State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is the early leader as first-choice votes are tallied in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but the winner of the election remains uncertain with no one on course to secure a majority in the first round of the ranked choice election.
So far, Mamdani leads the first-choice vote count with about 44% support, followed by approximately 36% for Cuomo — the result of a rapid rise by Mamdani, who started the race little-known but rapidly gained prominence as the progressive alternative to Cuomo.
But New York City will have to wait at least a week — and possibly longer — to find out who will ultimately win the Democratic nomination. Under ranked choice voting in the city, voters rank up to five preferences on their ballot. Support for the lowest-finishing candidates is then reallocated to those voters’ next choices, and the process continues until there are two candidates left.
The city Board of Elections plans to release the results of those initial allocations next Tuesday. But depending on how many mail-in and provisional ballots still need to be counted, it could take longer to determine a winner.
The wait had been expected considering the 11-candidate field splitting Democratic votes. And the ranked choice system can encourage low-polling candidates to stay in because they know their supporters’ choices can still be taken into account if they fall short.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor if elected, has gained steam in the closing weeks of the race as he’s pitched a progressive vision for the city. He has run an energetic campaign focused on tackling higher costs, promising to freeze rents and offer free buses, universal childcare and other progressive policies that would be paid for in part by raising taxes on the rich.
He’s become the focal point for an anti-Cuomo movement that’s rallied behind the banner of “Don’t rank Cuomo,” arguing the former governor doesn’t deserve a successful political comeback after resigning from office in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations. Mamdani has secured cross-endorsement deals with fellow candidates including city Comptroller Brad Lander and former DNC vice chair Michael Blake.
They are directing their supporters to also rank the other candidate on their ballot, an attempt to team up to use ranked choice voting to have a candidate pull away from Cuomo after several rounds of accumulated support from non-Cuomo voters.
Lander, who was arrested earlier this month serving as an advocate for defendants in federal immigration court, is the only other candidate sniffing double-digits. His decision to cross-endorse Mamdani, and to stand by him when other prominent New York Jews lambasted Mamdani’s unwillingness to denounce the slogan “globalize the intifada,” could prove integral if Lander’s supporters break largely for Mamdani and help him clinch the nomination.
And he’s received prominent endorsements from Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Working Families Party, and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who, like Mamdani, identifies as a democratic socialist. Other prominent New Yorkers, like state Attorney General Letitia James, have asked supporters to include Mamdani on their ranked choice ballots (and for them to leave Cuomo off) even while saying they’d prefer another candidate.
Cuomo has long been the frontrunner in the race, with his unique profile as a former statewide official and national Democratic Party heavyweight lending him broad name identification from the start of his campaign, which none of his rivals could match at the beginning. He leaned heavily on that experience to argue he is the only candidate who’d be able to adequately fight back against President Donald Trump.
He marshalled heavy political support from prominent Democrats like former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., state and multiple members of Congress. And he received a big boost from a deep-pocketed super PAC (which received $8.5 million from Bloomberg) that blanketed the airwaves with ads singing his strengths and criticizing Mandami.
If successful, a Cuomo comeback would amount to a dramatic reversal of fortune for the former governor. Just four years ago, he resigned under pressure after investigations by the state attorney general found that his administration undercounted Covid deaths in nursing homes and that he sexually harassed multiple women. (Cuomo admitted at the time that he “made mistakes” but has also said he was a victim of “cancel culture”).
His current supporters include many who previously called on him to resign from his post as governor, as they argue Cuomo’s experience is what the city needs right now. And he received a big boost from a well-funded super PAC (which received $8.5 million from Bloomberg) that blanketed the airwaves with ads praising his strengths and criticizing Mandami.
The two top candidates, and their allies, have been unsparing in their criticism of each other. The pro-Cuomo super PAC has run a deluge of ads framing Mamdani as “a risk we can’t afford,” criticizing him as too radical for the city.
“Experience matters, and I think inexperience is dangerous in this case. Mr. Mamdani has had a staff of five people, you’re now going to run a staff of 300,000 employees?” Cuomo said during a debate hosted by Spectrum News NY1 earlier this month.
He added: “He’s never dealt with the City Council. He’s never dealt with the Congress. He’s never dealt with the state Legislature. He’s never negotiated with a union. He’s never built anything. He’s never dealt with a natural emergency. He’s never dealt with a hurricane, with a flood, et cetera. He’s never done any of the essentials. And now you have Donald Trump on top of all of that.”
But while Cuomo has leaned on that experience as a strength, his opponents have tried to turn the tables by reminding voters of the reason he’s in the race in the first place — his fall from grace four years ago after sexual harassment allegations.
“To Mr. Cuomo: I have never had to resign in disgrace, I have never cut Medicaid,” Mamdani replied to Cuomo at the Spectrum News/NY1 debate.
“I have never hounded the 13 women who credibly accuse me of sexual harassment, I have never sued for their gynecological records, and I have never done those things because I am not you, Mr. Cuomo,” he added, ending by forcefully correcting Cuomo for saying his last name incorrectly.
The two have also sparred over Israel and its war with Hamas in Gaza. Cuomo attacked after Mamdani appeared to defend the slogan “globalize the intifada” during a podcast interview released a week before the election, and Cuomo and his allies boosted criticism from those like the head of the Anti-Defamation League and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Mamdani responded during an emotional conversation with reporters in which he said he believes “there is no room for antisemitism in this city” and shared that he’s received threats on his life based on his religion.
But thanks to the quirks of ranked choice voting, the race could come down to how supporters of the race’s other candidates have digested the clash between the two men.