A Queens auditorium and a Brooklyn athletic field served as backdrops for New York City’s mayoral campaign on Sunday, as Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sought to shore up support among key constituencies and to rally their bases less than one week before early voting begins.
Under the glare of field lights at Maimonides Park in Coney Island, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner, spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a soccer tournament his campaign hosted in partnership with a local league, NYC Footy. Dozens of teams, their players wearing jerseys color-coded by borough and bearing the Mamdani campaign’s logo, competed on the field as fans wearing campaign-issued blue, white and orange scarves cheered them on from the stands.
The assemblyman, himself a lifelong soccer fan, said the event, which his campaign called “The Cost of Living Classic,” was intended to draw attention to the high cost of living in New York. The tournament was also a way to bring his supporters together for a recreational activity before gearing up for a final blitz of canvassing. Early voting begins on Oct. 25.
“Soccer is a big part of what so many New Yorkers love about being in this city,” said Mr. Mamdani, who played the sport as a teenager. “I think to have this opportunity to both celebrate the pride that we have in our own boroughs and our own city and also come together with those that we don’t yet know, it’s also a glimpse of what politics can be in this city.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo joined a gathering hosted by the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, a nonpartisan, multifaith organizing group, which brought more than 2,000 community leaders to an auditorium at Queens College. Organizers described the event as designed to bring New York’s most pressing policy issues into sharp focus in the final weeks of the campaign, and to extract commitments from both candidates on affordability, mental health resources and public housing.
Both men told the mostly Black and Latino audience that, if elected, they would make use of city-owned land to build affordable housing, a longtime goal of the foundation. In his remarks, Mr. Cuomo, who is running as an independent, singled out the gentrification that has displaced many of New York’s residents of color.
“We are destroying historically Black and brown communities because people can no longer afford to live in the community that they were raised,” he said. “When we build, there has to be a community preference for people to have those units.”
Black voters are a key constituency whose support has long decided elections, particularly in Democratic cities. Mr. Cuomo performed well in predominantly Black areas during the June primary, while Mr. Mamdani lagged behind. But he has worked to make inroads in Black communities, including during forums like the one on Sunday, and has gained ground among Black voters, eking out a majority in recent polls.
Mr. Cuomo’s campaign rolled out several new initiatives before the gathering, including a “South Asians for Cuomo” organizing group and his plans to hire a chief innovation officer should he become mayor.
The day followed a round of attacks on Mr. Mamdani from his critics. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign criticized Mr. Mamdani for meeting with a well-known imam after a New York Post article on Saturday noted the imam’s objection to homosexuality. Asked about the criticism during a news conference on Sunday, Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim, said it amounted to Islamophobia.
“The same imam met with Mayor Bloomberg, met with Mayor de Blasio, campaigned alongside Eric Adams, and the only time that it became an issue of national attention was when I met with him,” he said. “And that’s because of the fact of my faith and because I’m on the precipice of winning this election.”
Maya King is a Times reporter covering New York politics.
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