NYC mayoral hopefuls talk costs, crime and Trump at Democratic primary debate

MANHATTAN (CN) — President Donald Trump is looming large over the New York City mayoral race, as the top nine Democratic candidates took aim at his administration during Wednesday’s primary debate.

Current frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who resigned in 2021 amid accusations of sexual harassment, proclaimed that he is the “the last person on this stage” that Trump wants to see get elected.

State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a progressive Democratic Socialist polling just behind Cuomo, insisted that he is actually the candidate best suited to take on the president.

“I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in,” Mamdani said.

Recent polls have the primary as largely a two-man race between Cuomo, who has been the frontrunner ever since he announced his candidacy in March, and Mamdani, a young and relatively green legislator who has gained significant traction in recent months with a social media-driven campaign aimed at young New Yorkers.

A poll last week from Emerson College shows Cuomo’s lead over the crowded pack is appearing to shrink; he’s ahead of Mamdani by just eight percentage points in the survey’s simulation, which considers New York City’s ranked choice voting system.

Though his lead may be slipping, Cuomo was evidently enough of a favorite to attract most of the barbs from his rival campaigners.

Nearly every candidate on the debate stage took a shot at the former governor. Some criticized his administration’s handling of Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes, which state Attorney General Letitia James found Cuomo drastically undercounted in a damning 2021 report.

Others, like Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman trailing badly in polls, jabbed Cuomo for the sexual harassment allegations that ultimately ended his governorship.

“The people who don’t feel safe are young women, mothers, and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,” Blake said when fielding a question about subway safety.

Cuomo denies any wrongdoing and said Wednesday that none of the numerous probes into his conduct turned up with anything criminal.

“I said at the time that if I offended anyone, it was unintentional, but I apologize,” Cuomo said.

On policy, Cuomo tried to position himself the law-and-order candidate, touting a platform that includes hiring more police officers and removing unhoused New Yorkers from trains and subway stations on a nightly basis.

He also criticized several other candidates onstage for supporting the nationwide movement to defund the police after George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020.

Mamdani focused on affordability, which is the top issue for New Yorkers heading into this election, according to polls. He committed to freezing rent for more than 2 million rent stabilized tenants in the city, making buses faster and free and implementing universal childcare.

In order to pay for those services, Mamdani proposed raising taxes on billionaires and the most profitable corporations in the city — a proposal that was criticized as unrealistic by Cuomo and former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, who is polling well outside the top five.

Mamdani in turn attacked Cuomo’s fundraising, which has been wildly successful thanks, in large part, to significant donations from wealthy benefactors, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

“The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.,” Mamdani said.

All of the candidates discussed the ongoing immigration raids from the Trump administration, which have been scrutinized by courts across the country as unprecedented and unconstitutional.

Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn polling just outside of the top five, pledged to stand up for New York’s sanctuary city laws by hiring 50 more lawyers in the city’s law department to “go on the offensive” against Trump.

“We have to stand up,” he said. “They are snatching people out of our schools. They’re snatching people out of our courthouses.”

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the consensus third-place candidate in recent polls, said he’d create an independent authority to supplement health care if the Trump administration cuts off Medicaid in retaliation for protecting immigrants.

“That’ll make sure our employees are protected,” Lander said.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is polling behind Lander but within the top five, touted her endorsement from Attorney General James as proof that she could stand up to the Trump administration.

She referenced the council’s ongoing lawsuit against current Mayor Eric Adams, who signed an executive order allowing federal agents to make immigration sweeps on Rikers Island, to show that she’s already taking action against Trump’s deportations.

“I will always be a mayor that will stand up for our immigrants,” she said.

State Senator Jessica Ramos and former City Comptroller Scott Stringer rounded out the crowded debate stage on Wednesday night, with each voicing their own displeasure with the current presidential administration.

Notably absent from the televised debate hosted by NBC 4 New York was Mayor Adams, who won’t appear on the Democratic ballot after pledging to run his reelection campaign as an independent.

Adams has been increasingly critical of the Democratic Party in recent months, particularly after the Trump administration agreed to drop Adams’ federal corruption charges in a move that was lambasted by many jurists as an apparent quid pro quo.

Given New York City’s recent history as a blue stronghold, many expect that the winner of the Democratic primary will go on to win the general with relative ease. Though it’s less of a foregone conclusion than in years past, with Adams now running third-party and the city shifting to the right in the 2024 presidential election.

New York City’s primary election will take place on June 24.

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