Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the pulpit at Bedford Central Presbyterian Church in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn this past Sunday to deliver a sermon aimed at modern-day progressives.
In his Sept. 22 remarks, Cuomo painted today’s left-leaning politicians as all talk and no action. But he also portrayed himself as a progressive in the mold of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — pointing to his purported successes in office, like building a new terminal at Laguardia Airport and the first leg of the Second Avenue Subway line.
“For all today’s talk about being so-called progressives, there is no true progress,” Cuomo told the room full of parishioners at the majority Black Brooklyn church. “In fact, if anything, we’re going backwards.”
The former governor sounded very much like a centrist candidate ready to take on a field of progressive challengers.
Cuomo’s recent appearances at Black churches in the city are among many signs fueling speculation that he may be preparing to jump into the 2025 mayor’s race — as Mayor Eric Adams’ City Hall sinks under the weight of multiple federal investigations.
Rumors that Cuomo is mulling an electoral comeback have circulated in the New York political sphere for the better part of a year. He has neither sought nor held elected office since he resigned the governorship in disgrace in August 2021, following nearly a dozen accusations of sexual harassment, which he strongly denies.
Specifically, the chatter among politicos suggests Cuomo is weighing whether to run for mayor in next June’s Democratic primary or challenge his successor, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, when she is up for reelection in 2026.
Adding fuel to the rumor fire are reports that he commissioned polls asking voters to rate him against other declared or likely mayoral candidates; and the fact that he has nearly $8 million collecting dust in his state campaign account — which may not be easy for him to use in a city race.
The conventional wisdom among political insiders has continued to be that Cuomo would only jump into the mayor’s race if Adams bows out — either due to him stepping down and triggering a special election or deciding not to run for reelection.
Former Gov. David Paterson, who preceded Cuomo in the Governor’s Mansion, echoed that sentiment in an interview with amNewYork Metro.
“I don’t think he would get in while Mayor Adams is still there, I just don’t think he would do that,” Paterson said. “If Mayor Adams leaves, then that’s a totally different story.”
No plans on the table yet
While Adams still insists that he is not going anywhere, a relentless stream of federal raids and investigations surrounding some of his closest advisers this month have fueled more speculation than ever before about Cuomo potentially jumping into the race.
Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s long-time spokesperson, said many people are urging the former governor to run, but that his stance has not changed from earlier this summer, when he told talk-show host Bill Maher he has “no plans to make plans.”
“People were talking to him for, like, a year about doing this, and he’s listening and he’s hearing them out,” Azzopardi said. “But it’s no decision. And when I say ‘no plans to make plans,’ I mean, that’s kind of where it is.”
Mayor Adams is in a politically vulnerable position following nearly a month of negative headlines that began with Sept. 4 raids on several top officials in his administration. Those raids have been followed up by others in the weeks since, catapulting previously unknown federal probes into public view, and led to the resignation of former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and City Hall Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg.
City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan and Schools Chancellor David Banks also both announced they will be leaving the administration by the end of the year — citing reasons onconnected to the probes.
Neither the mayor, nor any other official under scrutiny has been accused of wrongdoing.
Melissa DeRosa, who served as Cuomo’s right-hand when he was the state’s top executive, declined to detail her own private conversations with the former governor on the topic. But she also referenced the many people asking Cuomo to run.
“There are a lot of people who are in his ear, in my ear, in the ears of people who are close to us, who have vested interests in the city succeeding, who are very concerned about the state of the city as it exists right now and the future of the city going forward,” DeRosa said.
DeRosa stressed that Cuomo has a “tremendous amount of respect” for the mayor and still wants him to succeed, which aligns with the idea that he would not join a race that includes Adams. She added that although there are still many unknowns surrounding the investigations into Adams, if the “stars align in certain ways, then I think it would be something that he has to seriously consider.”
‘Desperate to be back in the political imagination’
Others are questioning just how serious Cuomo is about entering the race.
Dr. Christina Greer, a political scientist at Fordham University, said she thinks the former governor is less dead-set on running for mayor and more interested in getting back into the political conversation in general.
“He’s desperate to be back in the political imagination and is really looking for any entree,” Greer said. “The mayor’s race is obviously sooner. Because the governor’s race isn’t for another two full years, he’s itching to do something. Because we don’t know, A, what the next two years it looks like. And two years from now, he’s even farther and farther away from our political memory, for good or for bad.”
But if Cuomo does run, likely in a field that does not include Adams, what are his chances of actually winning?
All of the candidates who have declared challenges against Adams thus far are running to the mayor’s left. They include city Comptroller Brad Lander, his predecessor Scott Stringer and state Sens. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) and Jessica Ramos (D-Queens).
Much like Adams, Cuomo would likely fit into the centrist lane of the 2025 field, meaning he could potentially appeal to many of the same Black and Latino outer-borough voters that make up Adams’ base. Paterson said he believes there is a clear overlap between Adams’ and Cuomo’s bases and that Cuomo being the only moderate would give him an immediate edge in a field filled with progressives.
“I think people who have liked the mayor’s performance would be people who formerly liked [Cuomo’s],” Paterson said. “I think the advantage isn’t exactly because he’s moderate. It’s that there’s so many of them on the left that the moderate voters would now be in the majority voting for him.”
An instant front-runner?
DeRosa and others who are close to Cuomo have pointed to polling that puts him at the front of the pack of potential mayoral candidates, not including Adams.
“Poll after poll after poll shows that if he were to get into the race, no matter what the configuration is, he’s the immediate front runner,” DeRosa said.
However, Cuomo would be entering a ranked-choice voting contest, where the outcome is far harder to predict. It would depend on how much candidates use the system to their advantage and how well voters understand it.
Despite that confidence, Greer doubted that Cuomo, whose political success was always on the statewide-level, would be able to rise above a field of mostly current office-holders who have experience winning elections specifically in the five boroughs.
Greer said that in a race that includes a sitting city comptroller, a former city comptroller and two sitting state senators representing parts of the city, who likely are far more in touch with voters in the city than Cuomo himself, “I’m curious as to where this supreme confidence is coming from, besides the fact that he’s got [$8] million in the bank.”
Although Cuomo was raised in Queens and has always called himself a “Queens boy,” he has lived outside of the city for much of his political career. The former governor did reveal that he has an apartment in the five boroughs, even as his registered voting address was at his sister Maria Cuomo Cole’s Westchester home, according to an August report by Page Six.
Another potential downside of Cuomo entering the fray, Greer said, is that if he loses, he will be hard-pressed to run for elected office again — and that he should probably run for governor instead.
“If he loses this race, his political career is pretty much dead in the water,” Greer said. “I think he has a better shot of running for governor than he does for mayor. It’s a different universe of voters, and I think the larger pool of voters are probably more willing to accept a second coming of Andrew Cuomo, as opposed to New York City voters.”
