The latest Fox News poll on the New York City mayoral race shows socialist Zohran Mamdani with a 21-point lead over rivals Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.
Cuomo and Sliwa had one last chance to trip up Mamdani and expose him as a radical whose ideas would bankrupt the city, allow criminals free rein, and destroy the character of one of the greatest urban metropolises ever created.
They failed miserably.
Neither candidate laid a glove on Mamdani during the New York City mayoral debate on Thursday night. He smiled and joked, easily parrying his opponents' attacks. He sounded reasonable throughout the debate, demonstrating a mastery of the issues and the smarts to climb down from his radical-left mountaintop and portray himself as a slightly left-of-center Democrat.
Mamdani, who refused to say whether Hamas should lay down their weapons after the ceasefire was declared, had a change of heart during the televised debate.
"Of course, I believe that they should lay down their arms," Mamdani said. He claimed his earlier response to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum was "confusing."
"I'm proud to be one of the first elected officials in the state who called for a ceasefire," Mamdani said. He hinted that Israel should disarm too.
"That means all parties have to ceasefire and put down their weapons," he said. "And the reason that we call for that is not only for the end of the genocide, but also an unimpeded access of humanitarian aid. I, like many New Yorkers, and I'm hopeful that this ceasefire will hold."
And about his support for the phrases "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "globalize the intifada," Mamdani said: "I will be a mayor who finally addresses" the concerns of Jews "not through the theatrics of the politics on the stage, but through action."
Cuomo tried to score points using Mandani's previous support for defunding the police. This is a potent issue, but Mamdani finessed it expertly, turning the time period when he wanted to defund the police back on Cuomo.
"Respect the police. They’re not racists as the assemblyman calls them, they’re not a threat to public safety as he says, they’re not anti-queer, they are here to protect New Yorkers, work with them, fortify them," said Cuomo.
Sliwa jumped in at this moment to deliver a jab to Cuomo, saying, "That’s ironic that you say that now … your parole board released 43 cop killers back into the street. Your father, when he was governor, released none. I knew Mario Cuomo; you’re no Mario Cuomo."
In response to Cuomo’s attack, Mamdani said, "As much as Andrew Cuomo wants to bring up tweets from 2020, which is around the same time that he was sending seniors to their death in nursing homes, I am looking to work with police officers, not to defund the NYPD."
Mamdani again touted his plan to have "dedicated teams of mental health outreach workers" deployed to the top 100 subway stations with the highest levels of mental health crises and homelessness.
The reason why Democrats are so excited about Mamdani is not so much his socialist views as much as how his campaign has captured the electorate by harping on the "affordability issue." He's given Democrats a way to talk about far left issues without sounding like a communist.
Mamdani also sought to moderate many of his hard-left views, insisting he would not defund the New York City Police Department. Cuomo won some points on his staunch Israel support and experience. But that’s not what will likely decide this election in the coming weeks. Voters remain deeply concerned about the cost of living in expensive New York, and Mamdani has harnessed this issue of the political age. He stayed on message throughout the debate — even at the end by declaring he’s more concerned about affordability than in weighing in on the Christopher Columbus statue.
Hammering those affordability points with an affable, calm demeanor against his opponents came through in the first general election debate. It served Mamdani well.
"Affordability" can potentially be the 2026 winning issue for Democrats, as the "defund the police" issue was for the GOP in 2020 and 2024. It's going to propel Mamdani into Gracie Mansion in November.
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