Andrew Cuomo’s scandal-plagued political career came to an unceremonious end Tuesday when voters overwhelmingly ranked their former governor below a 33-year-old socialist who wants to abolish the police and establish city-run grocery stores.
Zohran Mamdani, an Assemblyman from Queens, emerged from the first round of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary with around 44% of the vote. Cuomo — who resigned as governor in 2021 amid allegations that he sexually harassed female staffers — came in second, with around 36% of votes. He called to congratulate Mamdani on his victory late Tuesday night, and did not say if he still plans to appear on the ballot for the Fight And Deliver Party, which he formed for this race.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said. “Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night.”
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive stalwart who recently got himself arrested at an anti-ICE protest, secured 11% of votes, placing third. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who sidestepped the Democratic primary entirely to run as an independent, told reporters today that he voted in the primary: for himself, all five times.
Mayor Adams casts his vote at PS 81 in the Democratic primary.
He said he’d vote for “Eric Adams 1-5,” writing himself in instead of casting his ballot for one of the candidates (he’s opted out of the primary).
I asked if he’d vote for @OsseChi, and he shot a v skeptical look pic.twitter.com/Ct5csrPTna
— Josie Stratman (@JosieStratman) June 24, 2025
Mamdani’s clear, early lead came as a bit of a shock following polls that put him and Cuomo neck-and-neck in the days leading up to the election. An Emerson College poll released Monday had Cuomo leading Mamdani by a slim 35% to 32% margin in first-choice votes, but found that Mamdani pulled ahead after several rounds. But a Marist University poll conducted a week prior showed Cuomo winning both in the first round and after several rounds of ranked choice.
Tuesday’s election marks the beginning of the end of a colorful and contentious primary race between 11 candidates. New York City uses ranked choice voting, in which voters select up to five candidates and rank them in order of preference. Election officials won’t declare a winner until one candidate wins more than 50% of first choice votes.
If no candidate does on the first ballot, each voter’s last-ranked candidate is eliminated, and the votes are recalculated. It took two weeks and eight rounds of counting for Adams to clinch the nomination, though Mamdani will likely clinch the nomination sooner, given his lead. The New York City Board of Elections is expected to deliver a final result in a week.
Regardless of who ultimately wins the Democratic nomination, Cuomo, Mamdani, and Adams are set to be on the ballot in November’s general election. They’ll face off against Republican Curtis Silwa, a talk show host, and independent Jim Walden, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Cuomo, still mired by sexual harassment allegations and his botched handling of the COVID pandemic, became an early foil for his more progressive opponents. Mamdani encouraged his supporters to donate to rival progressive Adrienne Adams’ campaign. Last month, Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other, urging voters not to rank Cuomo.
True to his pledge, on Tuesday, Lander told guests at his election night party that “with our help, Zohran Mamdani will be the Democratic nominee” and reportedly led a “goodbye Cuomo” chant at his election night party, according to the New York Times.
While none of the Democratic mayoral candidates cross-endorsed Cuomo, the former mayor racked up endorsements from big-name Democrats like Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Mamdani has the backing of progressive stalwarts like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and a slew of celebrities including Emily Ratajkowski and Cynthia Nixon, who called Cuomo a “TRUMP BILLIONAIRE-FUNDED SEX PREDATOR.”
Run don’t walk to GO VOTE FOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI FOR NYC Mayor!!!
Rank Zohran #1
Brad Lander #2
Adrienne Adams/Scott Stringer/Michael Blake or Zellnor Myrie #3 to #5.
DO NOT RANK TRUMP BILLIONAIRE-FUNDED SEX PREDATOR ANDREW CUOMO pic.twitter.com/cydMezdSU7
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) June 24, 2025
Mamdani, who won a majority of early votes, leaned into his socialism throughout the campaign. He pledged to freeze rent, establish city-run grocery stores, and devote $65 million to transgender procedures for both kids and adults. Mamdani has also promised to make school lunches, city buses, and childcare free, and to establish a “Department of Community Safety” to “prevent violence before it happens” — which critics say is simply an effort to defund the police.
He was not the only candidate with a radical policy platform. Lander called for New York City to become a national abortion hub, and proposed solving the city’s housing crisis by paving over — and building apartments on — municipal golf courses. Assemblyman Michael Blake called to dispatch therapists to respond to 911 calls in lieu of police. And State Senator Zellnor Myrie called for the city to impose anti-racism curricula in its kindergartens.
Also on the ballot Tuesday was Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. A soft-on-crime Soros prosecutor best known for his relentless pursuit of President Donald Trump, Bragg easily defeated his sole challenger to secure the Democratic nomination.
