Days after getting officially crushed by Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary, Andrew Cuomo is reportedly still weighing his options for a potential independent run in the November general election. But Cuomo’s window of opportunity appears to be closing as high-profile names are urging the former governor to step aside and while many of Cuomo’s onetime endorsers have begun to coalesce around Mamdani.
One of the most prominent donors to the pro-Cuomo super-PAC, Fix the City, was hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman. Late Wednesday, Ackman signaled his support for Mayor Eric Adams, who launched an independent campaign after dropping out of the primary.
In yet another lengthy post on X, Ackman said that he met with both Adams and Cuomo on Wednesday for about an hour each and came away with the conclusion that the mayor was best positioned to take on Mamdani in November. “In short, my takeaway is that Adams can win the upcoming election and that the Governor should step aside to maximize Adams’ probability of success,” he wrote. “I say this while having a high regard for Andrew Cuomo and his contributions to New York State. But it was abundantly clear in his body language, his subdued energy and his proposals to beat Mamdani, that he is not up for the fight.”
The billionaire acknowledged that Adams’s first term “has not been without flaws,” which he mostly blamed on the mayor hiring too many friends to join him in City Hall, but that Adams was now building a dream-team campaign and deserved to win reelection.
Ackman is not the only one pushing Cuomo toward the exit. On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Reverend Al Sharpton said that he had spoken to Cuomo and his staff and urged them to step back and let Mamdani and Adams face off in the fall. “I think, in the best interest of the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, that he ought to let them have the one-on-one race. He can endorse one or the other, and let them have a battle over what is best for New York,” he said. Sharpton reiterated his calls for Cuomo to drop his bid in a new statement on Thursday, saying that he had spoken with the former governor again and that he intends to make a final decision in the coming days.
Cuomo has already missed the deadline to officially drop his independent party line from the ballot, but he has yet to close the door on actively campaigning for City Hall. In a statement responding to Sharpton, Cuomo’s campaign said that everyone is “entitled to their own political opinion” and suggested that the beliefs of the average New Yorkers lie somewhere between purported “Trumpers” and socialists, in apparent reference to Mamdani. “We will continue to assess the current situation in the best interest of the people of the City of New York,” campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi reiterated.
Mamdani has collected a number of new endorsements since becoming the Democratic nominee. Shortly after his victory was declared, he was backed by several major unions in the city, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and 32BJ SEIU, which supported Cuomo in the primary, as well as the New York State Nurses Association, which had remained neutral. The New York Post reports that Mamdani will likely pick up the support of the United Federation of Teachers, which abstained from endorsing in the primary after its members were undecided between Mamdani and Cuomo. In addition to a potential Cuomo bid, Mamdani will face off against Adams, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and defense attorney Jim Walden, who is running as an independent.
