Andrew Cuomo Tries Out A New Persona: Underdog Candidate

NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo is overhauling his buttoned-up public persona and pugilistic campaign for New York City mayor in a desperate bid to stop democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.

His social media presence, characterized by its conventionality during the Democratic primary, has taken on a slang-inflected, sassy voice during the general election — and it’s almost entirely directed at his 33-year-old foe, who has excelled online.

“Welcome to the heavyweight bout,@ZohranKMamdani,” Cuomo’s account tweeted recently. “This is a two man race. You look tired already. It’s just the second round.”

After failing to defeat Mamdani in the primary by calling attention to his anti-Israel stance, the 67-year-old former New York governor has become a class warrior and is throwing haphazard haymakers at Mamdani. He’s taken him to task for his familial ties to Uganda, living in a rent stabilized apartment and benefitting from his prominent parents. A top Cuomo strategist — without irony — attacked Mamdani as a “nepo baby.”

Running an independent campaign in a five-candidate general election field, Cuomo, the son of three-term governor Mario Cuomo, has ditched his suit and tie for a looser version of his hard-charging, aggressive personality. The strategy has yet to help Cuomo overcome Mamdani, who has held a steady lead in polling since his primary victory. A Siena University poll released Monday found Mamdani handily leading Cuomo 44 percent to 25 percent, though the sample size was small.

It all adds up to an unusual underdog role the former governor finds himself in after losing decisively to Mamdani by double digits in the June Democratic primary. Virtually all of Cuomo’s campaigns in his long political career have put him at the front of the pack — including his unsuccessful comeback bid for the Democratic nomination. The new dynamic for Cuomo is part of a broader generational battle: Moderate, establishment Democrats facing off against hard-left upstarts born during the digital age and adept at energizing voters online.

The attacks on Mamdani’s well-to-do background are a risky proposition for an ex-governor with a storied political name.

“It’s an age of authenticity, which rewards a Donald Trump, rewards a Bernie Sanders and rewards a Zohran,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a longtime Cuomo foe, told POLITICO. “Andrew is not giving people a reason to believe. He appears to be trying on different personalities, different messages, in a clinical, cynical manner. Voters see right through it.”

The personality change isn’t total: The sharp-elbowed style remains.

“Talking about authenticity from a guy who changed his name, dyes his hair and walked the cornfields of Iowa instead of doing his job only to get 0 percent in the polls is rich,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in response to the ex-mayor. “The only thing de Blasio did authentically was drive the city’s trajectory into the ground for 8 years, but admittedly, at that he was very good.”

Cuomo’s scaled down team — a coterie of longtime aides remain while consultants have left ahead of the general election — is opening up access to him with reporters after running a press-allergic primary campaign. They are eager to show Cuomo’s interactions with New Yorkers, all documented in short videos posted online, a reverse from his paltry retail efforts during the primary.

The former governor’s new-look campaign, which reported more than $1 million in cash on hand, still has financial resources to last until November. But many of his wealthy backers, like ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who contributed to a Cuomo-allied super PAC, have been publicly silent about his general election effort.

The former governor must also contend with the presence of Mayor Eric Adams in the field. Adams, a fellow moderate, shares an overlapping base of support, including Black and Jewish voters. Cuomo and the mayor have tried in vain to convince the other to drop out and unite the field against Mamdani.

Cuomo is not running with the same institutional support he’s enjoyed for much of his political career, which seemingly ground to a halt in 2021 after a state attorney general report found he sexually harassed 11 women; he’s denied any wrongdoing.

Despite resigning in disgrace, Cuomo quickly raked in cash and endorsements from the city’s political and business elite when he launched his primary run in March, as his advisers insisted he was the all-but-inevitable next mayor of the nation’s largest city.

Cuomo’s team privately believed Mamdani’s anti-Israel views, hard-left policies like government-run grocery stores and inexperience would make him an easy primary opponent to dispatch.

It didn’t work out.

The former governor got pummeled by Mamdani, whose focus on affordability vaulted his once afterthought of a candidacy ahead of better known and more experienced candidates.

Cuomo retreated in July to make his pitch to the Hamptons elite and directly to voters that he deserved another shot in the general election. Significant endorsements of Cuomo’s retooled campaign, however, have not materialized.

“A huge part of his appeal was his sense of inevitability,” said Democratic strategist Alyssa Cass, who advised former Comptroller Scott Stringer’s mayoral campaign. “Once Superman's lost his cape, it's hard to get it back. In politics, no one likes a loser.”

Mamdani’s campaign has made changes of its own since his upset victory. He’s met with wealthy business leaders to assure them his plans to sharply raise taxes on the rich to pay for his proposals like free buses won’t damage the city’s economy.

Politically crucial unions have lined up to endorse him, and he’s received backing from local Democratic leaders — though endorsements from Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn have eluded him. Republicans have already signaled they will make Mamdani a key component of their midterm strategy in 2026 and link him to Democratic House candidates in crucial swing districts.

Democrats on the sidelines have kept their distance with a studied neutrality.

“I see Mr. Mamdani is reaching out to a lot of business leaders and a lot of capitalists as well as so-called regular Democrats,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, the Queens Democratic Party chair who is yet to endorse in the general election. “And I see Mr. Cuomo out and about in a way that he was not out in a way previously.”

Meeks acknowledged Mamdani’s message on the cost of living in a deeply expensive city is something the rest of the party can carry.

“From all the reports I’ve gotten from some that have met with him he’s articulated clearly his message — making things affordable,” he said. “The devil is always in the details. Affordable housing — these are the issues the entire Democratic Party are talking about.”

It’s also a message Cuomo has picked up as a cudgel in recent weeks to swing back at Mamdani.

The former governor proposed income limits for rent-regulated apartments like the one Mamdani lives in — a move meant to draw attention to Mamdani’s privileged background as the son of a prominent filmmaker and Columbia University professor.

“Rent stabilized units when they’re vacant should only be rented to people who need affordable housing — not people like Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo said.

The proposal was preceded by attacks from the ex-governor’s top strategist, Melissa DeRosa, who accused Mamdani of being a “nepo baby.” Cuomo himself is the son of a former governor and was once married to a member of the Kennedy family. DeRosa’s father is a top Albany lobbyist.

The campaign has also highlighted Mamdani’s Ugandan roots following his wedding celebration at a family compound there last month.

Cuomo’s campaign tweeted that Uganda is “a country that murders LGBTQIA+ people.”

“I hereby call on you to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction your property in Uganda and commit to stop spending tourism dollars there until they overturn their hateful, discriminatory laws which violate basic human rights,” the campaign posted on X.

The attack served two ends. While explicitly focused on Uganda, it also implicitly nodded at Mamdani’s support for sanctioning Israel — a line of criticism Cuomo has backed away from as conditions in Gaza have worsened.

The former governor has also pressed Mamdani on his thin resume, contending it’s not up to the challenges of Trump 2.0 — an attack line he’s built on since the primary.

Cuomo this week argued the three-term state lawmaker doesn’t have the experience or chops to effectively counter Trump’s efforts to interfere with New York’s affairs as the federal government takes control of Washington’s police department.

Mamdani has shrugged off the attacks while his campaign has focused on Cuomo’s complex and long-standing relationship with Trump. The New York Times reported last week that Cuomo spoke recently with the Republican president; the former governor insisted the call hasn’t happened. Trump has also denied there was a recent phone call.

“We know that no amount of reinvention through a new online persona can distract from the fact that we just had a Democratic primary where New Yorkers spoke loudly and clearly, where we defeated Andrew Cuomo’s campaign by 13 points,” Mamdani told reporters Monday.

Like many politicians, Cuomo has long insisted social media is not an accurate reflection of real life or a true barometer of political support. Since revamping his campaign this summer, though, Cuomo’s campaign has reversed course.

His X account — once a typically staid presence of press-release like posts — has become a livelier destination. Cuomo has become a “reply guy” posting emojis and Gen Z-inflected lingo (“lazyweb what’s the correct term for this?”).

The effort is meant, in part, to meet Mamdani on the same field of political battle where the younger, less experienced candidate has found success. The tactic, though, has its limitations.

“Attacking Zohran for inexperience and for policy positions that are too far left out of the mainstream are still effective attacks,” said Democratic consultant Austin Shafran. “But personal attacks that reek of hypocrisy won’t move the negatives much on Zohran. For every point he scores he’s going to lose half a point for throwing stones when he grew up in a glided glass house.”

Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo contributed to this report.