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Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo focused on President Donald Trump in the campaign spotlight as he appeared to be cruising to win a party nomination a few weeks before the New York City mayoral primary. However, an unexpected loss to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani forced his campaign to suddenly change messaging.
“Trump is coming to New York. Who do you think can stop him?” The narrator of Cuomo’s campaign ads remarked over the image of the June riots in Los Angeles caused by Trump’s immigrant crackdown.
“Trump is at the city gates. We need someone who has experienced it to close them down,” the narrator said.
The former three-term governor, who resigned amid the twin scandal in 2021, has pledged to protect New York City from what could be a future federal crackdown on the city’s immigration protests if the mayor is elected. And he vowed to launch a national campaign to thwart Trump’s agenda.
Poll location: Mamdani is a front runner, but hasn’t run away in the mayoral race in New York
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo admits in a speech to his supporters that rival Zoran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral primary on June 24, 2025 (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
But last month, Mamdani’s surprising victory over Cuomo and nine other candidates won a Democratic nomination and took the mayor’s race in the country’s most populous city.
And when Cuomo was reset when he ran in the mayoral general election as an independent candidate, references to Trump plummeted as the former governor stands for an interview. He did not mention the president once in a video announcing his general election campaign.
Longtime Cuomo adviser and spokesman Rich Atzpaldi said when asked by Fox News Digital whether the former governor was highlighting Trump’s message.
“That’s ridiculous. It’s only been eight days since the campaign rebooted,” Azzopardi said. And he said in a local interview that Cuomo said “it caused more local issues and pocketbook issues.”
“I think New Yorkers know that Andrew Cuomo is the perfect person to protect New York from any excess that could come out of Washington.
However, Mamdani’s campaign claims that Cuomo is getting pages from the playbook as it highlights suggestions that it lowers rents, builds homes and improves public transport.
During the NYC mayoral campaign, Mamdani on extensions of travel to Africa
The 33-year-old Ugandan-born state legislator, backed by New York Progressive Champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has surged to primary wins for primary fromm thanks to an energetic campaign focused on affordable prices and New York City’s high-costumes.
New York Citizens Party mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani speaks briefly with reporters when he leaves the Darksen Senate Office building in Washington, DC (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) on July 16, 2025
Mamdani has made smart use of social media platforms, including Tiktok. He proposed eliminating fares for taking New York City’s vast bus system, creating rent to freeze Cuny (City University in New York) into “tuition-free” municipal housing, providing “free childcare” for children up to five years old, and establishing a government-run grocery store.
And Mamdani will catapult herself to number one, riding a wave of support from young, progressive voters thanks to the efforts of the large grassroots military of volunteers.
Cuomo says he is now committed to making New York a city where “rentals, safer streets, first homes are once again possible, and childcare won’t let you go bankrupt.”
He then targeted the mum dani by saying, “I gave a smooth slogan, but there’s no real solution.”
Potus the Pundit: Trump says Cuomo has a “good shot” to beat the mam tick
Cuomo is one of four candidates in the general election, who has taken on Mamdani, the city’s frontline for Democrats, where Republicans surpass Republicans by about 6-1 margin.
The race also features incumbent Eric Adams, who announced earlier this year that he was seeking reelection as an independent candidate, and Curtis Swawa, co-founder of the Guardian Angels, the second consecutive election.
And former federal prosecutor Jim Walden is also running an independent.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stayed as independent in New York City mayoral election after his defeat in the Democratic primary. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
Cuomo notes that since his main defeat, New York City general election voters are far larger than the pool of voters who voted in the Democratic nomination race.
“Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary,” Cuomo said in a video launching the general election.
And he is currently facing wider and more moderate voters in the Democratic primary, so the pivot appears clearly strategic towards the issue of affordability, leaving Cuomo’s Trump.
Pointing to a campaign reboot, Azzopardi told Fox News, “It’s important that we ran to the ground to see where the New Yorkers were and that’s what we’re doing.”
“The message is simple. New Yorkers are generally not hardcore pro magazine Trump, nor are they socialists. They are in the middle. The governor claims that he is the perfect person to bring his first capable administration back to city hall in 12 years,” Azzopardi said.
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But Lauren Hitt, a veteran Democratic strategist who advised the anti-Chaomo Super PAC in the Democratic primary, argued that New York City voters are likely to be skeptical of the former governor’s message.
“Cuomo already had the opportunity to make New York more affordable, and he did the opposite. So he could try and slap another label in his campaign, but New Yorkers already know that they don’t like what they’re selling,” Hitt said.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in swing state in New Hampshire. He covers campaign trails from coast to coast. ”
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