![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Chris-1761593101.jpg\")
Chris Berwick will vote for Cuomo, despite typically voting for Republicans [Joseph Stepansky\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\nNew York City \u2013 The race for mayor of the largest city in the United States has New Yorker Chris Berwick saying things he never thought he would.<\/p>\n
As the November 4 election day approaches, the self-described moderate conservative has been weighing the three-way contest between Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to do what\u2019s best for New York,\u201d the 58-year-old told Al Jazeera outside his apartment complex in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. \u201cIt\u2019s wild that this is actually coming out of my mouth: Andrew Cuomo is best for New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Berwick, a regular Republican voter, said he would prefer to cast his ballot for Sliwa, a New York stalwart who rose to prominence by leading a controversial volunteer crime-fighting group, the Guardian Angels, in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
But in the Democrat-dominated metropolis, he feels it would be a waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s the lesser of two evils,\u201d the retired contractor said. \u201cI don\u2019t like Cuomo, but I\u2019m not into socialism\u2026I don\u2019t think this country was built on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuomo\u2019s campaign hopes that there are many voters in the city like Berwick, willing to hold their nose and vote for a Democrat to stop Mamdani, an avowed democratic socialist who surged to surprise success in the June Democratic primary on a broad and ambitious platform of affordability and progressive reform.<\/p>\n
Peeling off conservatives, while rallying independents and Democrats wary of Mamdani, could be Cuomo\u2019s clearest shot at victory.<\/p>\n
Chris Berwick will vote for Cuomo, despite typically voting for Republicans [Joseph Stepansky\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n
Even the most charitable polls show the 67-year-old political scion trailing the 34-year-old frontrunner, Mamdani, by at least eight percentage points. Most polls considered as the highest-quality show Mamdani\u2019s lead between 13 and 24 percentage points. Sliwa has been polling anywhere between 9 and 23 percent.<\/p>\n
Cuomo, who left his post as governor amid sexual misconduct allegations in 2021, has leaned into the conservative outreach, touring right-wing media megaphones and the city\u2019s Republican strongholds in the final weeks of the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need your listeners to vote for me,\u201d Cuomo told firebrand conservative host Sid Rosenberg in an appearance in mid-October.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have horns,\u201d he assured.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Not up for experimental plans\u2019<\/p>\n
Many of Cuomo\u2019s supporters are optimistic that pollsters are not taking the true temperature of the city, hoping that both Republicans and independents, who could not vote in the closed Democratic primary, will make the difference in the race.<\/p>\n
About 20 percent of the 4.7 million registered voters in New York City were unaffiliated with a party in 2024. Just 11 percent were Republican.<\/p>\n
Come election day, Cuomo supporters believe that electoral vulnerabilities related to Mamdani\u2019s inexperience in leadership and concerns over the massive obstacles to his affordability plans could shift the calculus.<\/p>\n
Mamdani has run a campaign<\/a> on pledges of rent freezes, universal childcare and free buses, paid for, in part, by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthiest city residents. Any changes to the city\u2019s tax code would require wide-scale, hard-won support from state lawmakers. New York state Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Mamdani, but said a tax change would be a non-starter.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to wish that Zohran supporters will take a little bit of a more critical lens to what he\u2019s proposing,\u201d said Yiatin Chu, 58, from White Stone Queens, who leads the Asian Wave alliance, a political group that supports Cuomo.<\/p>\n Chu said she is particularly concerned about public safety under Mamdani, who has pledged a raft of police reforms<\/a>. She has thrown her support behind Cuomo\u2019s plan to increase the New York City Police Department (NYPD) force by 5,000 officers.<\/p>\n \u201cA city this size is not up for experimental plans,\u201d Chu told Al Jazeera. \u201cYou can say all these great things, but to actually manage a city with a $116bn budget with 300,000 city employees \u2013 I\u2019m sorry it\u2019s not something you can just step into and wing it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the primary, Cuomo performed well in affluent neighbourhoods of Manhattan, where he has sought to hammer home the claim that Mamdani\u2019s policies would force the wealthiest residents of the city to flee. He did well with Black voters and in the farthest reaches of the outer boroughs of many middle-class and upper-class neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n Seeking to cut into Mamdani\u2019s base, Cuomo has rolled out<\/a> his own affordability plans since the primary, framing them as more realistic than his opponent\u2019s. That included unveiling a policy in August to make buses free to the poorest New Yorkers. He has said the plan is fairer than Mamdani\u2019s signature pledge, which would make them free for everyone.<\/p>\n Michael LaRosa, a 30-year-old from Middle Village, Queens, said he expected a groundswell from across the political spectrum for Cuomo, especially among city residents who work in trades like his.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father\u2019s a carpenter. I\u2019m an electrician, and we rely on people that have our backs,\u201d said LaRosa, whose union has endorsed the former governor. \u201cAnd from what we gather, Cuomo has our back.\u201d<\/p>\n Angie Tobie, 63, who lives in public housing in the Mott Haven neighbourhood in the Bronx, said that many voters see the same youth that has energised Mamdani\u2019s as a liability in a leader.<\/p>\n She expressed particular disquiet over Mamdani\u2019s past statements, including a call in 2020 to defund the police. Mamdani has since moved away from the position, issuing a broad apology to police officers.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s so young, he\u2019s got no experience,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cHe\u2019s going to get into office and realise he made promises that he can\u2019t keep.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Fear-mongering, hate speech and Islamophobia\u2019<\/p>\n To be sure, the most expedient path to victory for Cuomo would be Sliwa\u2019s last-minute exit from the race.<\/p>\n Cuomo has said that a vote for Sliwa is a \u201cvote for Mamdani\u201d. Sliwa has remained defiant, instead saying that Cuomo should leave the race to \u201chang out with your billionaires in the Hamptons\u201d.<\/p>\n Some conservatives, including prominent businessman John Catsimatidis, who funds Sliwa\u2019s radio show, have also called on the Republican to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n The former top Republican in the New York City Council, Joe Borelli, told Fox News that he would vote for Cuomo to not \u201clight my vote on fire\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Cuomo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC1780-1-1761592857.jpg\")
Cuomo supporters gather outside the first mayoral debate in Midtown, Manhattan [Joseph Stepansky\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n
![\"Sliwa\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sliwa-house-2-1761594136.jpg\")
Pro-Sliwa signs are seen at a house in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn [Joseph Stepansky\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ap_68ffc84e44d6b-1761593422.jpg\")
New York Mayor Eric Adams stands alongside Democrat mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo [File: Richard Drew\/The Associated Press]<\/p>\n