The Midtown ballroom was buzzing on Tuesday night as Andrew M. Cuomo’s supporters grasped for reasons to be optimistic as election results rolled in.
Social media influencers with followings in the Jewish community snapped selfies and talked up the spike in turnout. Men in suits and sweaters swore they saw momentum. Real estate industry veterans anxiously held out hope.
But as news of Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayor’s race flashed across large TV screens, the watch party at the Ziegfeld Ballroom abruptly went quiet. Some attendees hurried out, or worried aloud about whether they had futures in the city.
By the time Mr. Cuomo took the stage, flanked by his family, the ballroom had emptied, the wine glasses were being cleared, and the people who lingered to watch his concession speech — urged to move across the ballroom floor to get closer to the stage — included supporters from Westchester and New Jersey.
“This campaign was the right fight to wage,” Mr. Cuomo, who ran as an independent, said. “This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city and the future of this country.”
But as Mr. Cuomo spoke inside a venue that pays homage on its website to “Broadway’s golden era,” New Yorkers outside delivered an unmistakable message: Mr. Cuomo’s own golden era was over — and they did not see him as part of the city’s future.
To many New Yorkers, of course, that era has plainly been over for years.
It ended emphatically when Mr. Cuomo — the scion of a powerful political family, a three-term governor, a onetime star of the Democratic Party — resigned from the governor’s office in 2021 amid accusations of sexual harassment that he denies.
But Mr. Cuomo did not see it that way then, using his resignation speech at the time to litigate his legacy and crack open a door to his future. He was unbowed again over the summer, deciding to run as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani, an unheralded assemblyman from Queens.
And even in resounding defeat on Tuesday, standing before the dwindling and forlorn crowd, Mr. Cuomo seemed uninterested in grappling with what appeared to be the collapse of his political career, or how that threatened his family’s legacy.
“We got up off the mat after the primary, and we made it a real race,” he said. “Almost half of New Yorkers did not vote to support a government agenda that makes promises that we know cannot be met.”
Invoking his father, Mr. Cuomo said proudly that his vote share was “just higher than when Mario Cuomo got 40 percent on an independent line against Ed Koch in 1977.”
It was a hint of nostalgia for the days when the Cuomos were dominant figures in New York politics, after a campaign in which New York Democrats thoroughly rejected Mr. Cuomo, and he seemed to move away from them.
He began his Election Day with an interview on Fox News, finding common ground with President Trump, who had just endorsed him, and using the words “socialist” or “socialism,” seemingly as an epithet, three times in less than 10 seconds. The former governor also spent the end of the campaign increasingly seeking to play to voters’ fears.
Still, onstage he called for “unity,” and chided attendees when they booed Mr. Mamdani, whose name he struggled to pronounce.
“That is not right, and that is not us,” he said. “Tonight was their night, and as they start to transition to government, we will all help any way we can, because we need our New York City government to work.”
The crowd also directed some ire at Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who ignored entreaties to exit the race in an effort to consolidate the anti-Mamdani vote.
“Shame on Sliwa!” some cried, though other buttoned-up attendees muttered that they found such chants distasteful.
The room seemed more unified when Mr. Cuomo declared that New Yorkers “will not tolerate any behavior that fans the flames of antisemitism.”
Some polls showed that Jewish voters were among Mr. Cuomo’s strongest supporters, as they recoiled from Mr. Mamdani’s sharp criticism of Israel and worried about whether he would stand up to antisemitism from the left. Mr. Mamdani has promised to combat antisemitism and hate crimes.
In the crowd, many attendees wore jewelry with Jewish symbols — and in interviews at the party, they often cited their concerns about the future for the Jewish community in New York under Mr. Mamdani.
“I anticipate literally thousands of Jewish families leaving New York City, coming to The Hamptons, coming to Suffolk County,” said Rabbi Marc Schneier of The Hampton Synagogue, saying that he is planning to establish a new Jewish day school to serve those families.
Rabbi Schneier was one in a crowd of supporters who hugged Mr. Cuomo after his speech.
As he left, a reporter asked Mr. Cuomo about what would come next. He smiled, but did not reply.
Tim Balk contributed reporting.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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