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Andrew Cuomo Test Drives a Warmer, Friendlier Version of Himself

July 15, 2025
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Andrew Cuomo Test Drives a Warmer, Friendlier Version of Himself
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There were stops at a pizzeria in Queens, a coffee shop in Harlem and a few places in the Bronx. The childhood home got a visit. Hands were shaken, smiles were exchanged.

Tuesday was Day 1 of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s reimagined and reinvigorated campaign to become mayor of New York City, a corrective bid to what even his allies conceded had been a lackluster effort to win over voters.

The appearances reflected the first faint signs of a different sort of Cuomo campaign taking shape — one that seemed inspired in part by the go-anywhere, talk-to-anyone strategy successfully deployed by Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblyman who captured the Democratic primary.

But in Mr. Cuomo’s hands, the shift in approach served a very particular mission: portray Mr. Mamdani as a socialist enemy of New York City, and convey Mr. Cuomo’s regret for neither effectively nor energetically delivering that message during the campaign.

Sitting across from his daughter, Moriah, at Gaby’s Pizza in Queens, Mr. Cuomo took responsibility for his lackluster primary campaign, saying, “I did not communicate my vision effectively.”

“There was this play it safe, make no mistakes attitude,” he added, as a fleet of campaign videographers recorded his every move. “That was not who I am. It’s not what New Yorkers expected from a campaign.”

Mr. Cuomo had not worked on a citywide race in decades, and it remains to be seen how much he can change. Despite talk of a staffing shake-up, the campaign has not announced any new hires, and some mainstays from Mr. Cuomo’s primary election team have fled — along with politicians and unions who had previously endorsed him.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani released a video touring Little Haiti with Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, an assemblywoman who represents the area and leads the Brooklyn Democratic Party. She had previously backed Mr. Cuomo but switched sides after the primary.

Asked about Mr. Cuomo’s return, Jeffrey Lerner, Mr. Mamdani’s communications director, congratulated “Andrew Cuomo on earning Donald Trump’s endorsement.” Mr. Cuomo has long been a critic of President Trump, but on Tuesday, Mr. Trump called Mr. Mamdani a “communist” and said he was happy to see the former governor staying in the race.

“I think Andrew would have a good shot at winning,” the president said. “He’s got to run a tough campaign. You know he’s running against a communist? I would think that he would have a good shot at winning.”

History and the city’s political demographics are not in Mr. Cuomo’s favor. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one, Mr. Mamdani’s placement under the Democratic Party line gives him a huge advantage over Mr. Cuomo, whose independent bid will be carried on his self-created Fight and Deliver ballot line.

Mr. Mamdani’s campaign also poked at Mr. Cuomo online, noting that its social media posts responding to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign relaunch had been liked by far more people than the relaunch video itself.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo continued to batter Mr. Mamdani, characterizing him as a socialist who hates Israel, has unrealistic policy proposals and, most importantly, lacks experience.

Mr. Mamdani’s “Freeze The Rent” slogan was effective, Mr. Cuomo said, but it left voters with the false impression that all rents would be frozen. Mr. Cuomo disclosed that he would back an effort to repeal what is known as the Urstadt Law, a state law that essentially gives the State Legislature power over New York City’s rent regulations.

It was not clear what Mr. Cuomo would do as mayor if the city had more freedom to change rent regulations.

“You can’t have a socialist city in a capitalist nation, right?” he said. “You can’t have an anti-business city that has a future.

“A mentality that is anti-corporate, anti-business, that is death for a city,” he continued. “You’re either growing — bringing in new businesses, bringing new opportunities — or you’re dying.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani was in a setting familiar to Mr. Cuomo, meeting with business leaders at the Partnership for New York City, a consortium of 350 members representing banks, law firms and corporations. His message to them was that there was plenty of opportunity for them to work together.

Despite Mr. Cuomo’s run-ins with Mr. Trump, he said he believed he could win a large portion of the city’s Republicans who may not want their votes wasted. Mr. Cuomo will be facing Mr. Mamdani; Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent; Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee; and Jim Walden, an independent.

Mr. Cuomo has promised that if the polls show that he is not the highest-ranked challenger to Mr. Mamdani by mid-September, he will drop out of the race. The dynamics of the fall election are the reverse of the primary, in which Mr. Mamdani emerged from a crowded field of progressive-minded candidates, and Mr. Cuomo largely had the centrist lane to himself.

In the general election, Mr. Cuomo will face competition from Mr. Adams, Mr. Walden and Mr. Sliwa as they battle for the moderate and conservative vote, with Mr. Mamdani owning the left-leaning lane.

Even so, in both Harlem and Queens, Mr. Cuomo found a receptive audience, particularly from Black voters who said in interviews that they viewed him as competent manager with the experience to run the city.

“I did not think I would ever get to meet him,” Sharon Wheeler, 60, a retired bus driver said excitedly in Queens.

“He’s got the know-how,” she added. “I just love what he is about.”

Sharee Pace, 40, the manager of NBHD Brulee in Harlem, was similarly excited about Mr. Cuomo’s visit. Ms. Pace and her 17-year-old daughter have lived around the corner in a rent-stabilized apartment for 13 years.

Ms. Pace voted for Mr. Cuomo in the primary and said she likely would again in the fall. If the rent is frozen, she is worried about her apartment falling into disrepair since the landlords would not have money for upkeep. Ms. Pace supported Mr. Cuomo, she said, “because he is experienced and has been here before.”

“I love him,” she said. “That is my man.”

That support was not universal, reflecting in part the deep inroads Mr. Mamdani’s campaign had made in communities across the city. Like Ms. Pace, Joel Horsford, 41, is a longtime Harlem resident, but he backed the state assemblyman, because “a new generation with fresh ideas needed to step up.”

Mr. Horsford, who runs a small tech start-up, said he was unsure whom he would support this fall. In the primary though, he was attracted to the energy of Mr. Mamdani and the efforts his campaign’s volunteers made to show up in the community and to talk to him.

“I’m open-minded to all the candidates, but we need new blood,” Mr. Horsford said, as he carried his mint lemonade and laptop out of the coffee shop.

He added: “I would have rather seen Cuomo supporting a version of himself from the past but who was younger.”

Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.

The post Andrew Cuomo Test Drives a Warmer, Friendlier Version of Himself appeared first on New York Times.

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