Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launches bid for New York City mayor

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Saturday via social media that he’s running for New York City mayor, seeking a political comeback in the Democratic primary and challenging Eric Adams, an indicted incumbent who has rebuffed calls to resign.

In a 17-minute video, Cuomo lamented "the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders" and a city in "crisis" and "trouble." 

“You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person, or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway. You see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence … the city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis,” he said. 

He added: "Are you ready to fight to save our city? I know I am."

Cuomo resigned from the governorship in 2021 after allegations he sexually harassed women. He also had been accused of covering up nursing home deaths of elderly COVID-19 patients. He denies wrongdoing, and he enters the race as the clear front-runner according to almost every public poll released in recent weeks.

His entrance has been the source of speculation since autumn, and he joins a crowded field that includes Adams and a slate to the political left of both men. Those contenders include the city’s current and former comptrollers, Brad Lander and Scott Stringer, and several state lawmakers — Assemb. Zohran Mamdani of Queens and Sens. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and Jessica Ramos of Queens. The City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams of Queens, has taken steps toward entering the race but hasn’t declared a run.

Newsday has reported that two fundraising meet-and-greets are scheduled in the coming weeks.

Cuomo had $7.7 million in his campaign account that lists “undeclared” as the office he is seeking. The New York City Campaign Finance Board, which regulates municipal election spending, has stricter criteria than the state covering who can give and how much. Any transfer needs to be individually authorized by the donor.

The primary election is June 24, with early voting held June 14-22. Because the city’s Democratic voters overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans, becoming the Democratic nominee is typically tantamount to winning the general election, which this year is Nov. 4.

Cuomo, a 67-year-old lawyer, was governor for almost 11 years. Before that, he served as the state attorney general and the federal housing secretary under President Bill Clinton. Cuomo was the chief political enforcer for his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, during the elder Cuomo’s tenure in politics.

As governor, Andrew Cuomo signed bills legalizing same-sex marriage, allowing marijuana use, expanding paid family leave, increasing the minimum wage, restricting gun rights and liberalizing the state’s bail laws.

During his third and last term as governor, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, his name was floated as a potential presidential contender by those who praised his top-down management style, particularly during televised briefings when the state was the pandemic’s global epicenter.

But his star faded. A succession of women came forward to allege he’d sexually harassed them, and a state audit found he underreported elderly COVID-19 deaths and “misled” the public by attributing the deaths to hospitals, rather than nursing homes, because the patients had been rushed to hospitals before they died. He was also criticized for a controversial order to force nursing homes to accept infected COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.

Last month, the state's highest court rejected Cuomo's attempt to get declared unconstitutional a state ethics panel that had investigated a $5.1 million deal he got for a memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The panel ordered him to forfeit the $5.1 million he got for the book.

In his record remarks Saturday, Cuomo hinted at the scandals that felled him but did not address them specifically.

“Would I do some things differently knowing what I know now? Certainly,” he said. “Did I make mistakes, some painfully? Definitely, and I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it and I hope to show that every day.”

His opponents reacted to Saturday's announcement with a mix of disdain, criticism and ridicule.

"Andrew Cuomo is now officially running to lead the city he repeatedly threw under the bus as governor," Stringer posted on X. Lander directed a post at Cuomo, calling the run "your sad attempt to get attention." Myrie posted that as governor, Cuomo slashed funding for subways and schools, closed hospitals and hurt tenants. Mamdani said Adams and Cuomo are the same: "the same donors, the same agenda, the same chaos."

For his part, Adams has ridiculed the prospect that he won’t be reelected, comparing the potential for Cuomo to win in 2025 with the fleeting popularity of onetime mayoral front-runner Andrew Yang in the 2021 election that Adams won.

“We're not calling Andrew Yang mayor. We're saying Eric Adams is mayor,” Adams said Monday, adding: “People come in, people get out, things happen, stuff pops up. That's just the reality of this, of this game.”

Adams' campaign lawyer, Vito Pitta, didn't respond to an email Saturday seeking comment. 

Since resigning, Cuomo had largely stayed out of the public eye.

He has occasionally weighed in on policy: opposing the onset of congestion pricing (an effort he once spearheaded and called essential); criticizing Democrats for ignoring crime ("The far left doesn't want to talk about crime,” he said in a YouTube video in 2023); in a TV ad criticizing pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Now, with Adams unpopular, Cuomo sees a chance to mount a comeback. 

The charges against Adams allege he defrauded the city’s campaign finance system and accepted donations and luxury travel from foreign donors in exchange for municipal favors. He has pleaded not guilty, and a judge is considering a motion from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice to dismiss the case, for reasons that include allowing the mayor to more freely help execute Trump’s deportation plans.

Cuomo, who grew up in Holliswood, Queens, was a longtime Westchester resident who recently switched his voter registration to East 54th Street in Manhattan.

His challenges include securing backing from blocs he once counted on as a key component of his base: Black voters — who helped make Adams mayor and Cuomo governor — and Orthodox Jewish voters, a constituency Cuomo alienated by his enforcement of pandemic rules.

Even before Cuomo announced his run, there was anti-Cuomo activity, such as one ad from a group opposed to his return ("Andrew Cuomo didn’t care much about Black New Yorkers until he got into trouble, and then that’s when he needed us to bail him out," the ad says) and a website from Myrie — quietcuomo.com, which assails the former governor for what it says is his failure to speak out about Trump.

The last former governor to seek citywide office was Eliot Spitzer, who failed in his 2013 comeback bid to become comptroller, losing to Stringer.

Decades earlier, another Cuomo once ran for mayor — and lost, to Ed Koch — before going on to become governor: Mario Cuomo, Andrew’s father.

With Michael Gormley

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.