleges that Mamdani wants to move unhoused New Yorkers into the city’s subway system and supports defunding the police. In the most recent debate, Mamdani said he would not defund the police if elected mayor.
This push from Mamdani’s opponents comes as momentum only continues to grow for the assemblymember ahead of the June 24 primary. Earlier this month, he received Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s highly coveted endorsement and the two lawmakers later held their first joint rally on Saturday, speaking before an enthusiastic crowd of thousands at Terminal 5 in Manhattan. Mamdani has also been backed by Representative Nydia Velázquez, who said she would rank him first, and by Attorney General Letitia James, an ardent opponent of Cuomo, who listed Mamdani as her third choice behind her top two picks, Adrienne Adams and Brad Lander. On Tuesday, Mamdani picked up an endorsement from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who said in a statement, “We need the kind of visionary leadership that Zohran is providing in this campaign. In my view, Zohran Mamdani is the best choice for mayor of New York City.”
Mamdani has also picked up support from his fellow candidates as Democrats began to embrace a ranked-choice voting strategy. On Friday, the race got its first cross-endorsement as Mamdani and Lander both backed each other and urged their supporters to rank the other second on their ballots. Mamdani then got a second joint endorsement with Michael Blake, a former Bronx assemblymember who attacked Cuomo hard during the first debate.
Mamdani addressed the Times’s harsh assessment of him during a press conference with Blake unveiling their cross-endorsement Monday. “These are the opinions of about a dozen New Yorkers and a democracy will be decided by close to a million New Yorkers,” he said, adding that the board members “certainly have the right to their opinions.”
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