Democratic Socialist anti zionist wins NYC mayor Dem primary

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New York’s mayoral contest has fully surfaced a tension bubbling in city politics for years: the divide between lifelong New Yorkers and young professionals who have recently moved in.

In his 7-point Democratic primary win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani cleaned up with younger voters who live in some of New York’s most gentrified neighborhoods — including Bushwick, Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Cuomo, meanwhile, edged out Mamdani in majority-Black, outer-borough neighborhoods that have experienced less gentrification, as well as other places like the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, also home to many longtime New Yorkers.

That divide is playing out in the general election, too, where Cuomo is running as a third-party candidate. A CBS News survey last month found that Mamdani held a 51-point edge over Cuomo among voters who have moved to New York within the last 10 years. Among voters who have lived in New York for more than 10 years, Mamdani’s advantage over Cuomo dropped to 19 points.

And among born and raised New Yorkers, Mamdani held a smaller, 7-point advantage over Cuomo. Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, two fixtures of New York politics for decades, combined to win 49% of this demographic.

Surveys show Mamdani with double-digit leads, enjoying a glide path to election next month, even after Mayor Eric Adams dropped his own third-party campaign. Still, the split has set the terms of debate for this fall’s contest — and highlighted what could become a strain on a potential Mamdani mayoralty.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a fixture in New York City and Democratic politics for decades, said in an interview that he could not recall a citywide election where the split between lifelong New Yorkers and new transplants was as wide.

“Those who have grown up here all their life are more traditional voters who know the traditional battles in the city — when crime was higher, when it was lower, when there was more racial divide, when there were more police issues like stop and frisk,” said Sharpton, the host of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.” “Those who are new tend to not know a lot of the history and take a fresh look at the city as they know it.”

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said young professionals coming to New York City in waves from other parts of the country is a “phenomenon which has probably only existed over the last, say, 25-30 years.” For most of New York City history, he continued, new arrivals were overwhelmingly working-class immigrants.

“I can think about the elections with David Dinkins and Giuliani and Bloomberg — I think there was some appeal for Bloomberg with [young professionals], but I don’t think there’s any parallel to the appeal that Zohran has,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio noted that Adams sought to “drive a little bit of a wedge” in his 2021 campaign between longtime residents and newcomers, painting himself as “the candidate of long-term residents.”

Adams said in 2020 that new arrivals to the city were “hijacking” apartments from born and raised New Yorkers. Speaking at Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in the city, Adams told those arrivals, “Go back to Iowa.”

“You go back to Ohio,” Adams said. “New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is.”

In 2021, de Blasio said the newcomers “did not consolidate around one single candidate” as Adams made his pitch to city lifers.

“It is fair to say it is unprecedented in the last quarter century or so, when we’ve had this influx of young professionals, it’s unprecedented to have them attached to one candidate so deeply,” de Blasio said.

A senior Mamdani adviser, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the race, framed the divide not around Mamdani’s level of support from young professionals but rather a “broad coalition of immigrant New Yorkers” who back the 33-year-old assemblyman, pointing to strong support in New York’s South Asian, Muslim, Latino and African diaspora communities.

“My gut is it speaks to immigrant New Yorkers who are a big part of his coalition and for whom he spent a ton of time doing real, tangible organizing in neighborhoods that have high immigrant populations,” this person said, adding that Mamdani has sought to expand his coalition, particularly with a focus on winning over Black voters over 50.

This person mentioned Mamdani’s visits to Black churches and with community, business and elected leaders. Mamdani has won endorsements from Carl Heastie, the state Assembly speaker who hails from the Bronx, as well as Rep. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., who currently heads the Congressional Black Caucus.

“The momentum that he’s feeling is across the city and across demographics, is not limited to just the primary coalition,” this person continued, “although that remains central and important and part of the core base of the campaign.”

Sharpton, who recently met with Mamdani, said he believes Mamdani is making progress with longer-standing New York City residents, “but he’s going to keep working at it.”

“The traditional people are the ones he’s got to convince that he would regard and respect the history of the city and the history of neighborhoods and the history of what they may have faced,” Sharpton said, adding that he told Mamdani: “You’ve got to think of not only how do you reach out in traditional places to win the election — you can maybe win like you did the primary with just some of them — but you can’t govern with all of them against you.”

Mamdani has made efforts to court these young professionals. In June, he released a video targeting voters who live in the city but still voted elsewhere. In roughly a week between when Mamdani released that video and the June 14 registration deadline, more than 54,000 new voters registered to vote — about 80% of all of those who registered that month, per an analysis by Gothamist.

The divide is also apparent between older and younger voters. A Marist College poll conducted before Adams dropped out, which showed Mamdani up 21 points on Cuomo in a four-way race and 10 points ahead in a two-way contest, showed Mamdani running up huge margins among voters under 45 years old. But with voters between 45 and 59 and above 60, Cuomo and Mamdani were neck and neck.

“Zohran’s voters are, ironically, not the people he says he speaks for,” said Bradley Tusk, who ran former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign.

“If socialism and far left-wing politics is about helping the poor, the poor don’t feel that way about Zohran. The reality is, Zohran’s agenda and politics are extremely appealing to young, upwardly mobile New Yorkers who are newer to the city, worried about their ability to be able to stay here, and like the idea of someone like Zohan disrupting the system,” Tusk continued, comparing that trend to the voters nationally who backed President Donald Trump in 2024.

Mamdani’s pitch to voters has included free buses, universal child care, a rent freeze for stabilized tenants and effective pushback against Trump, who has sought to influence the race and threatened to exert increased control over the city. Mamdani has also appealed to progressives angered by the war in Gaza.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Manhattan, Cuomo told NBC News he believed the divide in the race centered on younger voters animated by the war in Gaza, while criticizing Mamdani’s policy proposals as unrealistic.

“I think the divide was younger people, 20 to 30, which would fit with newer transplants to New York and the issue of Gaza, which, by the way, has nothing to do with the mayoral thing,” Cuomo said. “But I believe the issue of Gaza was his primary motivating issue with voters. Freeze the rent doesn’t mean anything. It’s a great slogan. It’s like Donald Trump saying, ‘When I get elected, the price of eggs is going to come down.’ How? Why? What’s the connection? Nobody asks. It’s the dumbing down in politics.”

“So it wasn’t freeze the rent, it wasn’t any of the above,” Cuomo added. “It wasn’t the price of eggs. It was Gaza and younger people.”

The fight between Mamdani and Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the primary in June, has gotten more heated in the final weeks of the race. Mamdani has slammed Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations he denies, for a “record of disgrace.” Cuomo has hit Mamdani for a litany of past statements and for policy aims he paints as a fairy tale wish list.

As Cuomo trails in the polls by a substantial margin, even if the numbers are significantly closer with longtime New York City residents and older voters, Sharpton said voters have opinions of the former governor baked in — good or bad. He added that Cuomo needs to campaign more aggressively.

“During the primaries, he played the Rose Garden strategy where he wasn’t in the Rose Garden,” Sharpton said. “He’s got to go out there and be willing to face detractors, even hecklers, because people will feel like he’s reachable. I’m seeing him start to do that. He’s got to do that.”

On the other hand, both Sharpton and de Blasio said Mamdani is gaining ground with voters who did not back him in the primary.

“I’ve been talking to Black clergy this week,” de Blasio said. “And I’m noting this week, compared to even a couple of weeks ago, a real growing sense that he’s going to win, and people starting to find comfort they didn’t have before, because they see he’s reaching out.”

A Cuomo adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the race, said they had not seen a recent citywide race with such a divide between newer New Yorkers and lifelong residents, though this person noted the divide started to become apparent in some downballot races, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset primary win over then-Rep. Joe Crowley.

This person added the former governor knows “where our support is,” outlining a path to victory much like Adams’ in 2021 and mentioning specific outreach to Hindu and Muslim New Yorkers.

“It’s no surprise he won gentrified areas, while we won the traditional Black vote,” this person said of the primary. “We won the Upper East and West Side. In New York, to win the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, the African American vote and the Jewish vote, that used to be more than enough"

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the New York mayoral race, said Wednesday that it was "too early" to give President Donald Trump credit for negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying he would be willing to do so if the ceasefire is "lasting" and "durable."

"When it comes to the ceasefire, I am thankful, and I have hope that it will actually endure and that it will be lasting," Mamdani told Fox News' Martha MacCallum.

Asked by MacCallum about whether he credits Trump, whose administration negotiated the first phase of the peace plan with Israel and Hamas, Mamdani said, "I think it’s too early to do so."

"If it proves to be something that is lasting, something that is durable, then I think that that is where you give credit," he said.

In Wednesday's Fox News interview, Mamdani said that he was still skeptical that the peace deal would last, citing reports that Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday.

"I continue to have concerns, because I’ve seen reports still, just in the last few days, that five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military. And that’s what gives me pause about issuing any kind of praise or celebration at a moment when it is still in its infancy," Mamdani told MacCallum.

He also responded to the news that Hamas, which, as part of the peace deal, agreed to return living and deceased hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, returned a body that was not that of one of the hostages.

“I think those are bodies or remains that should absolutely be returned. And I think that I have no issue critiquing Hamas or the Israeli government because my critiques all come from a place of universal human rights," Mamdani said.

Several of the families of deceased hostages called this week for an "immediate suspension" of the ceasefire agreement when just four of 28 deceased hostages were initially returned to Israel.

Mamdani on Wednesday also reiterated his long-stated position about whether he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under an arrest warrant that has been imposed by the International Criminal Court.

“This is a city that believes in international law," he said, adding, “I believe that we should uphold arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court."

Mamdani added that he wouldn't create legislation to uphold an international arrest warrant and that he would "exhaust every legal option in front of me" to arrest people under warrants only if they visited New York City.

Pro-Israel billionaire and Trump supporter Bill Ackman has donated $1 million to Defend NYC, a super PAC working to stop Zohran Mamdani's campaign for New York mayor, according to a filing with the state Board of Elections on Wednesday.

With less than three weeks to the election, this is the largest donation to the PAC, founded by Jason Meister, a former Donald Trump campaign adviser who once said January 6 should be a national holiday to "honor American heroes."

Ackman, who often attacks Mamdani's criticism of Israel, has become one of the few wealthy New Yorkers still spending heavily to block the democratic socialist, even as others in the real estate and finance community have begun to accept his rise.

Dora Pereck, spokesperson for Mamdani, also said, "Bill Ackman cannot stand the idea of New Yorkers being the ones to choose their next mayor, so he's doing the only thing he knows how: throwing money at this race. Zohran defeated the billionaires once, and he'll do it again because we can't be bought and New York City is not for sale."

According to the latest polls, Mamdani leads former New York governor Andrew Cuomo by 13 points. The first mayoral debate is set for Thursday. Once dogged by criticism over his views on Israel, Mamdani has recently sought to build stronger ties with New York's Jewish community.

When asked if he would arrest Netanyahu during a visit to New York, as he previously suggested, Mamdani said, "I believe we should uphold International Criminal Court arrest warrants, but only in accordance with existing laws." Referring to the fact U.S. is not a member of the ICC, he said, "I won't create a new law to do so."

Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani both opened Thursday’s New York mayoral debate by saying a future headline about their first year in office would celebrate lowering costs for New Yorkers.

The next 50 minutes of the debate — aired on NBC New York and Telemundo New York, in partnership with Politico — turned into an all-out brawl over issues including crime, the war in Gaza and President Donald Trump as the candidates tore into one another in deeply personal ways.

During one back-and-forth focused on which candidate has the right experience for the job, Mamdani, a state assemblyman, blasted Cuomo, the former governor, for his handling of nursing homes during the Covid pandemic. Cuomo, who resigned from office amid allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies, had just said the mayorship was “no job for on-the-job training.”

Mamdani said: “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. And what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, and Cuomo, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in June, were joined onstage by Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, with the three clashing over how to handle the police department and mental health calls, the education system, taxes and the business climate in New York City.

Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist, enters the stretch run of the election with a commanding lead, though Cuomo has closed some ground since Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the contest.

Trump has sought to influence the outcome of the race and has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from New York should Mamdani win the contest next month. And the president’s influence in New York was a central discussion of the debate.

Each candidate was asked when he had last spoken with Trump, with Cuomo saying he believed it was after the attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania last year. Sliwa said it had been many years, while Mamdani said he never has never spoken to Trump.

But Mamdani did express willingness to work with Trump to lower costs — before he attacked Cuomo over reports that he had discussed the race with Trump.

“I don’t need the president’s assistance,” Mamdani said. “And what I’d tell the president is if he ever wants to come for New Yorkers in the way that he has been, he’s going to have to get through me as the next mayor of the city.”

Cuomo said he never had such a conversation with Trump and talked up past “bloody battles” with him during Covid.

“I’d like to avoid them,” Cuomo said.

Following the debate, NBC News asked Mamdani what he would say to New Yorkers concerned that Trump will follow through on threats to punish the city by withholding additional federal funding should the state assemblyman win next month.

“I think what we’re seeing right now is that Donald Trump is making a threat every day that he wakes up,” Mamdani said. “He’s making a threat to suspend funding to the city, like the $18 billion in infrastructure grants he’s already made good on, threats to suspend more than $50 million because we refuse to give up our trans students, or $80 million because we actually wanted to take care of every person in the city, regardless of their status. I would actually fight each of those threats, not treat them as law because they come out of his mouth.”

He pointed to legal battles in California, saying that “for every dollar they spent on legal fees, they retrieved more than $30,000 in federal funds that would have been stripped of them.”

Approached by NBC News minutes earlier, Cuomo was emphatic when asked if the president would move forward with his threats no matter who wins next month.

“No,” Cuomo said. “No!”

During the debate, Mamdani also attacked Cuomo for not taking a strong enough line in defending state Attorney General Letitia James, who was recently indicted on federal charges after Trump had called for her prosecution.

“I said political weaponization of the justice system is wrong,” Cuomo said. “Both sides do it. It’s wrong when Donald Trump does it. It’s wrong when they did it to [James] Comey. It’s wrong when Comey did it to Hillary” Clinton.

Sliwa cut in and said New Yorkers will suffer if either Cuomo or Mamdani takes on Trump.

“Look, you can be tough, but you can’t be tough if it’s going to cost people desperately needed federal funds,” Sliwa said. “Zohran Mamdani, the president has already said it’s going to take $7 billion out of the budget right from the start if you’re elected mayor. People are going to suffer in this city, people who need those federal funds. What I would do is sit and negotiate.”

While Sliwa sought his openings in the debate, Mamdani and Cuomo were the main event, often ignoring his jibes — except to agree when he was attacking the other candidate.

Democratic divides
Meanwhile, Mamdani and Cuomo battled over who is a real Democrat, too. Mamdani said voters who believe there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties should vote for Cuomo, while voters who want a mayor to stand up to Trump and his donors should back him.

Cuomo then said Mamdani isn’t a Democrat, focusing on his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America, and accused him of not voting for Kamala Harris last fall. (Mamdani said voters should leave their presidential primary ballots blank if they disagreed with then-President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.)

“If you want to look for me on the ballot, you’ll find me as the Democrat,” Mamdani said.

The war in Gaza took up a significant part of the debate. Mamdani has accused Israel of carrying out a “genocide” and in a Fox News interview Wednesday, he declined to say whether Hamas should forfeit its weapons following the recent ceasefire agreement.

“Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms. I’m proud to be one of the first elected officials in the state who called for a ceasefire, and calling for a ceasefire means ceasing fire,” he said. “That means all parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons.

“And the reason that we call for that is not only for the end of the genocide, but also an unimpeded access of humanitarian aid,” Mamdani said. “I, like many New Yorkers, am hopeful that this ceasefire will hold.”

Cuomo responded that Mamdani is refusing to “denounce Hamas” and separately said he was speaking in “code” with his answer — and that code signaled that Israel “does not have a right to exist as a Jewish state.” Mamdani responded that Cuomo was acting as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “legal defense team during the course of this genocide.”

He added that conversations with Jewish New Yorkers had led him to discourage using the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a phrase he said he does not use.

“And what I’m looking to do as the first Muslim mayor of this city is to ensure that we bring every New Yorker together, Jewish New Yorkers, Muslim New Yorkers, every single person that calls the city home. They understand they won’t just be protected, but they will belong,” he said.

Cuomo attacked Mamdani for not explicitly denouncing the phrase.

“He is a divisive personality across the board,” Cuomo said.

Handling crime and costs
On crime, Mamdani said he had spoken to police officers to apologize for past anti-police postings, and he said he is not running on those ideas, attacking Cuomo for not focusing on his actual plans. Cuomo said that Mamdani “doesn’t like the police” and “that’s why he won’t hire more police.”

“When everyone else says we need more police,” Cuomo said, “he wants to use social workers on domestic violence calls, which are very dangerous, and he’s told you what he thinks. He thinks the police are racist, wicked, corrupt and a threat to public safety.”

Mamdani said that as a state assemblyman, he learned “that to deliver justice means to also deliver safety, and that means leading a city where you recognize the bravery of the men and women who join the NYPD and put their lives on the line.”

“It means representing the Muslims who were illegally surveilled in my district and the Black and brown New Yorkers who have been victims of police brutality,” he said.

The second half of the debate featured more discussion about the cost of living and affordability. Each candidate was asked what he paid in groceries and rent: $2,300 for Mamdani, $3,900 for Sliwa and $7,800 for Cuomo.

Cuomo was deeply critical of Mamdani’s plans for affordable housing and free bus service, while he talked up his own experience as governor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Mamdani said: “I just have to say it’s been an hour and 20 minutes of this debate, and we haven’t heard Gov. Cuomo say the word ‘affordability.’ That’s why he lost the primary.”

Mamdani criticized Cuomo for having the support of billionaire hedge fund executive Bill Ackman, to which Cuomo said, “There are a lot of New Yorkers who support me, and there are a lot of Jewish New Yorkers who support me because they think you’re antisemitic.

“So it’s not about Trump or Republicans,” Cuomo said. “It’s about you.”

The two candidates did have one point of agreement when they were asked to identify the best-ever mayor of New York City. Both shouted out Fiorello LaGuardia.

“We agree,” Mamdani said.

Rabbis speak out
Two leading New York rabbis are using their pulpits to condemn Zohran Mamdani as he holds onto a commanding lead in the last weeks of the race.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who heads the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, decried the frontrunner in a speech to his congregation on Shabbat. “I believe Zohran Mamdani poses a danger to the security of the New York Jewish community,” he said, citing Mamdani’s views of Israel and Zionism.

Cosgrove also urged his congregants to convince their Jewish friends and family to vote against Mamdani. He said Jewish New Yorkers should “prioritize their Jewish selves” by voting based on their connection to Israel, rather than local issues such as affordability.

“As Jews, ahavat Israel — love of Israel — does take precedence over other loves,” said Cosgrove.

Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who leads the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, addressed Mamdani in his own video that was shared with his congregation days earlier.

Hirsch said Mamdani’s “ideological commitments” against Israel served to “delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility towards Judaism and Jews.” He told Mamdani, “I urge you to reconsider your long-held views of Israel’s right to exist.”

Hirsch also said, “Most Jews are deeply offended by your ongoing accusations of Israeli genocide.” Four in 10 American Jews said they believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, according to a Washington Post poll conducted in early September.

A Fox News survey last week found that Jews were closely split between Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, who is polling a distant second in the race.

Other New York rabbis have been plagued by the question of whether to endorse in this election, since the IRS reversed a decades-long policy that barred endorsements from the pulpit. Hirsch previously told our reporter Grace Gilson that he was alarmed by Mamdani but would not make an endorsement, warning fellow clergy that “it diminishes us if we are perceived as being in a partisan camp.”

Sliwa called on to quit
Curtis Sliwa faced calls to quit the race during a meeting at Fifth Avenue Synagogue on Sunday, where our reporter Joseph Strauss saw attendees pleading with the Republican nominee who is polling third. The day before, on Shabbat, he visited The Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side. Later in the day, he headed to Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, where Mamdani spoke last week.

The Fifth Avenue Synagogue crowd was not unanimously anti-Sliwa, but they convened with the purpose of stopping Mamdani’s rise. One person accused Sliwa of being a “spoiler.”

“We all love you, we want you to win,” said synagogue president Jacob Gold, who stood by Sliwa at the podium. “But you’re at 15%, and Cuomo’s at what percent? And Mamdani’s at what percent?” Gold said that he wanted Sliwa to “merge with Cuomo.”

Cuomo himself urged Sliwa to drop out after the first general election debate on Thursday, during which he fielded barbs from both Sliwa and Mamdani.

“There is no Curtis as a candidate. There’s Curtis as a spoiler,” Cuomo said to conservative Jewish radio host Sid Rosenberg on Friday. “If Curtis is not in the race, I win. And that’s a choice for Republicans. Do you vote for Curtis so you can say ‘I voted Republican’ and wind up electing Mamdani? Or do you vote for me?”

Sliwa responded to his detractors, including Jewish billionaire Bill Ackman, in an interview with Jewish YouTuber Nate Friedman. He called Ackman a “jerk” who did not understand politics or live in New York City. To Cuomo, he said, “Get your own votes.”

Mamdani Turns 34
Mamdani celebrated his birthday on Saturday, taking the chance to address voters who express concerns about his age.

“You’re worried about a 33-year-old becoming mayor of New York City,” he said in a video. “And I want you to know, I hear you. That’s why this weekend I’ll be making a change. I’m turning 34, and I’m committing that for every single day from here on out, I will grow older.”

Mamdani asked supporters to mark his birthday by signing up for a canvassing shift. “The best gift is to beat Andrew Cuomo a second time,” he said.

Trump Watch
President Trump continues to muse about the race. But after saying that Mamdani “hates Jewish people” and reiterating his threats to cut federal funding from New York under a Mayor Mamdani last week, he suggested over the weekend that the election result wouldn’t make much difference to him.

“Would I rather have a Democrat than a communist? Barely. They’re almost becoming the same thing,” Trump said on Fox News on Sunday morning. “I don’t know that I’m going to get involved.”

Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo clashed Wednesday in the final New York mayoral debate, which put on full display their personal animosity and their array of disagreements over both city and national issues.

Throughout the 90-minute debate, Cuomo — the former Democratic governor running as an independent — called Mamdani, 34, a state assemblyman, a “kid” who would get knocked “on his tuchus” by President Donald Trump, a “great actor” and a “divisive force in New York” who brings “toxic energy for New York.”

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, who defeated Cuomo in the party's primary in June, slammed Cuomo as a “desperate man” and “Trump’s puppet” whose political career was decidedly in the past.

The contentious event, held three days before early voting kicks off and less than two weeks before Election Day, comes as Mamdani has maintained a double-digit lead in public polling.

With time to further narrow the gap before the election running out, Cuomo took swing after swing at Mamdani, criticizing him for not having adequate experience to lead a city of nearly 9 million and to stand up to Trump, who has repeatedly vowed to withhold federal funding from New York if Mamdani wins.

Cuomo ripped Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, in his opening statement as someone with “no new ideas” and a “rehash” of Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying he has “never run anything, managed anything, never had a real job.”

Mamdani slammed Cuomo as someone who “will only speak of the past” “and a “desperate man lashing out because he knows that the one thing he’s always cared about, power, is now slipping away from him.”

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who also took part in the debate, teed off on both of his opponents.

“Zohran, your résumé could fit on a cocktail napkin,” he said. “And Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City.”

Wednesday’s debate also came amid growing calls among Mamdani's opponents for Sliwa to drop out of the race to create a more competitive two-man contest with Cuomo. Sliwa, who earlier in the day said he’d be leaving his conservative talk radio perch, gave no indication that he’d exit the race.

Affordability, housing, homelessness and New York-centric issues like education and policing — Mamdani confirmed that he’d retain New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch — accounted for the bulk of the night’s debate. But the candidates were first asked to weigh in on questions with national implications, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and how to deal with Trump.

Candidates were asked how city officials should have approached an ICE raid this week that targeted undocumented immigrants who may have connections to illegal street vending.

Cuomo replied that he would have called Trump and told him, “Look, you’re way out of bounds.”

“I’ve had a lot of dealings with President Trump, and there’s only one way to deal with him. He puts his finger in your chest, and you have to put your finger right back in his chest,” Cuomo said. “We don’t need ICE to do quality-of-life crimes. We don’t need them to worry about illegal vendors. That’s a basic policing function for the NYPD.”

Mamdani slammed ICE as a “reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the people that they’re supposed to serve,” and he promised to “end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government.”

Responding to a question about how he’d work with or against Trump, Mamdani said he’d fight him “every step of the way” over deporting Americans and going after his political enemies. But when it came to Trump’s promises to lower the cost of living, Mamdani said he'd be open to working together.

“If he wants to talk to me about the third piece of that agenda, I will always be ready and willing,” he said.

“We heard from Donald Trump’s puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo. You could turn on TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him,” Mamdani added.

Trump has called Mamdani a communist and threatened to withhold federal funds and deploy the National Guard, as he has done in other major cities, if he wins the November election.

Cuomo seized on the comments from Trump.

“You are going to have to confront him, and you can beat him. I confronted him, and I have beaten him,” Cuomo said. Trump, he added, “has said he’ll take over New York if Mamdani wins — and he will, because he has no respect for him.”

“He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchus,” Cuomo added.

Tensions surfaced yet again after the candidates were asked how their views on Gaza and Israel might affect their ability to be an effective mayor.

In a fiery exchange, the three candidates sparred over who would best combat antisemitism in the city, with Mamdani starting by promising to protect Jewish New Yorkers and backing a plan to introduce more lessons about the Jewish experience in New York in public schools.

But Cuomo told Mamdani: “Not everything is a TikTok video. You’re the savior of the Jewish people? You won’t denounce [the phrase] ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means ‘kill Jews.’” He added that Mamdani was among a group of leaders “who stoke the flames of hatred against Jewish people.”

Cuomo’s comments referred to Mamdani’s past decision not to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” The New York Times later reported that Mamdani privately promised to “discourage” use of it.

Mamdani responded that the city needs “a leader who takes [antisemitism] seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs, not one who weaponizes it as a means by which to score political points on a debate stage.”

Sliwa then jumped in, calling Mamdani and Cuomo “two kids in a schoolyard.” He said several of his family members view Mamdani "as the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism.”

“They cannot suddenly accept the fact that you’re coming like a firefighter and you’re going to put out these flames,” he said.

Mamdani also drew attention to the sexual harassment allegations that prompted Cuomo to resign as governor in 2021 by announcing that one of the women who made such accusations, Charlotte Bennett, was in the audience.

“You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her,” Mamdani said. “I, however, can speak.”

“What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?” he asked Cuomo.

Cuomo, who has denied the allegations, responded that “everything you just stated, you just said, was a misstatement — which we’re accustomed to.”

Bennett this year settled her lawsuit against New York that alleged the state didn’t do enough to prevent Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment. Cuomo threatened to sue her this year for defamation.

Mamdani also attacked Cuomo over a scandal involving undercounting nursing home deaths during the Covid pandemic that embattled his administration as governor.

“You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience, as if the issue is that we don’t know about it. The issue is that we have all experienced your experience," Mamdani said. "The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes."

“The issue is your experience,” he added.

Cuomo hit back by diving back into his own key accusation against Mamdani.

“The issue is you have no experience,” he said. “You’ve accomplished nothing.”

As the New York mayoral election draws near, more than 850 rabbis and cantors from across the United States have signed onto a letter voicing their opposition to mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.

The letter, titled “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future,” cited Mamdani’s previous defense of the slogan “globalize the Intifada,” his denial of “Israel’s legitimacy” and his accusations that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.

The letter quotes Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, who told his congregants in a YouTube address last week that Mamdani’s rhetoric will “delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews.”

Hirsch was also one of the signatories on the letter, which included a wide range of rabbis and cantors from over 30 states as well as Toronto. It was organized by the new Jewish Majority advocacy group, led by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman.

About 60 rabbis across denominations in New York City signed on, including Rabbi Joshua Davidson of the Reform Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side, Rabbi David Ingber of the progressive synagogue Romemu on the Upper West Side and the 92nd Street Y and Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side.

Gerald Weider and Andy Bachman, former rabbis at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, where Mamdani spoke earlier this month at the invitation of its current rabbi, also signed on.

Other influential rabbis who signed on include the author and former leader of Los Angeles’ Conservative Sinai Temple David Wolpe; Denise Eger, the first openly LGBTQ+ rabbi to head the Central Conference of American Rabbis; and Marc Schneier, who has frequently criticized Mamdani since before the primary from his pulpit on Long Island.

While New York City rabbis, including Hirsch, have previously voiced their opposition to endorsing candidates from the pulpit, that norm appears to have been set aside as Mamdani carves out a significant edge ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

The candidate has said Israel has a right to exist as a state with “with equal rights for all”; he has also said he would “discourage” the phrase “globalize the intifada,” acknowledging that it makes some Jews scared, and would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.

“We will not accept a culture that treats Jewish self-determination as a negotiable ideal or Jewish inclusion as something to be ‘granted,’” the letter says. “The safety and dignity of Jews in every city depend on rejecting that false choice.”

The letter quotes Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, who urged his congregants during a sermon last week not only to vote against Mamdani but to convince other Jews they know to do the same.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday endorsed the Democratic nominee in the New York City mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani.

Despite their “areas of principled disagreement ... Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement to The New York Times on Friday.

“In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election,” Jeffries added.

The endorsement comes after Jeffries has dodged questions about whether he’d endorse Mamdani since the state assemblyman surprised his party in June when he won the Democratic nomination for mayor outright, beating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Top Republicans on Monday seized on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York, casting the self-described democratic socialist as the new face of the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Jeffries’ endorsement a “seismic shift in politics.”

“We saw our clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding, and they are ending what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “After a monthslong pressure campaign from the far left, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City.”

The fresh comments are an attempt by GOP leaders to tie all congressional Democrats to Mamdani, hoping to paint the party as too far left heading into next November’s House and Senate elections. The popular Muslim American state assemblyman has energized the progressive base, but his calls to raise taxes on the wealthy and support for Palestinians have drawn fire from Republicans and some moderate Democrats.

“The House Democrats have chosen a side they were forced to by that far left that they’re so terrified of,” the speaker said Monday. “And they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrist and moderates in their party.”

Speaking alongside Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also hammered Jeffries’ support for Mamdani, saying it means that Democrats have moved “full bore into socialism.”

“Hakeem Jeffries is now all-in for the socialist agenda of Mamdami. He is the head of their party now,” Scalise said. “When he gets elected mayor of New York, he’s giving the marching orders to the rest of the Democrats, and they want to raise taxes on everybody.”

Throughout the news conference, the three top leaders all brought up the word “socialist” repeatedly. A Gallup poll last month showed that 66% of Democrats now have a favorable view of socialism, up from about 50% in 2010. But the same poll found that just 39% of Americans overall had a favorable view of socialism; that has stayed roughly flat over the past 15 years.

Some key Democrats, including Jeffries’ counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have not endorsed Mamdani, whose campaign has created headaches for party leaders.

Nearly one year after their 2024 electoral drubbing, Democrats are still emerging from the political wilderness, looking to revitalize the party and searching for a candidate who can win back the White House in 2028.

On Friday, one day before early voting began, Jeffries issued a statement endorsing the entire Democratic slate of candidates in New York, including Mamdani.

“I deeply respect the will of the primary voters and the young people who have been inspired to participate in the electoral process. Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a Mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries said in a statement Friday.

The House Democratic leader added that Mamdani has promised to prioritize public safety for New Yorkers, “including the Jewish community that has confronted a startling rise in antisemitic incidents as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods that have battled deadly gun violence for years.”

The Republican push to tie Mamdani to the entire Democratic Party began almost immediately. “So-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries has officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party,” Mike Marinella, spokesman for the House GOP’s campaign arm, said after Jeffries’ endorsement. “Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison.”

Jeffries has pushed back on painting the party with that broad a brush.

The prospect of a New York City mayor who "won't march in the Israel Day Parade, will not travel to Israel, who will divest from Israel" with a history of pro-Palestinian advocacy has brought many Jews to a place of "caution and worry" as they choose the city's next leader, New York political reporter Jacob Kornbluh said on the Haaretz Podcast.

At the same time, he stressed, despite the "fear campaign" that Jewish leaders and rabbis pursued against the 34-year-old Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a large number of Jewish New Yorkers were casting their ballots for the man poised to make history as the city's first Muslim mayor.

Leading up to Tuesday's election, Kornbluh noted "a changing mood among Jewish voters who say they disagree with Mamdani" and were "worried" about his positions on Israel – but "since they hate [Independent candidate] Andrew Cuomo, since they are Democrats, and since they want to participate in this election, they will hold their nose and vote for Mamdani."

University administrator Dov Scheindlin, who is voting for Mamdani, also spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the podcast and explained the reasons for his choice despite disagreeing with the candidate on issues related to Israel.

"On a personal level, I feel Mamdani's demonstrated a tremendous commitment to the Jews of New York City," Scheindlin said, attributing the candidate's stated position as a reflection of his "sympathy with the Palestinians and a sense that the cause of Palestinian self-determination has been inhibited by the unfettered support for Israel the United States has offered."

Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday responded to a widely shared 2023 clip in which he suggested that the New York Police Department and Israeli army were linked in oppression, the latest example of the Democratic mayoral nominee facing questions about his past record of anti-police and anti-Israel statements.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani says in the clip, from a Democratic Socialists of America convention held that year. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, are the armed forces of Israel.

“We have to make, not specifically that example all the time, but just to say that for working-class people who have very little time, who have so many stresses, who are under so many pressures, there isn’t that much time for symbolism,” he then said. “We have to make it materially connected to their life.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper played that clip Tuesday and asked Mamdani what he meant.

“It was a reference to training exercises that have taken place between the NYPD and the IDF,” Mamdani said.

“So do you still believe that the NYPD is basically working hand in glove with the IDF?” Cooper asked.

“No, what I’ve made very clear is those are training exercises that are of concern to me,” Mamdani replied. “And what my focus is, is on working with the NYPD to actually deliver public safety for New Yorkers across the five boroughs.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Mamdani would seek as mayor to end any training exercises or other cooperation between the NYPD and Israel. But the clip – and Mamdani’s explanation of it – became the latest instance during the mayoral campaign where the Democratic nominee had to answer for his past criticisms of both Israel and the police.

Mamdani has apologized for some of his comments about law enforcement, including social media posts in which he called the police racist, wicked and corrupt. Seeking to reassure voters concerned about public safety, he has said he would seek to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, though he acknowledged in an earlier interview with CNN’s Gloria Pazmino that he hadn’t spoken to Tisch about staying on.

But he has not backed down on his criticisms of Israel, referring to its war in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attacks as a genocide. He has said that as mayor, he would seek to carry out an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Mamdani’s criticisms have caused anger within parts of New York’s Jewish community, the largest outside Israel. He has sought to reassure Jewish voters that he would fight antisemitism and provide requested security at synagogues.

While the NYPD does not have international posts in the traditional sense, the department runs an “International Liaison Program” that stations detectives across more than a dozen countries around the globe with the purpose of developing contacts with local law enforcement and engaging in counterterrorism exercises, according to the New York City police foundation that helps fund the program.

The program, which critics say has expanded for years with little oversight, was started after 9/11 as law enforcement professionals sought to learn more about overseas terrorism.

Over the years, the NYPD has continued to deploy senior law enforcement officers around the world, including to Israel, where they share in intelligence and training exercises.

President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a lifelong Democrat running as an independent, in New York City's mayoral election.

The president urged voters not to cast a ballot Tuesday for Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, saying it would be “a vote for [Zohran] Mamdani.”

“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A recent poll from Suffolk University showed Mamdani leading the race with 44% support, with Cuomo trailing behind him by 10 percentage points. Sliwa, meanwhile, sat at 11%.

Trump’s endorsement came shortly after his interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes," where he reiterated his threat to withhold federal funds from the city if Mamdani is elected.

During the interview, Trump also indicated his preference for Cuomo over Mamdani, whom he's called a "communist" through much of the mayoral race.

Mamdani on Sunday used Trump’s remarks as ammunition, mocking Cuomo on social media by congratulating him and saying, “I know how hard you worked for this.”

Cuomo has rebuffed the prospect of Trump’s endorsement in recent weeks. In an interview with NBC News' “Meet the Press” last month, Cuomo said he would reject an endorsement from Trump, saying his tent was not big enough to include the president in his coalition of supporters.

“I have not had a conversation nor would I accept an endorsement from President Trump,” Cuomo said.

Neither Cuomo's campaign nor Sliwa's immediately responded to requests for comment on Trump's endorsement.

While governor of New York, Cuomo was an outspoken critic of Trump during the president’s first term. The Democratic governor frequently slammed Trump over his response to Covid. During a mayoral debate last month, Cuomo described their clashes as “bloody battles.”

Democrat Zohran Mamdani has won New York’s mayoral race, NBC News projects, after the 34-year-old democratic socialist energized progressives in the city and across the country while generating intense backlash from President Donald Trump and Republicans, as well as some Democratic moderates.

In his victory speech after vanquishing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani claimed a broad mandate and set himself up in direct opposition to Trump, who made a late endorsement against him. "In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light," Mamdani said.

"Together, we will usher in a generation of change, and if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves," Mamdani said later, before challenging Trump directly.

"This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one," Mamdani said. "So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up."

Trump wasn't the only subject of Mamdani's speech, which he started by quoting the 19th- and 20th-century American socialist Eugene Debs and continued by promising the "most ambitious agenda" to address costs in New York City since the administration of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia nearly 100 years ago.

Mamdani defeated Cuomo, who ran as a third-party candidate after losing the Democratic primary in June, by about 9 points, with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa trailing far behind. Mayor Eric Adams, who also mounted a third-party campaign for re-election after he won as a Democrat in 2021, dropped out of the race in September and endorsed Cuomo last month.

Now a nationally known political figure, Mamdani will attempt to enact the sweeping policy platform that inspired his supporters while managing an enormous municipal bureaucracy — and influencing national politics, as one of the most prominent democratic socialists and Democrats in the country. Among other goals, Mamdani wants to freeze rent on rent-stabilized units, enact universal child care, create a free bus program and launch city-run grocery stores.

“It is tempting to believe that this moment was always destined,” Mamdani said before thousands at a rally in Queens late last month, before he noted that when he started his campaign, “there was not a single television camera there to cover it.”

“Four months later and as recently as this February, our support had reached eye-watering heights of 1%,” Mamdani continued. “We were tied with noted candidate ‘someone else.’”

Mamdani’s victory is sure to reverberate not just throughout New York City but around the nation.

In New York, Mamdani’s next challenge will be the tall task of uniting leaders in Albany and on the City Council — many of whom were not eager to line up behind him — to advance his ambitious agenda.

Nationally, many Democrats will examine his rise from obscurity, his successful messaging on social media and his focus on affordability for clues about how to navigate their own races.

NBC News exit polling found that Mamdani won across racial demographics — with white, Black, Latino, Asian and voters of other races all backing his candidacy over Cuomo’s and Sliwa’s.

Younger voters overwhelmingly backed Mamdani, with NBC News exit polling showing that voters under 45 years old favored him over Cuomo by 43 points. Voters over 45, meanwhile, backed Cuomo by a 10-point margin.

Education played a big role, too, the exit polling showed. And one of the biggest divides in the election was between New Yorkers who were born in the city and those who had moved to New York within the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, with Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian activism having become a key issue in the race, NBC News exit polling found that Jewish voters favored Cuomo over Mamdani by 29 points, 60% to 31%.

Speaking to supporters after his defeat on Tuesday, Cuomo thanked Adams, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former New York Gov. David Paterson for their support. He called voters at his election eve party "New York patriots."

“This campaign was the right fight to wage," Cuomo said. "And I am proud of what we did and what we did together. This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city and the future of this country. And this coalition transcended normal partisan politics.”

Trump made a late jump into the race Monday night, endorsing Cuomo on social media and saying a vote for Sliwa, the Republican nominee, was essentially a vote for Mamdani in the split general election field.

Interestingly, exit polling showed self-identified Republicans favored Cuomo over Sliwa, with 61% of Republicans him while just 35% backed Sliwa.

Late last month, Mamdani delivered an emotional address condemning what he slammed as “racist, baseless” attacks he has faced for his Muslim faith. He will be the first Muslim mayor in New York City history. His unapologetically pro-Palestinian stance energized progressives who oppose Israel’s war in Gaza, as pro-Israel Democrats and donors grew anxious about his rise.

At a rally alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., days later, Mamdani said Cuomo, Adams and Sliwa possess only “the playbook of the past.”

“They have sought to make this election a referendum not on the affordability crisis that consumes New Yorkers’ lives,” he said, “but on the faith I belong to and the hatred they seem to normalize.

There is a narrative that posits that Jews who fear Mamdani are living in the past and becoming increasingly less relevant among Jews. That narrative received a boost when a September Washington Post poll showed that 61 percent of Jews think Israel is committing war crimes and 40 percent of Jews think Israel is committing genocide. This was bolstered by high profile Jews both endorsing and working for Mamdani.

The results seems conclusive evidence the above is true, problem is exit polling showed Jews voting massively for Cuomo two to one according to CNN and 70-30 according to NBC. It strains credulity to think affordability is so much less important to Jews. Apparently taking positions that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state and globalize the intifada feels threatening to this demographic.

While fear of Mamdani is not irrelevant among Jews demographics and the result show Jews are a lot less relevant in NYC. A few decades ago Jews made up 25 percent of New York City’s population now it is 11 percent of the population. In addition there are many more demographic groups.

There is a narrative that posits that Jews who fear Mamdani are living in the past and becoming increasingly less relevant among Jews. That narrative received a boost when a September Washington Post poll showed that 61 percent of Jews think Israel is committing war crimes and 40 percent of Jews think Israel is committing genocide. This was bolstered by high profile Jews both endorsing and working for Mamdani.

The results seems conclusive evidence the above is true, problem is exit polling showed Jews voting massively for Cuomo two to one according to CNN and 70-30 according to NBC. It strains credulity to think affordability is so much less important to Jews.

Apparently taking positions that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state and globalize the intifada feels threatening to this demographic.

While fear of Mamdani is not irrelevant among Jews demographics and the result show Jews are a lot less relevant in NYC. A few decades ago Jews made up 25 percent of New York City’s population now it is 11 percent of the population.

In addition there are many more demographic groups.