The four 2025 NYC Mayor’s Race candidates: Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, independents former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and current Mayor Eric Adams, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Reuters, Lloyd Mitchell and Dean Moses
As New York City counts down to Election Day on Nov. 4, the city’s four main mayoral candidates are vying for support in a relatively packed general election.
From church visits to campaign stops at a Brooklyn 5K race, here is how each candidate spent their Sunday.
Mamdani wraps up ‘Big Fall Canvass’
Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who is leading the field by a wide margin in most polls, spent Sunday morning speaking to congregants of Brooklyn’s Bethany Baptist Church.
Mamdani spoke of his love for New York City and the change he hopes to bring if elected to the city’s highest office — rising rents and grocery costs, disproportionate police killings of Black New Yorkers, and higher maternal mortality rates for Black mothers than white mothers, Mamdani said, do “not feel like love.”
“Make no mistake, when we come to expect only apathy from the government that is intended to serve us, instead of change, that does not feel like love either,” Mamdani said.
The mayoral hopeful alluded to President Donald Trump’s administration and condemned the federal government for cuts to healthcare and food benefits.
“As your mayor, I will make it my responsibility to make life easier for working New Yorkers, the ones who are so often forgotten,” the Democratic nominee said.
Mamdani spoke of his plans to freeze the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, build more affordable housing, raise taxes on New York City’s wealthiest residents, and deliver universal childcare.
As Mamdani spoke to the congregants, his campaign team ran a massive canvassing operation dubbed “Big Fall Canvass,” looking to knock thousands of doors and drum up more support for the assemblymember. A Friday video from the campaign titled “The Home Stretch Starts Now” called on supporters to sign up for a canvassing shift.
In the afternoon, Mamdani walked in the African American Day Parade in Harlem.
Cuomo talks Trump, ICE raids
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running on an independent party line in the general election after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, spent Sunday delivering remarks at Salem Missionary Baptist Church, the Free Methodist Church of Bethlehem, and the Sikh Center of New York.
At Salem Missionary, Cuomo discussed gang and gun violence in the city, rising prices, and threats from the Trump administration. He noted Trump’s crackdown on immigration enforcement and focus on Democratic cities like New York, where plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have repeatedly detained individuals attending routine hearings.
“I have news for the president: We have laws in New York also, I passed them, they’re called sanctuary laws, and he’s gonna have to go through me and those sanctuary laws if he thinks he’s going to be removing migrants from New York,” Cuomo said.
The former governor said the city needs to focus on building more affordable housing, hiring more police, and improving public education “in every district in this city, not just the rich and the white districts.”
Cuomo cited his experience as governor and previously as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton as evidence that he would be an effective mayor.
He closed by discussing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the city, which he said “nearly killed us.”
“There was a silver lining for me through COVID, in that it gave me faith in our capacity to accomplish great things when we come together,” Cuomo said. “If we could get through that, my friends, we can get through anything, and we’re going to take these challenges and make this city better than it has ever been.”
At Free Methodist, Cuomo again discussed affordability, safety, education, and the Trump administration. The former governor closed his congregation visits with remarks at the Sikh Center of New York.
Quiet Sunday for Adams
Mayor Eric Adams appeared to have a quiet Sunday, with no public campaign schedule or mayor’s schedule. His personal account continued to post on X about Mamdani, who is leading the mayor in most polls by over 30 points.
In a Sunday post to X, Adams wrote of Mamdani, “My opponent’s story is privilege and luxury,” with an accompanying graphic calling Mamdani a “product of wealth and elitism” who “Grew up with privilege and in intellectual elite circles.”
In a Saturday post, Adams shared a cartoon appearing to offer New Yorkers two choices: With Adams, “Safety and affordability from a proven leader,” and with Mamdani, “false promises and dangerous policies from someone with no real experience.”
Adams has seen increasing speculation regarding whether he plans to stay in the mayoral race through election day, as his odds of winning a second term appear increasingly unlikely.
Sliwa campaigns at festival visits and Bay Ridge 5K
Republican nominee and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa stayed busy across the city on Sunday, kicking off the morning with the Bay Ridge 37th Annual Hoban 5K Run at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn.
The annual run is in memory of NYPD officer Chris Hoban, who was killed in the line of duty in October 1988 at the age of 26.
After his first campaign stop, Sliwa headed to shake hands at the last day of the San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan’s Little Italy. The Republican nominee left to campaign at the Staten Island Greek Festival with Assemblymember Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island) at the Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
On Sunday evening, Sliwa was set to head back to Little Italy to close out the San Gennaro Festival before taking a late-night radio interview on The Dominic Carter Show.