\n\tEveryone knows their candidate is not going to win. Yes, the televisions above the bar are broadcasting news coverage of the election results, but no one is really watching. Sliwa will not be delivering his victory speech tonight, and perhaps that\u2019s why there doesn\u2019t seem to be even an ounce of anxiety amid the revelry. Appetizers and small bites abound (\u201cThe meatballs are two for one!\u201d one attendee jokes when a server approaches), and everyone is behaving like they\u2019ve consumed more than their allotted drink tickets.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe energy in the room matches the candidate himself: irreverent, loud, earnest perhaps to a fault. The scene feels like a parody of a campaign and candidate transplanted out of a sitcom \u2014 but that nevertheless felt critical to a landmark mayoral race that would either usher in a new era of young, progressive leadership in the nation\u2019s largest city, or double-down on scandal, and the establishment, by installing the state\u2019s disgraced former governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\tSupporters dance at the election party for Curtis Sliwa at Arte Cafe on Nov. 4, 2025 in New York City. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Dee Delgado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tThe race for City Hall was bizarre and heated, with many believing Sliwa\u2019s presence would tank any chance Andrew Cuomo<\/a>, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, had of defeating Zohran Mamdani<\/a>. Sliwa was of course running to win, but he was also running on principle. He and Mamdani were the only two of the three main candidates to actually be nominated for the job by their respective parties. He wasn\u2019t going to bow out on behalf of the second-place finisher in the Democratic primary.<\/p>\n \n\tCuomo chose to remain in the race with the backing of ultra-wealthy donors, and his strategy relied heavily on demanding that Sliwa leave the race. In September, the cat-loving<\/a>, ball-busting Republican claimed<\/a> he had received at least \u201cseven offers so far to give me more money than my father and I ever made in a lifetime of work,\u201d in order to drop out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cCuomo already lost the nomination,\u201d one young attendee at Sliwa\u2019s election party tells me, adding that while they ideally would have liked Sliwa to win, they could respect that \u2014 like the people of New York \u2014\u00a0 \u201cMamdani and Curtis [both] acknowledge that Cuomo isn\u2019t the right leader for New York City.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSliwa remained steadfast in his commitment to remain in the race, to mixed reactions from even his own supporters. Two attendees described themselves as \u201cCurtis supporters who voted for Cuomo.\u201d He had \u201cno chance,\u201d one says. \u201cNobody on the face of the Earth thought he was going to win,\u201d the other adds. In their view, the defection was justified over the need to \u201cdefeat Mamdani at any cost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tIn a more bizarre exchange, a young man insists to me that \u201cMamdani is a harbinger of something terrifying in American politics,\u201d who \u201ctakes advantage of the contempt people have for white people and white civilization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI might be a white guy, but I didn\u2019t ask to be put in this position,\u201d he adds. Another guest caught in the gaggle peeks over my shoulder and chuckles, slightly aghast, \u201cYou\u2019re writing this all down?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOthers feel Sliwa\u2019s campaign had more in common with the Mamdani platform than Cuomo\u2019s \u2014 and a better memory about the former governor\u2019s time in office than his supporters. Perhaps the most sober attendee I encounter the entire night looks me dead in the eye and says that he would take practically anyone over Cuomo, who \u201ckilled more people during Covid than Hamas did on October 7.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tCampaign signs sit in the corner at the watch party for Curtis Sliwa at Arte Cafe on Nov. 4, 2025 in New York City.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Dee Delgado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \n\tCuomo, like Sliwa, lost. With far less grace. At his own election watch party, the former governor\u2019s supporters chanted<\/a> \u201cshame on Sliwa\u201d<\/a> when the race was called. Cuomo supporters can be upset with Sliwa, but it doesn\u2019t seem like it mattered. Mamdani won over 50 percent of the vote. Cuomo would have lost even if all of Sliwa\u2019s voters went his way. Mamdani told NY1<\/a> on Wednesday that he did not receive a congratulatory call from either Cuomo or Mayor Eric Adams, but that Sliwa did ring him up on election night.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDuring his concession speech on Tuesday \u2014 given before most major outlets had even called the race for Mamdani \u2014 a teary eyed Sliwa, accompanied by his wife Nancy Regula, spoke to the crowd as if he\u2019d suffered only the narrowest, most contested of losses \u2014 not a blowout for third.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHe blasted the \u201cbillionaire\u201d class that backed Cuomo and \u201cdecided\u201d he had no right to run his campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLet me warn our new leader: If you try to implement socialism, if you try to render our police weak and impotent, if you forsake the people\u2019s public safety, we\u2019re not only organizing, but we are mobilizing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will become the mayor-elect and his supporters\u2019 worst enemy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cGood luck,\u201d he offered Mamdani, amid chants of \u201cfight, fight, fight,\u201d from his supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf he does well, we do well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSliwa then retreated, and the party raged on.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEveryone in this room is delusional.\u201d Tom, an Arte Cafe regular who claims he snuck into the private…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[80,154,9,24,55,54,56,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-29804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-curtis-sliwa","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29804","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=29804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n