Andrew Cuomo, New York City mayoral candidate and former New York governor, speaks during a press conference on August 4, 2025, in New York City.
Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

While the rhetoric in the city’s mayoral race has become more heated as November draws closer, things took an even more personal turn this week. On Friday, Andrew Cuomo slammed Zohran Mamdani for living in a rent-stabilized apartment, invoking both his wife and parents and suggesting his choice to remain in that apartment is causing someone else to be homeless.

“Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, assemblyman @ZohranKMamdani are occupying her rent controlled apartment,” Cuomo said in the lengthy post.

The former governor claimed the assemblymember “grew up rich,” an apparent reference to his parents, a film director and a Columbia University professor, and said that Mamdani went on to marry “an even wealthier woman.” Cuomo then knocked Mamdani for traveling to his home country of Uganda to celebrate his recent marriage and cited his publicly reported $142,000 salary as a lawmaker. “No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich.”

He continued, “We are in the middle of a historic affordability crisis. Millions of low income New Yorkers need this apartment and an apartment like it. Yet your apartment remains rented to rich people who don’t need it. Today, I am calling on you to move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it. Leaders must show moral clarity. Time to move out.”

The Mamdani campaign fired back at Cuomo’s missive in a statement. “Andrew Cuomo isn’t just working with Donald Trump — he’s becoming him. Ranting to reporters, firing off unhinged social media posts, lodging personal attacks — all to avoid talking about the corruption, sexual harassment, and abuse of power that drove him from office. The only thing missing is a red hat,” campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said.

Mamdani has been open about his living situation, telling moderators at a primary debate that he paid $2,300 a month for his one-bedroom apartment. In that same debate, Cuomo said that he pays about $7,800 for rent.

In a February interview with the New York Editorial Board, a group of veteran local journalists, Mamdani said he first found the listing for his apartment on StreetEasy back when he was making $47,000 a year working as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor.

Mamdani told the group that he ultimately plans to move out of his Astoria home. “In that time since, I’ve become an assemblymember and I’m now able to pay for that apartment and able to also move out of that apartment and I plan on doing so. I don’t plan on living in that apartment for perpetuity,” he said.

The former governor’s post was boosted by Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital who came under fire last month for offensive comments against Mamdani. “It’s good to see you fighting,” he wrote. By contrast, City Council member Chi Ossé, a supporter of Mamdani, responded, “Zohran will move from Astoria to Gracie Mansion on January 1, about two months after you move back to the suburbs.”

Cuomo’s post appears part of a recent shift in social-media strategy for his campaign as the former governor’s X account has rattled off a constant series of posts aimed at Mamdani in increasingly personal tones, a likely attempt to make a play at the front-runner’s success online.

But it’s not yet clear that the gambit will pay off. On Wednesday, Cuomo reshared a debate clip where he claimed President Trump would go through Mamdani like “a hot knife through butter,” a message that got 434 likes. Mamdani rebutted in his own post on Friday, sharing a New York Times article reporting on Cuomo allegedly telling business leaders he “doesn’t want to fight” with Trump. Mamdani’s response of a knife emoji and a butter emoji received 5,700 likes.

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