Socialist Zohran Mamdani kneecapped ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s comeback bid for New York City mayor – securing more primary votes than any Big Apple Democrat in more than three decades.
The Queens assemblyman toppled the political scion 56-44 after just three rounds of ranked-choice voting, according to calculations by the city Board of Elections released Tuesday, a week after the June 24 primary.
He snagged 117,000 more votes than Cuomo, for a total of about 545,000 — the most in a Democratic mayoral primary since 1989, when David Dinkins snagged some 547,000 against incumbent Ed Koch in a non-ranked-choice election.
New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani secured 117,000 more votes than the former governor did. Stephen Yang
Mamdani’s primary win was essentially locked up last week after he easily topped Cuomo in the first round of voting by more than 70,000 votes.
But he widened his lead in the later rounds of early voting, as more votes were transferred to him from other candidates, garnering another 100,000 while Cuomo only grabbed an additional 54,000, the BOE data show.
And Mamdani’s vote total could still grow, with more ballots to be counted in the coming weeks from other mail-in votes.
The primary results are expected to be officially certified on July 15, at which point the full demographic breakdown of voters will be released.
Andrew Cuomo was toppled in the high-profile primary. John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock
Cuomo — who had insisted he was waiting to see the full results before deciding whether to campaign in the general election as an independent — continued to stall even after the numbers were revealed.
“We’ll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps,” Cuomo’s campaign said in a statement.
Regardless of whether he mounts an actual campaign, Cuomo will still appear on the crowded November ballot, alongside fellow third-party candidates Mayor Eric Adams and lawyer Jim Walden, plus Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and Mamdani as the Democratic nominee.
“Last Tuesday, Democrats spoke in a clear voice, delivering a mandate for an affordable city, a politics of the future, and a leader unafraid to fight back against rising authoritarianism,” Mamdani said in a statement.
“I am humbled by the support of more than 545,000 New Yorkers who voted for our campaign and am excited to expand this coalition even further as we defeat Eric Adams and win a city government that puts working people first.”
The dark-horse left-wing candidate took the New York political establishment and the country by surprise with his stunning win, as the vast majority of polls showed him trailing Cuomo by a large margin until the close to the election.
Mamdani drummed up massive support with his social media-fueled campaign targeting younger and new voters with lofty promises focused on affordability — including free buses, a rent freeze on stabilized units and government-run grocery stores.
He may have also benefited from the ranked-choice voting system by cross-endorsing with other candidates, including City Comptroller Brad Lander and the Rev. Michael Blake, in the final weeks of the primary race, whereas Cuomo stood alone.
BOE Deputy Executive Director Vincent Ignizio explained other candidates were eliminated swiftly because there was no way they could catch up to the two top-leading pols.
Mamdani’s domination is in stark contrast to Adams’ 2021 primary win, in which Hizzoner only edged out Kathryn Garcia by a razor-thin 7,000 votes after eight rounds.
About 1,026,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots in last month’s election, while 942,000 votes were tallied in the 2021 Democratic primary in a city still coming out of the COVID pandemic.
Nearly 1 million voters cast their ballot during the primary. Michael Nagle
The impressive margin of victory revealed led to a quick endorsement from state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) – one of highest ranking Dems to officially back Mamdani.
While state Attorney General Letitia James has also endorsed Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to officially back the Democratic socialist.
Mamdani, in a Tuesday social media video before the results came out, said in “some ways” he was surprised by his primary night win.
“We always thought our victory would come after multiple rounds of rank-choice voting so when we got more first-round votes than Eric Adams got in seven round in the last election it was astonishing,” he said.
“But in other ways, this was always the plan.”