Jessica Ramos endorsing Andrew Cuomo for NYC mayor weeks after questioning his ‘mental acuity'

Yahoo

a day ago

NEW YORK — In an extraordinary about-face, back-of-the-pack mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos is endorsing her front-running rival Andrew Cuomo — just weeks after questioning his 'mental acuity' and comparing his mental state to former President Joe Biden's.
Ramos, a Queens state senator who was also among scores of lawmakers to call for Cuomo's 2021 resignation as governor over sexual misconduct accusations, is expected to formally throw her political weight behind his mayoral bid at a press conference in Manhattan on Friday morning, sources confirmed to the Daily News.
Ramos and her campaign didn't immediately return multiple calls.
But she told the New York Times, which first reported her surprising decision, that she's going with Cuomo because 'he's the one best positioned right now to protect this city.' Cuomo, who's polling as the favorite to win the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, 'knows how to hold the line and deliver under pressure,' she added, citing uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump.
Ramos, who identifies as a progressive Democrat, said she's not dropping out and her name will still appear on the primary ballot. But her endorsement of the centrist Cuomo is an effective acknowledgement she has no path to victory.
Most polls of the mayoral race have shown Ramos pulling 1% or less in support. On the fundraising side, she hasn't taken in enough cash to qualify for matching funds and her latest filing from last month showed she had just about $9,000 in her war chest.
The Cuomo nod marks a drastic flip-flop for Ramos, who said in April she believes Cuomo's 'mental acuity is in decline.'
'I don't think the City of New York can afford a Joe Biden moment,' she said at the time, referring to the former president who ended his reelection bid last year after serious concerns emerged about his mental fitness. 'I think that there are real reasons why [Cuomo is] not answering questions.'
In response to her mental fitness broadsides against Cuomo, his spokesman Rich Azzopardi shot back in April: 'Was she sober when she said it?'
Azzopardi didn't immediately return a request for comment Friday.
Ramos has been a harsh critic of the centrist Cuomo on a number of other fronts, too.
'People may want to be courteous to Cuomo's face but they don't forget the people he sent to die, the women he touched or the people he left in our streets needing mental health care and housing,' Ramos wrote on X in March, referring to accusations that Cuomo mismanaged the COVID pandemic, sexually harassed more than 10 women and shuttered psychiatric institutions statewide as governor.
Cuomo has denied the sexual harassment and pandemic mismanagement claims.
Ramos' change of heart comes just days after the progressive Working Families Party ranked her its No. 5 candidate as part of an anti-Cuomo mayoral endorsement slate. On Friday, the party, which has had a rocky relationship with Ramos over the years, said it's 'sad and disappointed' by Ramos' announcement, but vowed to not 'be distracted by this desperate move.'
Party leaders declined to immediately say whether they will formally remove Ramos from the slate.
Ramos, the chair of the State Senate's Labor Committee, was the first woman to enter the 2025 mayoral race and had hoped to build a coalition rooted in union and Latino communities. But she never gained momentum on the campaign trail, as other progressives in the race, like runner-up candidate Zohran Mamdani, capitalized on a surge in enthusiasm for left-wing politics among young voters.
During the first mayoral debate this week, Ramos lobbed a barb at Mamdani, Cuomo's top rival in the race, saying she wished she had run for mayor in 2021.
'I thought I needed more experience, but turns out you just need to make good videos,' she said, a reference to Mamdani's social media strategy.
-----------