By Fiona McLoughlin, Daily Caller News Foundation | March 01, 2025
Former Democratic New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday the launch of his bid to become the next mayor of New York City. Cuomo, who resigned from office in 2021 after being accused of sexually harassing more than a dozen women — including some of his staff members — began considering entering the mayoral race a week prior to the announcement, CBS News reported. He joins the race involving, at the time of publication, eight other Democratic opponents, including the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges Sept. 26, 2024
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice dropped bribery charges levied against Adams on Feb. 10, 2025. In addition to a leadership crisis involving top Adams administration officials, the city faces issues such as high rent, crime and providing migrants with resources.
Cuomo called the city “out of control” in his 17-minute announcement posted online.
“We know that today our New York City is in trouble. You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway. You see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence,” he said. “The city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis.”
He also claimed the city’s conditions exist because of “an act of our political leaders, or more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.”
Cuomo previously denied the sexual harassment allegations brought against him but stepped down as governor due to an impeachment investigation Aug. 10, 2021. New York State Attorney General Letitia James’s office claimed Cuomo created a hostile work environment with suggestive, non-consensual, offensive and unwelcome touching. His legal team later sued several of his accusers as well as James’s office, the outlet reported.
The Cuomo administration was also accused of lying about the number of people who died in state nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlet reported. Thousands of COVID-positive patients were allowed into nursing homes, contributing to the estimated 12,743 deaths as a result of the Cuomo administration’s directive.
He acknowledged “mistakes” made during his time in office.
“Did I always do everything right in my years of government service? Of course not. Would I do some things differently knowing what I know now? Certainly. Did I make mistakes? Some painfully. Definitely,” he said in his mayoral announcement video.
“And I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it” he continued. “I promise you this, I know what needs to be done, and I know how to do it.”
The campaign offers Cuomo an opportunity to rehabilitate not only his political standing, but his image in the eyes of the public, including critics.
While in office, Cuomo publicly sparred with then-President Trump, including mocking the Republican incumbent’s campaign slogan, drawing criticism from Trump and the GOP.
“We are not going to make America great again. It was never that great,” Cuomo said after an Aug. 15, 2018 speech. “We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.”
Cuomo also ostracized pro-life and pro-gun conservatives as “extreme” during a Jan. 19, 2014 radio interview reported by The New York Times, going on to claim there was no place for them in New York:
Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.
Cuomo is already drawing support for his campaign as Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres endorsed him days before the announcement, CBS reported Monday. A super PAC seeking to raise $15 million for Cuomo’s campaign was also formed Wednesday, The New York Times reported.
“When it comes to confronting political extremism in New York, when it comes to confronting the crisis of crime, we need not a nice guy, but a tough guy like Andrew Cuomo,” Torres said.
Other reactions, especially from other mayoral candidates, were less warm.
“Andrew Cuomo is for himself and only himself, and is hoping New Yorkers will forget his disastrous record for our city of endless scandals, destroying the subway, and cutting basic services,” said city comptroller Brad Lander, another mayoral candidate, according to The New York Times.
The New York City Democratic primary ends June 24, 2025.
Fiona McLoughlin is a contributor at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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