Mamdani’s Democratic critics want to ruin his shot at winning

The former governor of New York, David Paterson, told Salon that he thinks elected Democrats in New York may be preparing to back a candidate other than state Rep. Zohran Mamdani, who won the party’s primary election last month.

Paterson held a press conference Monday morning in midtown Manhattan, calling on Democrats to rally behind a candidate other than Mamdani, saying: “I simply do not believe Zohran Mamdani is the person to lead New York City in these extremely turbulent times.” Patterson had previously endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.

In a short interview after the press conference, where he was joined by radio personalities and others opposed to Mamdani, Paterson, speaking of other Democrats, told Salon, “I think they’re holding their powder.” He said he hoped that the event on Monday would spur action between the other candidates running for mayor that would eventually lead to a single unified anti-Mamdani candidate.

As it stands, Mamdani is set to be the Democratic nominee for mayor, while Cuomo and the current mayor, Eric Adams, will appear on the ballot in November as the nominees for the newly formed Fight and Deliver and the EndAntisemitism party ballot lines. Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, is the nominee for the Republican Party. As it stands, it’s not clear whether Cuomo plans to actively campaign for mayor in the wake of his 12-point loss to Mamdani in the mayoral primary.

In response to a request for comment from Salon, the Mamdani campaign expressed confidence in victory. “More than 545,000 New Yorkers voted for Zohran Mamdani, the most votes any Democratic primary candidate has received in 36 years.”

“In the coming months, Zohran looks forward to growing this coalition and reaching new voters with his vision for an affordable New York City and his plan to deliver universal childcare, fast and free buses, and a rent-freeze for more than 2 million New Yorkers,” the campaign said.

So far, many Democrats from New York have congratulated Mamdani on his primary win, but relatively few have endorsed him for mayor. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries are among those who have thus far not endorsed Mamdani, though their reasons for not doing so vary.

Progressives in New York, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and select statewide elected officials, such as Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and Attorney General Letitia James, in contrast, were quick to rally behind the new nominee.

At the event on Monday, Paterson was joined by familiar names to both New York politics and talk radio in the city, including Judge Richard Weinberg, radio host Sid Rosenberg and businessman John Catsimatidis. Paterson, alongside the others, declined to say which candidate they thought the anti-Mamdani forces ought to rally around.

On Monday, Adams told CNBC that Cuomo has already asked him to drop out of the mayoral race. Adams said that he responded by saying, “Andrew, are you that level of arrogance? I’m the sitting mayor.”

“I’m the sitting mayor of the city of New York, and you expect for me to step aside when you just lost to [Mamdani] by 12 points,” Adams said.

Sliwa has also faced pressure to drop out of the race, with the New York Post reporting that Republican donors have been attempting to get him a position in the Trump administration so that they can put up a candidate they think has a better chance in the general election. Influencers like Charlie Kirk have also said publicly that they think Sliwa should drop out. Sliwa, however, maintains that he will not leave the mayoral race. Sliwa did not respond to a request for comment from Salon.

Neither Schumer, Gillibrand nor Hochul immediately responded to requests for comment from Salon, and it’s not clear whether Paterson had any inside knowledge of deliberations within the party with regards to Democrats potentially endorsing someone other than Mamdani.

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Jeffries’ office responded to a request for comment by referring to his comments Monday on “The View,” where he said: “I’m scheduled to meet with [Mamdani] next week, and we’ll have a conversation about his vision. He did run a campaign that was actually focused largely on affordability, and that was the right issue to focus on because New York City’s too expensive. America right now is too expensive.”

At the event, however, the radio personalities made it clear that there was a substantial appetite among the rich and powerful within the city to stop Mamdani from winning the mayoral election, and that there could be significant financial resources made available for a unified anti-Mamdani candidate.

“I think it could be a situation where people are able to make donations in the city campaigns, but there are two ways that the city does it,” Judge Weinberg said at the press conference. “One of them is donations to campaigns; you can’t raise or spend more than $7 million for your city in those areas. The second is just straight-up donations at this point that can’t be matched, but are unlimited. So if we could raise enough money to try and find a process that would indicate which of the candidates really is being supported the most, maybe we would have a chance.”