{"id":29247,"date":"2025-11-05T05:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/29247\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T05:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:26:13","slug":"mamdani-pushes-morning-again-message-cuomo-warns-of-dangers-as-nyc-mayoral-race-nears-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/29247\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani pushes ‘morning again’ message, Cuomo warns of dangers as NYC mayoral race nears finish line"},"content":{"rendered":"

In closing campaign messages to voters Monday, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani<\/a> offered an optimistic view of how New York might look under his leadership, while former Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned of what he sees as the dangers of the upstart front-runner.<\/p>\n

The contrasting visions were delivered on the eve of Tuesday\u2019s mayoral election, which is seen as one of the city\u2019s most consequential in decades.<\/p>\n

More than 735,000 New Yorkers have already voted early<\/a> ahead of Tuesday, potentially putting the contest on track to bring record turnout after a campaign that has heavily focused on the city\u2019s cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who has polled as the favorite to become mayor since winning June\u2019s Democratic primary, delivered his closing address in City Hall Park after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge<\/a> at dawn with supporters that included state Attorney General Letitia James, city Comptroller Brad Lander and several City Council members.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Attorney General Letitia James and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani attend the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Hanson Place in Brooklyn on Saturday Nov. 1, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

His speech was replete with lofty descriptions about the possibilities of his potential mayoralty. At one point, he said his mayoral administration would be \u201ca beacon\u201d that allows people to \u201cfeel the light of City Hall\u201d in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the question before us is very simple: Morning versus night. Do we want it to be morning again in New York, where we feel the warmth of the sun on our skin and the possibility inherent and innate to every new day,\u201d Mamdani said, seemingly cribbing a line from ex-Republican President Ronald Reagan\u2019s 1984 \u201cMorning Again in America<\/a>\u201d campaign ad. \u201cOr do we want to shiver in the night cast by a politics of fear and self-enrichment?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuomo, who is running on an independent ballot line, delivered his closing message during a string of campaign stops across all five boroughs Monday. In an appearance on La Mega 97.9<\/a> before hitting the streets, Cuomo railed against Mamdani\u2019s relative lack of experience and left-wing agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to know how the government works to actually make change, and Mamdani has never had a real job,\u201d said Cuomo, who served as governor for 10 years before resigning in 2021<\/a> amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour first job should not be mayor of the City of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Andrew Cuomo speaks at a campaign stop on W. 181 and St. Nicholas Ave. in Manhattan on Monday. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Mamdani has served as a state Assembly member representing northwestern Queens since 2021. But Cuomo argued that isn\u2019t close to enough of a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, contending his own record, which includes time as both governor of New York and secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, makes him well-equipped to take over the reins at City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most important election in my life. I have the experience to do the job,\u201d he said before slamming Mamdani\u2019s \u201csocialist\u201d agenda:<\/p>\n

\u201cSocialism did not work in Venezuela. Socialism did not work in Cuba. Socialism will not work in New York City. It will be a big mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the sunny descriptions of his campaign, Mamdani would face serious \u2014 and immediate \u2014 challenges should he be elected.<\/p>\n

The rent freeze on stabilized tenants Mamdani has made a central promise of his campaign could be complicated by last-minute maneuvers by Mayor Adams<\/a>, who dropped his bid for reelection in late September.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Cuomo appears at a campaign stop on W. 181st St. and St. Nicholas Ave. in Manhattan on Monday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Other central campaign planks<\/a>, like his pledges to make public buses free, expand subsidized child care and increase taxes on businesses and millionaires, would require state-level action from Albany, where Gov. Hochul has been resistant to tax hikes.<\/p>\n

Compounding Mamdani\u2019s potential problems, President Trump reiterated his threat Sunday<\/a> to cut back on federal funding for New York in the event of his election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a communist running New York, all you\u2019re doing is wasting the money you\u2019re sending there,\u201d Trump said on Fox News on Sunday. Mamdani is a democratic socialist.<\/p>\n

While Mamdani on Monday reiterated the theme that Cuomo was Trump\u2019s \u201cpuppet\u201d in the race, during a campaign stop in Washington Heights Cuomo seized on the Trump comment and argued being able to simultaneously both fight and work with the Republican president is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard Donald Trump yesterday. He said if Mamdani wins, he\u2019s going to cut off funding to New York. \u2026 We need a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump, who can get the funding that New York deserves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his City Hall Park remarks, Mamdani, who at 34 would become the youngest mayor in modern city history, said he\u2019d be ready on Day 1 to launch legal actions against Trump over any funding cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will take every single day after this election to put together my city government, my City Hall, to ensure that it is prepared, not only for the threats from Donald Trump, but also the threats from an affordability crisis that has put one in four New Yorkers in poverty,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\"ZohranZohran Mamdani addresses supporters at a rally outside City Hall. (Chris Sommerfeldt \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Cuomo has in the final days of the campaign leaned into a strategy of depicting Mamdani as too politically extreme for New York, while accusing him of amplifying antisemitism by criticizing Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Facing a deficit in the polls and needing to grow his base in order to have a viable shot at winning, Cuomo has also tried to attract Republican voters<\/a> who might otherwise support GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, who\u2019s polling last in the race. In that vein, the ex-governor has said he\u2019d be open to working with Trump as mayor.<\/p>\n

Asked later Monday whether he feels confident New York Republicans will turn out to support him, Cuomo said he expects more right-wing voters to cast ballots Tuesday and downplayed polls still showing him trailing Mamdani by double digits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to know tomorrow, but I can tell you when you have a turnout this high, none of the polls matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to win,\u201d Cuomo added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In closing campaign messages to voters Monday, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani offered an optimistic view of how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1252,80,128,302,154,153,9,24,63,129,131,130,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-29247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-2025-election","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-bronx","11":"tag-city-hall","12":"tag-curtis-sliwa","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","19":"tag-the-bronx-news","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}