According to unofficial, preliminary numbers from the Board of Elections, nearly 80,000 voters checked in across all five boroughs.
More than 24,000 people cast their votes in Manhattan, followed by Brooklyn with just over 22,000, Queens with just over 19,000, the Bronx with nearly 8,000 and Staten Island with just under 6,500.
NYC mayoral election is make or break for some voters
Voters who spoke to CBS News New York said issues of concern are affordability, immigration, schools, homelessness, crime and policing.
For some early voters, this election is make or break. They say if the candidate they voted for doesn’t win, they may have no choice but to move out of the city.
“I have like five friends that already left New York because they couldn’t afford it,” Bronx resident Lansana Keita said. “Depending on who won, I’m gonna stick it out for another year.”
Ballots also contain six questions about topics including affordable housing and moving local elections to presidential years to boost voter turnout.
For now, voters agree this election holds weight in the future of the city.
“‘Cause I don’t want the machines to be down on Election Day, so I get out here early,” Bronx voter Terri H. said.
“More people voting, more people participating, that’s what it’s all about. We get better results, I think,” Harlem voter Ian Green said.
Candidates on the campaign trail as early voting begins
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa voted early, remaining defiant that he’s staying in the race.
“Today, I cast my vote for myself and the Republican line, straight down the line,” he said. “Today, it should be the last time we hear that Curtis Sliwa should drop out.”
Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo announced an endorsement from the United Clergy Coalition.
“You want to build affordable housing? Partner with the faith-based community. You want to do mental health services, community-based mental health services? Do it with a faith-based community. Economic development with the faith-based community,” he said.
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani met with business leaders in Brooklyn.
“I’m going to be voting on Election Day. And my message to early voters, of which I’ve already met a number, is that this is our opportunity, it continues to be one, to make the most expensive city in America affordable.”
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani delivered an address on Islamophobia in the Bronx. Firday, Oct. 24, 2025.
Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller
The 2025 NYC Mayor’s race rivalry between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo grew even more personal on Friday.
Following a spate of recent controversial actions by Mamdani’s mayoral election rivals that he and others have condemned as Islamophobic, the Muslim Democratic nominee delivered an emotional, 10-minute address on Friday in which he described his own experience with anti-Muslim discrimination and vowed to address the issue head-on going forward.
During Mamdani’s address outside of the Muslim Cultural Center of the Bronx, he called out his chief rival Cuomo, Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa, and current Mayor Eric Adams for what he described as making Islamophobic remarks part of the closing messages of their campaigns and time in office.
Cuomo responded in his own fiery Friday news conference with Muslim leaders in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he charged that Mamdani is “an actor playing the victim,” but in reality, “he’s the offender.”
Sliwa’s camp also took exception to Mamdani’s statements, alleging that he was “weaponizing accusations of Islamophobia for political gain.”
A spokesperson for Adams has yet to respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani: ‘No amount of redirection is ever enough’
Mamdani, a democratic socialist Queens lawmaker, said his adversaries’ comments were emblematic of the persistent Islamophobia he has experienced throughout his year-long mayoral campaign.
“Every day, super PAC ads imply that I am a terrorist, or mock the way I eat,” Mamdani said. “Push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether they support invented proposals to make halal food mandatory, or political cartoons that represent my candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center.”
Mamdani said that hate has persisted despite his attempt not to be seen as the “Muslim candidate,” but rather as the one who would represent all New Yorkers.
“I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality, I could define myself as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker,” he said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”
But, he continued, “I do not want to use this moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City.”
Mamdani spoke to the discrimination he personally faced growing up in the aftermath of 9/11,” such as being called by the name “Mohammed” or ending up in an airport interrogation room for questioning about whether he planned on attacking the city. He also spoke to the experiences of other Muslims he knew who suffered even more extreme forms of hate.
“I was never pressured to be an informant like a classmate of mine, I’ve never had the word ‘terrorist’ spray-painted on my garage as one of my staff had to endure, my Mosque has never been set on fire,” he said. “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.”
Cuomo says he ‘didn’t take’ terror remark ‘seriously’
Mamdani also chided Adams for seeming to paint him as an Islamic extremist who seeks to “burn churches” and Sliwa for claiming that he supports “global jihad.”
The former governor defended his response to Rosenberg during his Friday event by saying he “didn’t take it seriously.”
“I can see where, if you took it seriously, it was offensive,” he said. “I didn’t take it seriously at the time, period.”
Cuomo also rejected the concept of Mamdani’s speech, contending that the Queens lawmaker is the one dividing people, not himself. He suggested that Mamdani is calling all New Yorkers Islamophobic.
“What he is doing is the oldest, dirtiest political trick in the book: Divide people,” Cuomo said. “It’s the cheapest trick … divide New Yorkers as a political tactic. It won’t work. New Yorkers won’t let you divide them.”
When asked by amNewYork whether he believed his past statements on Palestine had contributed to the campaign attacks he condemned Friday, the Mamdani campaign referred us back to his statement today about being subjected to discrimination as a Muslim New Yorker.
As for Sliwa, campaign spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna charged that Mamdani was attempting to smear his rivals as bigots merely to gain a political edge.
“Curtis Sliwa has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslim New Yorkers for 50 years, working to protect their communities from violence and hate, and he will continue to do so as mayor,” Kurzyna said. “To weaponize accusations of Islamophobia for political gain is wrong and desperate, and New Yorkers deserve a campaign based on facts and solutions, not smears.”
Reactions to Wednesday night’s New York City mayoral debate were heavily focused on the candidates’ efforts to attack each other for alleged personal scandals, such as former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations and Zohran Mamdani’s links to radical politics.
The candidates’ decision to relentlessly criticize each other amid their final chance to make a pitch to voters did not go unnoticed on social media. While each candidate received support and criticism all around, Cuomo’s response to a question from Mamdani about what he would say to victims who have accused him of sexual harassment was frequently highlighted.
“I just want to go on-record and say I have never in my life seen somebody get their a– whooped at a debate this m—er f—ing bad,” political content creator and podcast host Brian Baez said.
“Mamdani just detonated the debate,” podcast host Brian Allen added. “He looked Cuomo dead in the eye and invoked Charlotte Bennett; one of the 13 women Cuomo allegedly harassed, saying she was in the audience but couldn’t speak because Cuomo’s lawyers ‘hounded her.’”
From left, Mayoral candidates Independent candidate former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani participate in a mayoral debate, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in New York.(Angelina Katsanis, Pool/AP Photo)
“Charlotte Bennett is a NY hero,” posted New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, referring to one of Cuomo’s accusers. Lander was arrested in June for allegedly assaulting a federal immigration officer, but those charges were ultimately dropped. He was also a candidate for NYC mayor before losing to Mamdani in the primary. Lander also posted a video of a crowd cheering when asked if they thought Mamdani won the debate.
Meanwhile, one of Cuomo’s accusers, Karen Hinton, was present at the debate Wednesday night, after which she hit the spin room and explained how Cuomo’s response about what he would say to women like her proved Cuomo lacks the “moral compass” to be mayor.
“I am one of these women. I have been legally abused by Andrew Cuomo for years after being harassed as his staffer,” another accuser, Lindsey Boylan, said on X. “Now he wants to be mayor.”
Cuomo’s decision after the debate to skip the spin room with reporters, instead jolting straight to the New York Knicks game where he was pictured sitting next to incumbent New York City mayor Eric Adams, was also a focus on social media following the debate.
But, altogether, reactions to Cuomo’s performance were not entirely negative. And reactions to Mamdani’s performance were not entirely positive – especially from Republicans.
“If Andrew Cuomo had brought the energy to this campaign that he’s bringing to this debate, he would not be fighting for his political life right now,” Actor and director Tom Brennan added Wednesday night.
“Andrew Cuomo is crushing Zohran Mamdani at the Mayoral debate tonight,” wrote pro-Israel activist Uri Cohen on X.
“I will say that both Cuomo and Sliwa are absolutely tearing Mamdani apart at this debate,” added New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
U.S. Ambassador Designate to the United Nations Elise Stefanik (left) during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC; Right: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at Fox News Channel Studios on October 15, 2025 in New York City.(Photos by: (Left) Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; (Right) John Lamparski/Getty Images))
Stefanik argued in her analysis of the debate, which she posted on X, that Mamdani came across as a phony throughout the night.
“Mamdani’s wind up doll routine is getting unmasked for the Communist jihadist he is,” Stefanik said Wednesday. “Notice Mamdani cracks with only very minor follow ups.”
Cuomo did not hold back on targeting Mamdani over alleged controversies that have embattled his campaign during Wednesday night’s debate. Cuomo blasted the self-proclaimed socialist over his lack of experience, ties to radical politics, and past radical comments about law enforcement, Israel and the situation in Gaza.
Among those controversies was an alleged picture Mamdani took with a hard-lined Ugandan lawmaker who has pushed policies of imprisoning people for being gay, which Mamdani posed for while taking a break from the campaign trail to visit his home country of Uganda for a wedding.
Cuomo also hit the controversy over whether Mamdani adequately supports Jewish New Yorkers, pointing to actions he has taken and remarks he has made, such as support for the phrasing “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea.” One of the people who Mamdani has tried to distance himself from as a result of such radical rhetoric is podcaster Hasan Piker, who said on X after the debate: “bro this new york jews are terrified of the muslim mayor who has the majority opinion on israels genocide sh— is so god—-n tired and frankly, racist.”
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani (R) Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa (L) and Independent candidate and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo participate in the second New York City mayoral debate at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, New York, on October 22, 2025. (Photo by HIROKO MASUIKE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Laura Loomer, a close Trump ally and former failed GOP congressional candidate, jumped on the criticism of Mamdani over his alleged antisemitism on Wednesday night after the debate.
“Zohran Mamdani’s most outrageous lie tonight came when he said he would take antisemitism seriously, saying, ‘I have heard from Jewish New Yorkers about their fears about antisemitism in this city. And what they deserve is a leader who takes it seriously,’” Loomer’s podcast “Loomer Unleashed” posted on X and was later shared by Loomer herself on X.
“This quote is laughably false, as Zohran’s own X account shows he supports BDS legislation,” the “Loomer Unleashed” quote concluded.
Meanwhile, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa mainly got praise on social media for his performance without a ton of criticism. He is widely considered to be significantly behind Cuomo and Mamdani in the polls.
“Curtis Sliwa has the courage of a lion. No doubt he’d make a great mayor, and he demonstrated as much in tonight’s debate,” former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday night.
Minority leader of the New York City Council’s Republican delegation, Joann Ariola, said, “hands-down” Sliwa was the winner of the debate.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams will endorse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race to replace him, sources in both camps tell CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer. It comes just two days before early voting starts.
Sources say Adams and Cuomo are working out a joint appearance that is expected to happen later Thursday.
After participating in the second New York City mayoral debate, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, right, sits with Eric Adams at the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 22, 2025.
“Why would I drop out of the race? You think Republicans are going to vote for Andrew Cuomo?” Sliwa said during the debate.
Sliwa punched hard during an interview on CNBC on Thursday morning in an effort to prove he deserves to stay on the ballot, and blamed Adams for the state of the race.
“He belongs in jail. He’s the reason there’s a Zohran Mamdani, because if he had done a halfway decent job he would’ve won. He’s an incumbent mayor. It would’ve been round two because I ran against him in 2021,” Sliwa said.
Key takeaways from the NYC mayoral debate
The candidates made their case to voters and covered a lot of ground during Wednesday night’s debate.
In addition, the candidates offered up their ideas for mass transit and what should be done about the deadline to close Rikers Island.
Mamdani also refused to take positions on crucial ballot measures that would address the very housing issues he’s centered his platform around.
“What a shocker. Once he takes a position, he’ll change it anyway,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani responded with a zinger of his own.
“We heard from Donald Trump’s puppet, himself, Andrew Cuomo. He spent more money on a singing water fountain at LaGuardia Airport than he did on the average cost of an affordable housing unit,” Mamdani said.
“Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams said in a video announcement when he dropped out.
Andrew Cuomo likes to make a big deal about the age and inexperience of the likely next mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, but the former governor himself got an early start in politics. Cuomo was nineteen when he helped manage his father’s doomed mayoral campaign against Ed Koch, in 1977. He was not yet forty when Bill Clinton named him the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 1997. When Cuomo was elected governor, in 2010, all of this early experience helped him consolidate his power and rule New York, for eleven years, as one of the most consequential governors in state history. By the time he resigned, in 2021, amid credible and documented accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power, he had been inflicting his forceful, recalcitrant politicking upon New York for nearly half a century.
In his run for mayor this year, Cuomo’s line has been that Mamdani, a thirty-four-year-old socialist who is running fourteen points ahead of him, “hasn’t accomplished anything.” “He’s never had a real job,” Cuomo shouted repeatedly on Wednesday night, at the final mayoral debate. During his six months of campaigning, Cuomo has tried to hold himself forward as an exemplar of battle-tested leadership. In truth, he has looked fed up and exhausted, the deepening lines on his face tensing with old resentments and bad impulses. He garbles Mamdani’s name in debates and interviews. He is dismissive and evasive when asked about the women who accused him of harassment. He has resorted to increasingly baroque lines of attack against his opponent. “Why won’t you say B.D.S. against Uganda?” Cuomo barked at Mamdani at one particularly incoherent moment on Wednesday.
Despite Cuomo seemingly having every kind of advantage—name recognition, Democratic Party support, the backing of many of the city’s most influential and wealthy residents—Mamdani trounced him in the June primary. That night, Cuomo called Mamdani early to concede, and Mamdani has said that the disgraced and beaten old pol was nothing but courteous. Since then, however, Cuomo has mounted a scorched-earth Independent campaign for the general, which has appeared mostly designed to damage Mamdani’s new public prominence. At one point during the most recent debate, Cuomo said that he believed Mamdani was trying to “stoke the flames of hatred against Jewish people”—a smear that is about as vile as anything that Donald Trump has said about an opponent.
Mamdani believes that Israel is an apartheid state, that the war in Gaza is a genocide, and that the American government has been complicit in the Israeli government’s violations of international laws. These are views that he hasn’t departed from in the course of his campaign, and which Cuomo assumed would tank his standing with Jewish New Yorkers. Yet Cuomo’s overt pandering to the city’s conservative and alarmed Jewish residents hasn’t worked as designed—Mamdani did fine among Jewish voters in the primary, and one poll this summer showed him winning by seventeen points among Jews in the general, with more than sixty-per-cent support among Jews under forty-four years old. His campaign was built, in part, on alliances between Jewish and Muslim progressives. Plus, for a supposed antisemite, his primary campaign was staffed by a nontrivial number of nice Jewish boys.
Despite all the insults, Cuomo’s general-election strategy has been, in some ways, an acknowledgment that Mamdani has figured something out. Since June, Cuomo has retooled his pitch to voters, emphasizing affordability; simulating relatability in short-form social-media videos; and making overtures to the city’s burgeoning Hindu communities—all tactics cribbed from Mamdani’s primary run, during which he courted Muslim and South Asian voters in the city as no mayoral candidate had before. Cuomo has even softened the emphasis on Israel, and acknowledged that there are “two sides” to the issue. “I didn’t see the anti-Israel anger,” he said candidly last week, during an appearance on “Morning Joe.” “I didn’t see how that was going to motivate people in a mayor’s race.” In his attempts to compete with Mamdani, Cuomo has also proposed a series of shoot-from-the-hip policy changes that are as untested and disruptive as anything the socialist has proposed, including an idea to introduce means testing to the city’s rent-stabilized housing units. His candidacy has helped obscure, rather than bring forward, real questions about whether Mamdani can govern the city.
Front-runners for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, wasted little time attacking each other on alleged personal scandals they have been involved in during a Wednesday night debate between the pair and GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Mamdani and Sliwa took the opportunity during Wednesday’s debate to drill down on past sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, the former governor of New York, ahead of an impeachment inquiry that preceded Cuomo’s 2021 resignation. Cuomo was also hit by Mamdani over accusations he has – while in public office – failed to meet with Muslim constituents and only began doing so amid pressure from his mayoral campaign, and over his alleged poor handling of the COVID-19 virus in New York after Cuomo was party to issuing guidance forcing nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients.
Meanwhile, Cuomo did not hold back on targeting Mamdani over alleged controversies that have embattled his campaign. Cuomo blasted the self-proclaimed socialist over his lack of experience, ties to radical politics, and past radical comments about law enforcement, Israel and the situation in Gaza.
All three candidates for NEw York City governor debated Wednesday night. From left to right: Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Zohran Mamdani.(Photo by Angelina Katsanis-Pool/Getty Images)
“My main opponent has no new ideas. He has no new plan. … He’s never run anything, managed anything. He’s never had a real job,” Cuomo said of Mamdani during the debate. Cuomo also branded Mamdani as someone who has proven to be “a divisive force in New York,” pointing to past incidents that have garnered Mamdani heat from critics.
One of those incidents included a picture he took with a hard-lined Ugandan lawmaker who has pushed policies of imprisoning people for being gay, which Mamdani took while taking a break from the campaign trail to visit his home country of Uganda for a wedding. Cuomo also hit the controversy over whether Mamdani supports Jewish New Yorkers, as his critics have claimed he is anti-Israel pointing to statements he has made, like “globalize the intifada.”
Cuomo also accused Mamdani of disrespecting Italian-Americans after a video of him surfaced giving the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus, while also pointing to criticism the self-proclaimed socialist candidate has garnered from 9/11 first-responders after posting a photo with a Muslim cleric who served as a character witness for the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (left) shakes hands on the debate stage with Democratic Party candidate for New York City mayor (right) Zohran Mamdani. Cuomo is running as an Independent after lsoing to Mamdani in the primary election. (Photographer: Angelina Katsanis/AP)
“You have been a divisive force in New York, and I believe that’s toxic energy for New York. It’s with the Jewish community. It’s with the Italian-American community – when you give the Columbus statue the finger. It’s with the Sunni Muslims when you say decriminalize prostitution, which is Haram. It’s the Hindus,” Cuomo continued. “Then, you take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga, deputy Prime Minister of Uganda. … She’s known as Rebecca ‘Gay Killer.’ … You’re a citizen of Uganda. You took the picture. You said you didn’t know who she was. It turns out you did. How do you not renounce your citizenship or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay just by their sexual orientation? Isn’t that a basic violation of human rights?”
Mamdani shot back that his politics have remained “consistent” and that they are built on a belief in human rights for all people, including LGBTQ+ folks. Had he known Kadga’s role in drafting legislation to imprison gay folks, Mamdani said, he never would have taken the picture.
“This constant attempt to smear and slander me is an attempt to also distract from the fact that, unlike myself, you do not actually have a platform or a set of policies,” Mamdani shot back at Cuomo before introducing his own claims about the former governor regarding past accusations of sexual harassment.
New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo slammed his democratic socialist opponent Zohran Mamdani during Wednesday’s debate for a variety of alleged scandals he has been involved in.(Angelina Katsanis/Getty; Angelina Katsanis/Getty)
“Mr. Cuomo. In 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment. Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political,” Mamdani said while attacking Cuomo Wednesday night.
“You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?”
Cuomo, in 2021, was accused of multiple incidents of sexual harassment that preceded his resignation as governor that year. A subsequent report from New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed Cuomo “sexually harassed multiple women from 2013 through 2020,” while in January 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had reached a nearly $500,000 settlement with Cuomo’s executive office over one of the claims. However, no criminal charges were ever filed against Cuomo, with some district attorneys citing insufficient evidence.
Cuomo defended himself against Mamdani’s accusations, noting the cases were eventually dropped, before returning to questions about Mamdani’s alleged past.
Meanwhile, Sliwa didn’t skip an opportunity to slam Cuomo over the sexual assault allegations either, saying early in the debate during a discussion about homelessness that Cuomo “fled” the governor’s office amid an impeachment inquiry that was investigating him.
“Andrew, you didn’t ‘leave.’ You fled from being impeached by the Democrats in the state legislature,” Sliwa began before getting into the homelessness issue, earning him a round-of-applause from the audience.
“‘Leave?’ You fled!” Sliwa continued to applause. “But let’s get back on topic.”
The moderators and the other candidates all treated him like the frontrunner, and at times Mamdani looked more uncomfortable than he has in debates past.
One notable example of Mamdani getting cornered was when he was pressed on his position on this year’s ballot initiatives regarding housing policy. Both Cuomo and Sliwa loudly and simultaneously hounded him about not having a position, and when asked by a moderator how he planned to vote, Mamdani responded, with what seemed like a knowing half-smile, “I have not yet taken a position on those ballot questions.”
“Oh, what a shocker!” Cuomo quickly responded. Sliwa howled, as did some in the audience.
Later Mamdani again declined to take a position on a different ballot question, prompting a similar response from Cuomo and Sliwa.
Noted Bernadette Hogan at NY1, “This is also a little taste of what reporters on the campaign trail experience when asking Mamdani questions. He goes out of his way to not answer certain questions that could lead to controversy.”
Though he struggled a bit, Mamdani didn’t lose the debate, either. He still effectively centered his campaign messages about affordability and optimism, and he took multiple opportunities to go after Cuomo (and Mayor Adams).
New York City mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo ripped a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in the city on Tuesday while assailing the Trump administration, calling the act an “abuse of federal power.”
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via email for additional information.
Why It Matters
The raid targeting street vendors on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan has ignited public outcry and political condemnation, raising questions about the use of federal force and the interplay between local and federal law enforcement.
The operation, conducted in full public view, reflected intensifying national debate over immigration policy, policing and civil liberties—issues that profoundly affect the lives and rights of New Yorkers and set precedents for enforcement strategies across the United States.
What To Know
In a post to X on Tuesday, Cuomo ripped the Trump administration, saying, “This is not who we are, and it will never be NYC when I am mayor. The Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor, not as a decoration, but as a declaration of our values and the promise of America.
“Today’s ICE raid in Chinatown was an abuse of federal power by the Trump administration: more about fear than justice, more about politics than safety. New York was built by immigrants and we will not be bullied into betraying who we are.”
Numerous federal agents representing multiple agencies, including ICE; the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; IRS-Criminal Investigation; and Customs and Border Protection descended on Canal Street in Manhattan. DHS described the operation as “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement” against criminal activity related to the sale of counterfeit goods, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News.
In videos spread across social media, protesters are shown, some confronting law enforcement and recording the raid with their phones. At least one protester was arrested, accused of assaulting a federal officer, according to DHS.
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What People Are Saying
Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, on X Tuesday: “Federal agents from ICE and HSI—some in military fatigues and masks—descended on Chinatown today in an aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant street vendors. Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop.”
New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, on X Tuesday: “.@realDonaldTrump claims he’s targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also on X Tuesday: “New York City does not cooperate with federal law enforcement on civil deportations, in accordance with our local laws. While we gather details about the situation, New Yorkers should know that we have no involvement. Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals.”
What Happens Next
The protest and backlash amid the developing situation have reignited debates over municipal policies concerning sanctuary city status, and the appropriate roles of local police versus federal agencies.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he believes New York City could soon elect a “communist” mayor and signaled he’d prefer a Democrat to take the reins at City Hall over a far-left candidate.
Asked during a White House press gaggle whether he’d urge Republican Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the race, Trump didn’t endorse anyone, but made clear his concern about current polling with just two weeks to go until Election Day.
“Well, I looked at the polls and looks like we’re going to have a communist as the mayor of New York,” Trump said. “It’ll be very interesting. But here’s the good news. He’s got to go through the White House, everything goes through the White House. At least this White House, it does.”
Trump appeared to suggest that if Sliwa exited the race, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo might close the gap with Democratic socialist nominee Zohran Mamdani, but wasn’t confident it would change the outcome.
Independent NYC mayoral candidate, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, speaks during a debate with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, center, and Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, Oct. 16, in New York City.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)
“If he [Sliwa] dropped out, he’s not going to win. And not looking too good for Cuomo either,” Trump said. “Maybe if he dropped out, Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance. But not much. Because it looks like the lead is—it’s not a great lead, but it’s big enough that he should be able to win.”
Pressed on whether he’d be willing to meet with Mamdani if elected, Trump said he would.
“Yeah, I’ll speak to him,” the president said. “I think I have an obligation to speak to him.”
New York City mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo, left, Curtis Sliwa and Zohran Mamdani participate in a debate, Oct. 16, in New York City.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)
Still, Trump lamented what he sees as the city’s decline under progressive leadership.
“I love New York. I’ve always loved New York. I just can’t believe a thing like this is happening,” he said. “I left New York, and we had a mayor, [Bill] de Blasio, who was a disaster… New York was a hot city. And now it’s — it’s sad to see what’s happening, frankly.”
“With the communist in charge… look, you just go back a thousand years. I mean, it’s been done many times, a thousand years. It’s never worked once. So it’s not going to work now.”
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa speaks during the NYC mayoral debate, Oct. 16.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)
Mamdani, a state assemblyman and longtime Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) member, has embraced calls to legalize prostitution and tax the wealthy.
His campaign has drawn endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other national progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, speaks at a press event at City Hall on September 30, 2025, in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
With Election Day two weeks away, all eyes are on Curtis Sliwa, as pressure grows on the Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee to drop his mayoral bid.
On Monday, John Catsimatidis, a businessman and top conservative donor, urged Sliwa to quit the race, saying that Republicans “cannot take a chance” on Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani winning. Catsimatidis is also the owner of the radio station 77 WABC ,where Sliwa has hosted a radio program for years. “Curtis has to realize that he should love New York more than anything else. It certainly looks like Curtis should pull out right now,” Catsimatidis said on radio host Sid Rosenberg’s show, per the Daily News.
The New York Daily News and New York Post editorial boards are both in agreement. They both published articles calling for Sliwa to suspend his campaign in order to make the race a one-on-one matchup between Mamdani, the heavy favorite, and independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo. “It burns to write this, but: It’s time for Curtis Sliwa to face reality, and admit that the city’s best hope to avoid the disaster of a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty is for him to drop out of the race, the Post editorial board wrote.
Still, local Republican Party leaders are standing united behind their candidate.
Sliwa got a boost on Tuesday when Republican Party chairmen from all five boroughs issued a joint statement reiterating their support for him. Republicans should not have to clean up the mess Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats created, and we will not allow the political class to interfere with voters or hijack our ballot,” the county leaders said. “Curtis Sliwa is our candidate, the credible leader who will defeat the radical left and restore safety, affordability, and common sense to City Hall.”
Cuomo, who has consistently trailed Mamdani in the polls, has attempted to make overtures to Republican voters and has dismissed Sliwa as a “spoiler” in the race. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Cuomo addressed Republican voters directly, saying the mayoral race is about “the future of New York and saving New York City.”
“The only alternative is Zohran Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa is not an alternative. He is not a viable candidate. You vote for Curtis, you might as well vote for Zohran Mamdani directly,” Cuomo said. “And if this city becomes a Zohran Mamdani city, a socialist city, it’s going to be the death of the city as we know it, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican.”
The former governor seemed to suggest he was open to extending Sliwa a job offer in a possible Cuomo administration. “I haven’t even thought about it to tell you the truth, but, yes, that would be something that I am interested in,” he said on Rosenberg’s radio show on Tuesday, per the Daily News.
But Sliwa has consistently rebuffed such proposals, and appears poised to take his campaign to the end. On Monday, he addressed his supporters in a video, telling them that elites are trying to push him out of the race and urging them to join him on the first day of early voting Saturday, when he intends to cast his own ballot.
“The billionaires are not going to determine who the next mayor is. You, the people will,” he said.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is escalating his commentary on the New York City mayoral race, claiming Republican Curtis Sliwa’s refusal to exit has pushed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to a 90% chance of victory, according to prediction market data.
Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital, argued that Sliwa staying in the race is helping Mamdani secure the win.
On Friday, Ackman posted new Polymarket odds on X showing Mamdani near 90%, well ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sliwa.
“It was not Zohran Mamdani’s debate performance. It was Curtis Sliwa’s statement after the debate that he is not leaving that has tipped the odds to 90% for Mamdani,” Ackman wrote on X.
Sliwa had said he would not drop out after the most recent debate.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa greets supporters upon arriving to participate in a mayoral debate Thursday in New York City.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Ackman’s remarks mark a rare public foray by a high-profile investor into a local election. A spokesperson for Pershing Square told Fox News Digital there was “no additional comment beyond Ackman’s posts.”
Ackman has supported Cuomo’s independent bid and earlier in the week urged Sliwa to exit the race to give Cuomo “a better shot.”
Sliwa is not backing down. His campaign, in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, rejected the idea that Ackman or any donor should influence the race.
“Billionaires aren’t going to decide the outcome — it’s the voters. It’s the people. Let the people decide,” said Maria Sliwa, the candidate’s spokeswoman.
“Cuomo lost the primary as a Democrat. He’s running as an independent. Curtis is on a major party line just like Mamdani. If anything, Cuomo should drop out, not Curtis.”
She said Sliwa has always planned to stay in the race to give Republicans a choice.
“This race won’t be decided by millionaires, billionaires or professional politicians. It will be decided by the voters on Nov. 4.”
Sliwa’s refusal to exit has become a flashpoint in the campaign. Ackman and others say a one-on-one matchup between Cuomo and Mamdani would be more competitive.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the independent candidate, left, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa participate in a mayoral debate Thursday in New York City.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)
Some polls suggest Cuomo could close the gap without Sliwa in the race. But Sliwa’s team and several analysts question whether his voters would support Cuomo.
Appearing Friday morning on “Sid & Friends in the Morning” on WABC radio, Cuomo accused Sliwa of playing spoiler and warned Republicans that staying loyal to Sliwa could hand the election to Mamdani.
“Curtis cannot win,” Cuomo said. “No Republican voted to put Curtis on the ballot. No Democrat voted to put Curtis on the ballot. He was put on by the party bosses — the Republican county chairs — because he is a spoiler. And they want Mamdani to win.”
Cuomo argued that GOP leaders are backing Sliwa for strategic reasons, not to win City Hall.
“They’ll take Mamdani and run him around the country saying, ‘Look at how crazy this Democratic Party is — they elected a 33-year-old socialist who’s anti-cop, anti-business, antisemitic.’ It’ll help them politically, but it’ll kill the city,” Cuomo said.
He added that voters who support Sliwa are effectively helping Mamdani.
“You vote for Curtis, just save yourself the time and vote for Mamdani,” Cuomo said. “He’s the candidate of the Republican Party chairs. And what Republicans are going to have to decide is whether partisan loyalty is more important than loyalty to the city.”
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, left, speaks while participating in a mayoral debate with democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, right, and independent candidate and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (not pictured) Thursday in New York City. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)
Cuomo also attacked Mamdani’s public safety policies, warning, “You defund the police, you close Rikers — he’s talking about releasing 7,000 people from Rikers when it closes. There are no new jails. There will be a mass exodus from this city. It will never be the same.”
The 2025 NYC mayoral race has drawn national attention. Mamdani, 33, is a socialist state assemblyman from Queens who upset Cuomo in the Democratic primary. If elected, he would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, and he has the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Cuomo, 65, is running as an independent four years after resigning as governor. He is trying to frame himself as a centrist who can beat Mamdani. Since Mayor Eric Adams dropped out, Cuomo has gained ground in polling.
Sliwa, 69, is best known for founding the Guardian Angels patrol group and has built his campaign around crime and quality-of-life issues. He won 27% of the vote in the 2021 mayoral race.
Ackman’s involvement has sparked renewed interest in Polymarket, a prediction site where users bet on political outcomes.
The contract for the NYC mayoral race has already passed $190 million in trading volume, one of the largest for a local U.S. election. Ackman’s posts have fueled speculation and a surge in trading activity.
Voters head to the polls Nov. 4.
Polymarket did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said the first general election debate ‘went well’ for him. Firday, Oct. 18, 2025.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said on Friday he feels the first general election mayoral debate the night before “went well” for him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist Assembly member from Queens, appeared prepared for most of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s attack lines on subjects including his experience level and Israel, while constantly shifting the focus back to his core campaign issue: affordability.
As for Cuomo, the independent candidate took to talk radio to tout his performance and argue that he had exposed Mamdani. Sliwa, meanwhile, rebuffed any notion that he would drop out of the race to potentially help Cuomo win, charging that the former governor has already given up based on his debate performance Thursday.
During an unrelated Friday campaign event, Mamdani told reporters that he was happy with his debate performance because it gave him a chance to show voters the choice between himself and Cuomo.
“I do feel that the debate went well because it was an opportunity to speak directly to New Yorkers about our agenda, to speak about our agenda,” Mamdani said. “To have that opportunity on the same debate stage as the architect of this affordability crisis shows New Yorkers the real choices as it comes on Election Day.”
The Assembly member slammed Cuomo over the upwards of $60 million the state has spent on legal matters related to the nursing home and sexual harassment scandals that led to his resignation — money Mamdani said could have been spent on programs to make the city more affordable instead.
A Cuomo spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Cuomo thinks Mamdani ‘got exposed’
Independent candidate and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a mayoral debate, in New York, Oct. 16, 2025.Angelina Katsanis/Pool via REUTERS
On Friday, Cuomo told conservative talk radio host Sid Rosenberg the opposite: that Mamdani exposed himself as a fraud during the debate.
“I think Mamdani got exposed, I think there’s no there there, he changes his answers, and I think it was obvious yesterday,” Cuomo said. “I got a chance to call him on a few of them and he did a total flip-flop.”
The former governor has gone after Mamdani for shifting toward the center on some of the harder left stances he embraced before running for mayor. For instance, Mamdani has disavowed past social media posts in which he endorsed defunding the police and called the NYPD racist.
Mamdani, who holds a commanding polling lead over Cuomo, expressed that he no longer sees the former governor’s candidacy as much of a threat to his winning the general election.
“He has a very narrow path to winning this race, because what New Yorkers saw is the fact that it’s more of the same with Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said about Cuomo’s debate performance. “It’s more of the same with the affordability crisis. It’s more of the same with the style of politics. It’s more of the same with the cow town to the very billionaires who gave us Donald Trump.”
The Democratic nominee’s comments came in response to Cuomo telling Rosenberg that it will be “very, very hard mathematically” for him to win the race if Sliwa stays in. The former governor picked up a significant 10% boost when current Mayor Eric Adams exited the race late last month, but that was not enough to catch up to Mamdani.
Cuomo insisted, as he has repeatedly, that Sliwa is “a spoiler,” who will hand the mayoralty to Mamdani by splitting the moderate and Republican votes between the two of them.
“There’s no way he wins, but all he can do is make Mamdani a winner,” Cuomo said, while charging that the Republican County party bosses who nominated Sliwa want Mamdani to serve as a GOP bogeyman. “That’s why the bosses are keeping him there.”
Sliwa, during a Friday morning interview on Pix11, rejected that notion, charging that Cuomo has already “tossed in the towel” by saying he cannot win unless Sliwa drops out.
“He’s already given up, going no mas, no mas,” Sliwa said of Cuomo. “He lost the primary, he’s just admitted he can’t win if I’m in the race. So, why not Andrew Cuomo drop out?”
However, a Fox News poll of likely voters out Thursday night showed Mamdani with over 50% of the vote for the first time. If those numbers hold, Cuomo would have a hard time overcoming him even if Sliwa were to drop out.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani fielded a series of contentious questions about how he will support Jewish New Yorkers during the first general election mayoral debate in New York City on Thursday night.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Jewish New Yorkers don’t trust Mamdani to protect them. New York City is the largest diaspora of Jews outside Israel.
“Jews don’t trust that you are going to be there for them when they are victims of anti-Semitic attacks,” Sliwa said to Mamdani.
During the debate, POLITICO Senior Politics Editor Sally Goldenberg asked Mamdani how he would assure Jewish New Yorkers that he would be a “mayor for all.” The question came after Mamdani previously refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is considered a call to violence against Jews, and given his 2017 rap lyrics praising the Holy Land Five, who were convicted of supporting terrorism.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, left, speaks while participating in a mayoral debate with Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, right, and independent candidate former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (not pictured), Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in New York. (Angelina Katsanis, Pool/AP Photo)
Mamdani maintained that he now discourages the term “globalize the intifada” and doesn’t use that language himself, explaining that conversations with Jewish New Yorkers changed his perception of the phrase’s impact.
Cuomo questioned why Mamdani still won’t denounce the phrase.
“Just say, ‘I denounce it.’ He won’t do it. That’s the issue,” Cuomo said.
And then Cuomo took it a step further, accusing Mamdani of not believing in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
“He is a divisive personality all across the board,” Cuomo said.
In response, Mamdani ripped into the “unfounded lies that have been said by Andrew Cuomo.”
“I’ve said time and again that I recognize Israel’s right to exist,” Mamdani said, explaining that he “would not recognize any state’s right to exist with a system of hierarchy on the basis of race, of religion.”
“Answer the question, you won’t support Israel,” Cuomo said, closing out a heated moment.
Meanwhile, Sliwa said with the rise of antisemitism in New York City, neither Cuomo nor Mamdani have the capability to protect Jewish New Yorkers.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani supporters gather outside 30 Rock in New York City on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)
“In order to counteract hate, you have to get the community involved, along with the police, to protect people when they’re under siege,” Sliwa said. “Jews are under attack now more than ever before.”
If elected, Mamdani would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Mamdani has become a staunch advocate against Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Mamdani co-founded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization.
Thursday’s mayoral debate was hosted by NBC 4 New York/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU, in partnership with POLITICO. Election Day is Nov. 4 in New York City in the race to replace Mayor Eric Adams, who suspended his re-election campaign last month.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
We are almost three quarters of the way through, and while there haven’t been any knockout blows, the most striking feature of the debate has been Mamdani’s aggressiveness. He is not running out the clock on his polling lead but taking the fight right to Andrew Cuomo, and has gotten some of the most memorable lines of the night.
Among them, after Cuomo talked up his Zohran’s Law plan to means test rent stabilized apartments, Mamdani said: “What you’ve heard it from Andrew Cuomo is that the number one crisis in this city the housing crisis, and his answer is to evict my wife and I. He thinks you address this crisis by unleashing my landlord’s ability to raise my rent. If you think that the problem in this city is that my rent is too low, vote for him.”
Also, after Cuomo attacked Mamdani on his experience, Mamdani responded, “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. And what Andrew Cuomo lacks in integrity, he could never make up for with experience.”
And finally, noted that his plan to have city-run grocery stores would cost the same as the state paid to represent Cuomo in the various lawsuits against him.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo entered Thursday evening’s first New York mayoral debate trying to blunt Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani’s momentum. Instead he spent much of the contentious face-off on defense, batting away criticisms over his long tenure in office from Mamdani and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Cuomo, now running as an independent, continued to try to cast Mamdani’s agenda as too extreme, saying he lacks the experience to lead America’s biggest city. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, countered with attacks on the former governor’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and sexual harassment allegations that Cuomo denies.
But after two hours that touched on how the next mayor would deal with President Donald Trump, quality of life issues and affordability, it was unclear whether anyone did enough to move the needle.
For Cuomo the stakes of the face-off were especially high. The debate was one of his last chances to try to convince voters that going with Mamdani, who already defeated the once-powerful governor in the primary this summer, would be a mistake. The race is also Cuomo’s attempt at a political comeback after he resigned four years ago following the sexual harassment allegations.
Mamdani, who spent much of the debate smiling as he tried to maintain the hopeful, charming persona that has characterized his campaign, pushed his affordability agenda and sought to portray himself as a pragmatic liberal rather than a radical ideologue.
The race has catapulted him to national political stardom, with Republicans, including Trump, trying to turn him into the face of the Democratic Party by highlighting his most controversial past comments and positions and casting him as dangerous, a communist and an antisemite.
Meanwhile Sliwa, a Republican and the colorful creator of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group, tried to vault his underdog campaign to the fore amid calls for him to drop out. Though he could have helped Cuomo by ganging up on Mamdani, he instead spent much of his time undercutting the former governor.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, suspended his reelection campaign late last month after being deeply wounded by a now-dismissed federal corruption case and his relationship with the Trump administration.
Here are some key takeaways from tonight’s debate, and watch the full debate below:
Mamdani on defense
Mamdani came under attack straight out the gate, as Cuomo highlighted the 33-year-old’s relative lack of job experience and painted his agenda as unrealistic and unachievable.
Cuomo, stressing his own lengthy resume, said being mayor “is no job for on-the-job training”
“This is not a job for a first timer,” he said, while trying to to cast Mamdani as “Bill de Blasio light,” a reference to the unpopular former mayor.
Mamdani hit back at Cuomo’s integrity and decision-making during the pandemic and repeatedly raised the sexual harassment investigation and legal bills related to his defense.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani went back and forth of record and campaign promises, trading a few attacks at their opponents during the beginning of the first general election debate.
“What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. What you don’t have in integrity, you can never make up for with experience,” he charged.
Cuomo also sought to cast himself as the only true Democrat onstage, despite the fact that he is not running on the Democratic Party line.
Mamdani’s brand of economic populism and laser focus on lowering costs in the astronomically expensive city has generated buzz and excitement. At the same time, the state assemblyman’s calls to raise taxes on wealthy people and intense criticisms of the Israel’s military actions in Gaza have unnerved some centrists and conservatives, as well as many Jewish New Yorkers.
Mamdani pressed on past Israel comments
During an appearance on Fox News Channel this week, Mamdani sidestepped a question about whether Hamas should lay down arms as part of a fragile truce that has paused the two-year Israel-Hamas war.
On Thursday he did not equivocate, saying, “Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms.”
The comment came as Cuomo again highlighted Mamdani’s past reluctance to condemn the use of the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” which is seen by many Jews as a call to violence.
Since the primary Mamdani has said he does not use the phrase and would discourage people from saying it.
But Sliwa said that wasn’t enough. “Jews don’t trust that you are going to be there for them when they are the victims of antisemitic attacks,” he charged.
Mamdani was asked about his most recent comments on Fox News following a first round peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
Mamdani, meanwhile, accused Cuomo of failing to represent the city’s Muslim community, claiming that it took losing to a Muslim candidate for Cuomo to step inside a mosque.
“It took me to get you to even see Muslims as part of this city,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani’s walk-back comes as he has tried to distance himself from several of his more contentious past statements, such as calling the New York Police Department “racist” and “a major threat to public safety.”
During his Fox appearance, he publicly apologized for his language after doing so behind closed doors.
“I am not running to defund the police. I am running to actually work with the police to deliver public safety,” he said Thursday.
Trump front and center
The president, who has threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him and even to take over the city if he wins, was invoked early and often.
Pressed on how they would handle Trump, Mamdani — who walked to the debate venue at 30 Rockefeller Plaza from Trump Tower, accompanied by a brass band — said he would stand up to the president while also being willing to work with him on lowering costs and affordability.
The former governor claims that putting Mamdani in charge of New York City would welcome a President Trump takeover.
“What New Yorkers need is a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver,” he said.
Cuomo warned that if Mamdani wins, “It will be Mayor Trump.”
“I’d like to work with you. I think we could do good things together. But No. 1, I will fight you every step of the way if you try to hurt New York,” Cuomo pledged.
Sliwa warned that taking too contentious a tone with Trump would end up hurting the city.
“If you try to get tough with Trump,” he said, “New Yorkers will suffer.”
Sliwa tries to stand out
The underdog found himself caught in the middle — literally and figuratively — with the Republican’s lectern positioned between his two opponents as they lobbed attacks at one another.
At one point Sliwa complained that he was not getting enough speaking time, saying, “I am being marginalized out of this.”
The Republican candidate says Cuomo and Mamdani’s past comments about defending the police department do not keep the city safe.
But he often attacked Cuomo aggressively, including after the former governor stressed his willingness to take on Trump.
“The president is going to back down to you?” Sliwa said. “You think you’re the toughest guy alive, but let me tell you something, you lost your own primary, rejected by your own Democratic Party.”
A second and final debate is scheduled for next week.
Anthony Izaguirre | The Associated Press and Jill Colvin | The Associated Press
California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter responded to a question on Tuesday about her behavior in recent viral videos. Sabrina Rodriguez, national politics reporter for The Washington Post, and Eleanor Mueller, Congress reporter for Semafor, join with analysis.
Republican Mayor nominee Curtis Sliwa (left), former Gov. and independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, and Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Photos by Lloyd Mitchell
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani waited more than 12 hours to address the release of the last remaining living Israeli hostages early on Monday morning — drawing criticism from rival Andrew Cuomo that he remained silent for too long.
Cuomo, the former governor who is running as an independent, and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa applauded in Monday morning statements the last hostages’ release from Hamas’ custody, which occurred during the early hours of Oct. 13, New York time. Mamdani’s statement came in at 4:21 p.m. Monday; by then, Cuomo had blasted the Democratic candidate in a social media post a short time earlier, charging, “His silence speaks volumes.”
Mamdani, who is a staunch Israel critic and pro-Palestinian advocate, applauded both the return of the hostages and the end to Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza — which he again referred to as “a genocide” — that the overarching ceasefire deal brought.
“Today’s scenes of Israelis and Palestinians are profoundly moving: Israeli hostages being freed and families reunited after years of fear, uncertainty, and torture; the first days in Gaza without relentless Israeli bombardment of Palestinians as families return to rubble and loved ones freed from detention,” Mamdani said in a statement. “There is finally a glimmer of hope that this ceasefire will hold and the long, difficult work of reconstruction can begin.”
Much of Mamdani’s statement focused on holding the Israeli government accountable for the massive toll of death and destruction in Gaza.
“We have watched as our tax dollars have funded a genocide,” he said. “The moral and human cost will be a lasting stain and requires accountability and real examination of our collective conscience and our government’s policies. The responsibility now lies with those of us who believe in peace to make sure it endures, and that it is just. Once aid is delivered, the wounded are cared for, and a lasting agreement secured, we cannot look away. We must work towards a future built upon justice, one without occupation and apartheid, and for a world where every person can live with safety and dignity.”
amNewYork asked the Mamdani campaign about the reasons for the delayed statement, and is awaiting a response.
On Monday, Hamas returned the 20 living hostages and the remains of at least four deceased hostages as part of a ceasefire deal between itself and Israel to bring the 24-month war in Gaza to an end.
The conflict began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which the group killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. Israel’s military offensive has since claimed the lives of over 68,000 Palestinians, displaced most of Gaza’s population from their homes, and left most of the coastal enclave in ruins.
Also, as part of the deal, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held inside its jails.
‘A moral moment’
While Mamdani focused mostly on the end of the war in Gaza, Cuomo and Sliwa barely mentioned it, instead focusing mostly on the return of the hostages.
Cuomo cast the event as “a moral moment, a reminder of our shared humanity and the sacred value of every life.”
“For two long years, families have lived through unimaginable pain, sleepless nights, and endless heartache,” Cuomo said. “Today, their prayers have been answered, as the remaining hostages are finally home in the arms of their loved ones, where they belong.”
The former governor also urged people not to forget the Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught where Hamas took the hostages, quoting Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who documented his ordeal in the autobiography “Night” and won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for his life’s work advocating against violence, racism, and repression.
“Elie Wiesel once said, ‘The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference,’” Cuomo said. “Today, we reject indifference & choose remembrance. And we choose hope: hope that peace is possible.”
Sliwa expressed similar sentiments in his own statement, in which he also credited President Trump with brokering the ceasefire deal. His praise came despite his rocky relationship with Trump.
“After two long years, all the living hostages are now safely home! A massive weight has been lifted from their families’ shoulders,” Sliwa said. “The 20 surviving hostages are reunited with families and loved ones after 738 agonizing days in captivity. 7+3+8 = 18, which means Chai, which means “life” in Judaism. A number that embodies life, hope, and blessing. We pray that these hostages coming home can recover and live peacefully again.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate making his second run for mayor, is closing out the campaign the way he does everything: with restless energy, a bull-headed refusal to back down, and an endless string of wisecracks and wild, well-told anecdotes and observations accumulated during a lifetime spent roaming the streets of New York. But behind Sliwa’s constant patter is a plan.
“Look, I start with 28 percent from the last election. I don’t think most of them are going to leave me. The Republicans will come home, and I have even more independents than Republicans,” he told me recently. “And now, with the Protect Animals ballot line, first time ever in electoral politics, I figure I’ll get another four or five percent. It’s mostly women. But then I’m a contender.”
At first glance, the political math checks out: The last two Republican candidates for mayor before Sliwa, Representative Nicole Malliotakis and hospital executive Joe Lhota, finished with 28 percent and 24 percent, respectively, against Democrat Bill de Blasio in 2017 and 2013. Assuming a baseline GOP vote of 28 percent or so, there’s good reason for Sliwa to think that hard work and a bit of luck could move him within striking range of the Democratic leader in the race, Zohran Mamdani, who is polling around 46 percent in most surveys.
“Please, Mr. President, don’t say any nice things about me. Be Switzerland, be neutral, stay out of this race,” he said. “You can’t help, you can only hurt. New York City is not Trumpland. Everywhere I go, and I’ve been in all 350 neighborhoods, he has pockets of support, but I’m gonna win them anyway.”
Sliwa’s efforts have been further impaired by pro-Cuomo independent political committees that are spending millions on ads warning voters that electing Mamdani, a democratic socialist, would be an existential threat to life in New York. Pressure on Sliwa to drop out of the race and support Cuomo has been intense, and recently led to threats sufficiently credible that Sliwa has hired armed security to guard him and his wife.
“You gotta understand, I’m a guy who was targeted by the Gottis and Gambinos and shot five times with hollow point bullets. I never had armed-security,” he told me. “Obviously, the rhetoric is way too high; Zohran Mandami is getting all these threats. We need to lower it. Let the people decide the election.”
Sliwa’s goal is to create an urban Republican movement that is not socially conservative or pro-Trump, but pro-business, tough on crime and welcoming to communities of color. He made the point by opening a campaign office in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a low-income neighborhood that has been a Democratic stronghold for generations. Walking a single block with Sliwa took 10 minutes, as Black and Latino residents stopped him for selfies, chitchat, and promises to vote for him. One bus driver even stopped in traffic, honked and waved Sliwa on board so he could make a quick pitch to passengers.
Setting up shop in Brownsville was a homecoming of sorts for Sliwa, who lived near the corner of Hegeman Avenue and Osborn Street from 1974 to 1976 after getting expelled from Brooklyn Prep, a Catholic high school for boys. Sliwa, the class president, had organized protests against the school’s jacket-and-tie dress code; the Jesuit priests who ran the school were not amused.
“Boy, that was an experience, the only white guy there, married to Koren Drayton at the time. I couldn’t go back to Canarsie because I was married to a Black woman, and the brothers were like, why are you coming into our community, snacking on our women. I was damned if you do, damned if you didn’t. And then I moved to the Bronx. I figured, hey, the Bronx will accept me. And they did, because the Bronx was burning and I ended up becoming a night manager at Mickey D’s.“
It was at McDonald’s, besieged by crime, that Sliwa organized his overnight shift workers into a safety patrol called the Magnificent 13, later renamed the Guardian Angels, that adopted uniforms and began doing literal hand-to-hand combat against muggers and gang members on streets and subways. Decades later, says Sliwa, “I can go into neighborhoods where the only Republican they’ve ever seen is Abraham Lincoln on a five-dollar bill and be accepted because of the work I’ve done with the Guardian Angels.”
The street-patrol veteran says that, if elected, he would hire 7,000 additional cops, hike their pay, and revive the NYPD’s Homeless Outreach Unit. “When Bill de Blasio and the city council pulled a billion dollars out of the budget for the police in the summer of 2020, they disbanded this great unit. They knew the clients,” he told me. “They would go into the homeless shelters. They’d speak with the directors, the security, speak with community leaders. Once they disbanded that, they left it to the local precinct, men and women who are not trained to deal with that. It takes a very strong skill level.”
On the subways, says Sliwa, “I cannot comprehend why they are not putting police officers on the moving trains,” roaming from car to car rather than standing on the platform. He would also implement crackdowns on shoplifting and public weed smoking.
And far from focusing exclusively on public safety and quality of life, Sliwa wants to encourage homeownership as a way to build wealth and stability in low-income neighborhoods, including by refashioning public housing developments as resident-owned co-ops. On education, economic development and other topics, he said he’d consult with experts and frontline city workers to find strategies to build the middle class.
“I would have a totally transparent administration. The good but also the bad and the ugly,” he told me. “The other thing I would elevate are the civil servants, many of them who have served for Democrats and Republicans. They’re the silent number of people who keep the government going, because elected officials, I don’t care if they’re Republicans or Democrats, they’re too busy dialing for dollars. The staff does all the work. They never get put on a pedestal. They’re never given an opportunity of exposing great ideas.”
It’s the kind of practicality you’d expect from a man who dropped out of high school but now wants to run the nation’s largest education system. “As mayor, I would sit back, I’d analyze, I have to sign off on it,” he told me. “I’d say, ‘You, George, you’re the one who was the architect of this. You’ve been a correctional officer for 32 years, you know the system inside out. I want you to give the press conference and explain how this works.’ Wouldn’t that be a novel idea?”
Cuomo has received friendlier welcomes at a couple of other mosque visits, but there hasn’t been much indication that his tactics are working with the wider electorate, continuing what has been a dismal campaign year for him. This spring, polls showed Cuomo with a seemingly substantial lead in the Democratic primary, on track to complete a remarkable comeback after resigning in disgrace from the governor’s office some four years earlier. He was lulled into a lethargic effort and made few retail campaign appearances. Mamdani’s late surge clobbered Cuomo by almost 13 points.
He promised things would be different in the general election, where he is running as an independent. Cuomo did initially beef up his social media presence and in-person schedule. But the live events dwindled through September, and some of his attempts to create viral videos were awkward. “Andrew doesn’t listen to anyone,” a senior ally says. “He wouldn’t do anything that he didn’t already know how to do.” Instead, he’s worked the phones in an effort to raise money and reel in endorsements from labor unions and mainstream elected officials. “You’ve got a candidate who has lost his way,” a second longtime Cuomo insider says.
He did get some good news when, in late September, the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, dropped out of the field. A Cuomo aide claims the campaign’s internal polling shows that the bulk of Adams’s support will shift to Cuomo—though even that would only add a mere 5%, not enough to close the gap with Mamdani. So one focus now is peeling support away from Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, in hopes that Sliwa will step aside and give Cuomo a head-to-head matchup with Mamdani. The Cuomo aide admits that it amounts to hitting a triple bank shot: “The pieces have to fall the right way. But is there a path? Yes, there is.”
Before Adams left the race, most polls put Mamdani at around 45% in a four-person field—a surprisingly low number for a Democratic mayoral nominee in a deeply blue city, leading some New York operatives to jokingly refer to Mamdani as “Z 45.” That underwhelming figure suggests a substantial number of potential general election voters still aren’t sold on Mamdani, and it gives Cuomo an opening, especially since an early-September New York Times poll showed him just four points behind Mamdani, among likely voters, in a one-on-one matchup.
One crucial factor will be whether Mamdani is able to repeat his spring success in turning out a significant number of young voters. “Everyone’s been like, ‘It doesn’t look like you guys are having as much fun.’ Yeah, this isn’t as much fun,” a top Mamdani strategist says. “There’s something far more magical about taking on the establishment than trying to coalesce it into your coalition. But I feel more confident than I have ever felt.”
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani’s chances of becoming New York City’s mayor have hit a new high this week over former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Why It Matters
The 2025 New York City mayoral election is shaping up as one of the most closely watched political contests in the United States, with significant implications for national politics, the future of progressive policy and representation in America’s most populous city. Mamdani, if elected, would become New York City’s first Muslim mayor, marking a moment of historic significance amid a backdrop of religious and political polarization.
His candidacy has reverberated nationally, drawing attacks from prominent conservatives and support from influential Democratic leaders. The election is also seen as a bellwether for shifts in urban policy priorities and party alignments, with issues like affordability, crime and the city’s response to President Donald Trump’s administration at the forefront.
What To Know
With the general election scheduled for November 4, Mamdani leads the field with a whopping 89.6 percent chance of victory, according to prediction market Polymarket at 9:47 p.m. ET Friday. His main rival, Cuomo, holds a 9.5 percent probability, while Sliwa has less than 1 percent.
Mamdani’s odds hit a high at 1 p.m. ET Thursday, at 90.3 percent.
Polling data reinforces Mamdani’s front-runner status. A Suffolk University poll released in late September placed Mamdani with 45 percent of likely voters, 20 points ahead of Cuomo, who captured 25 percent. Other contenders at the time, including Sliwa and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, trailed with single digits.
The dynamics of the race shifted after Adams ended his reelection campaign. Some analyses indicate Adams’ departure could help consolidate opposition votes behind Cuomo.
What People Are Saying
Columbia University professor Robert Y. Shapiro, to Newsweek via email on Friday when asked if Sliwa potentially dropping out would help Cuomo: “Yes, if Sliwa drops out, his voters are likely to want to vote against Mamdani, who has been amply demonized as a too far extreme Marxist/communist/socialist and who has supported defunding the police, a policy totally at odds with the gung-ho law and order support of Sliwa’s Republican and anti-crime followers. The only way to defeat Mamdani is to support his closest rival Cuomo. It is simple arithmetic. Mamdani’s lead over Cuomo would significantly tighten.”
Mamdani, on X Wednesday: “Every day, Donald Trump issues a new threat against an American city — very often his own hometown. But we can stand up to his bullying and win. As Mayor, I’ll work every single day with our state and federal partners to protect New York City.”
Trump, on Truth Social Thursday: “Best thing that could happen to the Republican Party? A Communist Mayor in NYC. The Dems have gone stone cold CRAZY! President DJT foxbusiness.com/video/63805351”
What Happens Next
The race concludes with the general election on November 4. While Mamdani commands a sizable lead, questions remain about whether his opponents can consolidate enough support to close the gap.
