NEW YORK — When former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talks about Zohran Mamdani's lack of experience, it's impossible to miss the outrage that drives Cuomo as he fights to end his own time in the political wilderness.
"He is dangerously unqualified," Cuomo said Saturday during an appearance in Queens. "When you are mayor of the city of New York, that is a big job. You are responsible for eight and a half million lives. Mayor of New York City should not be your first job."
This would not be a first job for Mamdani, who turned 34 last month. He was once a rapper who performed under the name Mr. Cardamom, a gig Cuomo regularly mocks. But Mamdani was elected as a state assemblyman serving in New York's legislature since 2020.
Still, the difference between the two leading mayoral candidates' resumes is significant.
Cuomo, age 67, led the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton in the late 1990s. In 2006, he was elected New York state attorney general, and he served as governor for a decade beginning in 2011.
Cuomo was often controversial — clashing with Democrats in Albany and Washington, D.C., almost as often as he feuded with Republicans — but he also built a reputation as a leader who tackled big problems and took on large-scale projects.
"He has governed as a pragmatist, focused on solving problems rather than engaging in ideological or partisan warfare," said former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his endorsement of Cuomo.
"And he has shown that he can get big things done, including the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport, the opening of the 2nd Avenue Subway, and the creation of Moynihan Station — all long-stalled projects that he jump-started and completed," Bloomberg said.
I care deeply about the future of our city, and since leaving office, it has been difficult to watch its struggles, especially since the pandemic. In sizing up the field in the race for mayor, there is one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above… pic.twitter.com/Whqxc8Daql
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) June 10, 2025
Cuomo's long run at the top of the Democratic Party's elite — his father was Democratic icon Mario Cuomo — peaked in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. As governor, his folksy, hopeful online webcasts drew national viewership.
Cuomo's downfall and his bid for NYC mayor
But questions began to surface about his administration's management of elderly nursing home residents during the pandemic. Cuomo also faced a growing number of accusations of sexual misconduct involving women, including some who worked under his authority.
Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing, but in August 2021, he announced he would resign as governor: "Given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing," Cuomo said.
It was a stunning downfall, and in the mayoral race, Mamdani has blasted Cuomo for that portion of his track record. "What I don't have in experience, I make up for in integrity," Mamdani said during a mayoral debate. "And what you don't have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience."
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has positioned himself as the progressive in this race, a symbol of change. He would be the city's first Muslim mayor, and he's promised many left-leaning policies — including a rent freeze and free bus service — aimed at improving affordability in the city.
But Cuomo himself has a long list of progressive accomplishments, including criminal justice reforms and victories for same-sex rights, which once earned him staunch support on the left. In 2011, he pushed a bill through New York's legislature legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2013, Cuomo championed the SAFE Act, which was then one of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S.
Cuomo also launched a statewide initiative to downsize New York's prison system, which now holds roughly half as many inmates. Cuomo later campaigned for "cashless bail," a policy he signed into law in 2019.
"Experience matters and Assemblyman Mamdani doesn't have the same experience compared with Cuomo," said J.C. Polanco, a political analyst and professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
But Polanco said in modern populist politics, on the left and right, a deep resume doesn't hold as much sway with voters. "Experience doesn't count as much," he said. "A bunch of Democrats are saying it doesn't matter."
Cuomo himself has acknowledged that Mamdani's hopeful social media messages — which often go viral on platforms like TikTok and Instagram — appear to have captured the imagination of voters in a way his more old-school campaign has failed to do.
Mamdani defeated Cuomo handily in the Democratic Party primary. Polls show Mamdani has led the general election by double-digit margins for weeks.
Now running as an independent, and with time running out, Cuomo has also struggled to talk about his accomplishments, in part because he has tacked aggressively to the right. On the campaign trail in the final days, Cuomo described himself not as a progressive, but as a pro-business, pro-law-and-order centrist Democrat.
"He is a socialist," Cuomo said of Mamdani, during a stop at a shopping mall in Queens. "Democrats don't believe in socialism, they're not anti-business, they're not anti-wealth, they're not anti-jobs. And they're not anti-public safety and they're not anti-NYPD. They want safe communities."
Copyright 2025 NPR
