NYC’s Mayoral Race Has Republicans Telling Cuomo: Come Woo Us

A burgeoning bloc of New York City Republicans say Andrew Cuomo should make an appeal for a vote in his favor in November’s mayoral election.

“If Cuomo wants the vote of New York Republicans, come over to us and offer us something,” Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club, said in an interview. “Why doesn’t he come meet with us at our clubhouse and promise us a certain number of deputy mayors? And then maybe, maybe, maybe we’ll think about supporting him.”

The group represents a small minority of voters in the heavily Democratic city. But it’s a potential opportunity for Cuomo in a split race that, with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams dropping out, has narrowed to the top three contenders. Support for Republican Curtis Sliwa has mostly tallied in the low double digits, putting him in third place behind the former Democratic governor, who’s running as an independent, and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

Stefano Forte

Photographer: Michael Cravotta/New York Young Republican Club

Read more: NYC Mayor’s Race Jolted by Adams Exit as Trump Threatens Funding

It’s a contentious battle donors opposed to Mamdani have been hoping would be reshaped after the 33-year-old democratic socialist rose from relative obscurity in the state legislature to crush Cuomo in the primary.

But polls indicate Cuomo gains relatively little from Adams’ departure — the mayor was polling in the high single digits — and would need the field to narrow even further to have a chance against Mamdani.

With Sliwa vowing to stay on, the former governor will instead have to compel a larger turnout in his favor.

“When you are running as the non-Democratic nominee, everyone matters because the Democratic nominee is walking in with 45% of the vote,” said Bradley Tusk, political strategist and co-founder of Tusk Ventures.

In a comment to Bloomberg, Cuomo campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the ex-governor will plan to compete for the Republican vote closer to Election Day. Asked whether Cuomo would make Republican hires in an effort to win their vote, Azzopardi said as governor, Cuomo “sought the best and brightest, regardless of political affiliation.”

Cuomo lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani by almost 13 points, or 129,940 votes. There are almost 4.7 million registered voters in New York City, and while 65% are registered Democrats, 21.1% are unaffiliated and 11% are registered Republican — a combined potential pool of 1.5 million votes Cuomo can try to reach.

The Republican vote in New York City leans heavily for Sliwa, but a September Fox News poll found that among GOP voters, 32% support Cuomo, versus 6% for Mamdani. Sliwa won 41%, and Adams had 16%. The poll found independents favored Mamdani over Cuomo by 3 percentage points.

Though voter turnout in New York City’s mayoral elections tends to be weak — just 23% of voters came out for the general election during the pandemic in 2021 — Cuomo’s backers are more focused now on registering new voters and getting people to the polls than they were ahead of the Democratic primary.

Andrew Cuomo

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

“Our independent expenditure committee will micro-target Republican voters with a simple message: A vote for Curtis Sliwa is effectively a vote for Mamdani, and the only way to stop Mamdani from becoming mayor is to vote for Andrew Cuomo,” said Jeff Leb, treasurer of New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, an anti-Mamdani PAC.

Cuomo resigned in 2021 during his third term as governor amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies.

Raquel Debono, a 29-year-old former executive at conservative dating app Date Right Stuff, has been throwing “Make America Hot Again” parties. She said she’s not sure Sliwa will make New York hot.

“I’m a city conservative, I understand he’s not going to win,” she said. “We need to rally behind another candidate. At the end of the day, it looks like it’s going to be Cuomo.”

Cuomo has already won the backing of some donors who in the past have supported Republican candidates, including hedge fund titans John Paulson and Daniel Loeb, and Home Depot Inc. co-founder Ken Langone.

Kellie Lynch, president of the Manhattan chapter of the New York State Federation of Republican Women, said she’s not interested in voting for a candidate besides Sliwa unless it becomes a two-man race between Mamdani and Cuomo.

Reports have swirled that the Trump administration had held discussions about offering jobs to both Sliwa and Adams to whittle the race to a two-way competition between Cuomo and Mamdani.

Sliwa has said that wealthy intermediaries have offered him money in exchange for dropping out, accusing Cuomo of being behind them. Cuomo denies the accusations, saying they would be illegal. Sliwa, meanwhile, has vowed not to drop from the race as long as he’s alive.

Republican NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in 2021.

Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg

But the red-beret-wearing Republican nominee hasn’t curried favor with President Donald Trump, who in an interview with Fox News said that the radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels isn’t ready for “prime time.” Cuomo, on the other hand, has been touted by the president as having a “good shot” at beating Mamdani.

In an interview outside of the Young Republican Club’s annual White Party in early September, club Vice President Brent Morden said he was open to the idea of voting for Cuomo.

“Trump knows the political landscape very well,” he said. “It’s hard for me to vote for Andrew Cuomo, but it’s harder for me to vote for Mamdani. If it’s Cuomo and Mamdani on the ballot, I’m going to have to make a game-time decision.”

John Catsimatidis, GOP powerbroker and owner of the Gristedes and D’Agostino grocery chains, is weighing the best path forward.

For Republicans set on Sliwa, “I think they’re going to come through a reality check in the next week or two,” he said. To stop Mamdani, “something has to happen.”

While still a Democratic stronghold, New York City has gotten redder. Trump won 30% of the city in last year’s presidential election, a 7-point gain from the 2020 election and the most by any Republican presidential candidate in decades.

Read more: Trump Lost in New York, But He Is Slowly Winning It Over

But if Cuomo intends to appeal to Republican voters, he has to be mindful not to alienate liberal supporters by seeming to embrace Trump, said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who leads a political action committee against Mamdani.

“Mamdani understands that, and he uses that Trump card — no pun intended — every time he can,” said Sheinkopf.

Mamdani has sought to tie Cuomo to Trump since the primary. After Trump publicly encouraged Cuomo to stay in the race following his loss, Mamdani issued a statement congratulating him on the president’s “endorsement.” When Adams dropped from the race, Mamdani said in a video posted to X: “To Andrew Cuomo, you got your wish. You wanted Trump and your billionaire friends to help you clear the field.”

Ryan Leonard outside of New York Young Republican Club’s ‘White Party’ in New York in September.

Photographer: Michael Vilensky/Bloomberg

It was during September’s White Party in Manhattan’s East Village, as the city’s young GOP activists sipped Old Fashioned cocktails, that it was reported Trump wanted a two-way race in New York City.

Party-goers scrolled their phones and read aloud the president’s quotes between puffs of flavored vapes.

Aspiring male model Ryan Leonard, president of New York University’s College Republicans, was taking a break and smoking a cigarette outside the venue.

“We’re cooked regardless,” he shrugged. “I’ll vote for someone.”

--With assistance from Laura Nahmias and Nacha Cattan.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Michael Vilensky in New York at mvilensky1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Katia Porzecanski at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

Mark Schoifet

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