Earlier today, driving through town with Fox News on the radio, a discussion about New York City's mayoral race caught my attention. The guest, whose voice I didn’t recognize, delivered what's become a familiar refrain from certain quarters: voting for Curtis Sliwa amounts to handing the election to Zohran Mamdani. The implication was clear—Sliwa needs to get out of the way so Andrew Cuomo has a shot at winning the election.
From a purely tactical standpoint, the logic has a certain appeal. But here's the thing: Sliwa isn't the real problem in this race, no matter how many pundits insist his candidacy threatens to spoil things for Cuomo. Sure, plenty of folks argue the Republican should bow out to give Cuomo a fighting chance against Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist state assemblyman who's been the top contender throughout the race. The trouble is, most polling data suggests that even with Sliwa gone, Cuomo would still come up short. One recent survey showed that in a head-to-head matchup, Mamdani's lead would shrink to just under four points, well within the margin of error, but hardly the guaranteed salvation Cuomo's boosters seem to think it would be. And that’s before you account for the fact that both Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa would still be on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Sliwa keeps saying Cuomo should be the one to exit stage left, which is just as unrealistic. Cuomo's supporters aren't about to rally around a Republican, no matter how much they might fear a Mamdani administration—and the polls show that. The whole back-and-forth has devolved into a circular firing squad, with everyone demanding everyone else drop out while the frontrunner cruises toward City Hall, ready to turn New York City into the next leftist hellhole city.
What gets lost in all this political theater is a more uncomfortable truth: Andrew Cuomo is no moderate savior. This is the same guy who bungled New York's COVID response so spectacularly that nursing home deaths became a national scandal, then spent months stonewalling inquiries about the real numbers. He departed the governor's mansion in disgrace, facing multiple sexual harassment accusations that forced his resignation. The selective amnesia about Cuomo's record is almost impressive in its audacity.
ICYMI: Hakeem Jeffries Vows to Criminalize White House Ballroom Donors
Republicans would do well to remember that Cuomo holds them in open contempt. You think he’s looking for an alliance in exchange for cooperation if he wins? Heck no. Back in 2014, he declared that conservatives who are "right to life, pro assault weapon, anti-gay" have "no place in the state of New York because that's not who New Yorkers are." That wasn't some off-the-cuff remark; it reflected exactly what he thinks about half the political spectrum, and anyone expecting him to suddenly govern as some sensible centrist hasn't been paying attention.
The expectations at this point are pretty straightforward: Mamdani will probably become the next mayor of New York City. But, the real issue here isn't that Mamdani is radical, extreme, or whatever adjective you want to throw at him. The real issue is that someone with his politics is not only competitive but actually favored to win in America's largest city.
We can play pretend and insist that electing Cuomo would somehow save New York from itself. It won't. Stopping Mamdani just to install Cuomo only kicks the can down the road. At some point, voters need to own the foreseeable consequences of their choices, and conservatives should let them experience the full weight of those decisions. The warnings about Mamdani have been issued ad nauseam. There are countless examples from San Francisco to Seattle showing exactly what radical left-wing policies do to once-great cities. If New York City voters choose Mamdani—and it looks like they have—that's on them.
They've been warned.
