Politico reports that at a Hamptons fundraiser last Saturday, Cuomo told his well-heeled supporters that, contrary to all available evidence, he could win the New York mayoral race as an independent—because he was likely to have the implicit support of President Donald Trump.
The imperative of defeating Mamdani justified the new coalition Cuomo is trying to create of his die-hard loyalists (who are Democrats) with Trump Republicans.
Some of that latter group might be tempted to back Curtis Sliwa, the actual GOP nominee in the race. Cuomo told these donors, “We can minimize [the Sliwa] vote, because he’ll never be a serious candidate. And Trump himself, as well as top Republicans, will say the goal is to stop Mamdani. And you’ll be wasting your vote on Sliwa.” Cuomo went on to emphasize that he’d be a mayor who could find common ground with Trump:
After failing in the Democratic primary. New York is one of only two states where politicians who lose in a primary are able to immediately run in the same election under a different party.
Yes, but the point is that the party’s official candidate is not Cuomo. Some hypocritical Democrats have gone for Cuomo, but by definition they are backing an independent against the Democrat candidate.
If you back Mamdani, his primary win and hypothetical mayoral win can be seen as the majority of the party getting what they want and shifting the party against the preference of some others. It exhibits the possibility that the people can, in fact, drive change in the party. Just like Trump pushed the republican party in a particularly way.