Latest news with #CuomoConcedes
CNN
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Mamdani's election night coalition: A party with Kal Penn, Ella Emhoff, hundreds of passionate and sweaty supporters
The moment Andrew Cuomo said he had called Zohran Mamdani to concede the race, Kal Penn stopped mid-sentence. The actor and activist is also a family friend who has known Mamdani since he was 14, and he was speechless. The crowd at Mamdani's Election Night party wasn't. The shot of Cuomo waving goodbye as he left the stage had everyone in the room screaming as loud as they could — in disbelief, in victory, in schadenfreude. Cuomo, a 67-year-old titan of state and local politics, had just conceded the Democratic primary for New York City mayor to Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist running his first major campaign. Mamdani is poised to win the primary pending ranked-choice vote allocation. There were many race-specific factors that made an upset possible: Cuomo is still reviled by many progressives four years after his resignation as governor, and for all his pining for redemption, Cuomo took Tuesday so much for granted that he didn't even campaign on the final day beyond casting a vote for himself. But a look inside Mamdani's sweat-soaked outdoor party on the roof deck of a craft brewery offered hints of the Democratic Party's direction as it works to regroup after President Donald Trump's second victory. Mamdani supporters mingled for hours near a waiting podium topped by a hand-painted 'Afford to Live & Afford to Dream' banner, complete with a custom-inked 'paid for by zohranfornyc' at the bottom. In the crowd were well-known Cuomo enemies like Cynthia Nixon, the 'Sex and the City' actress who ran against him in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor. The then-governor touted his large win as confirmation that New Yorkers agreed with him more than the left wing of the party. On Tuesday, Nixon walked in with her wife and immediately was grabbing other supporters in deep, long hugs. 'What are we going to do when we don't have Cuomo to fight?' one joked to her. Nixon told CNN the feeling of watching this win was overwhelming. 'I have never simultaneously been so excited for anyone, and vote against anyone,' Nixon said. 'Usually it's one or the other, but this was like a meeting of heaven and hell.' Soon Nixon was in a tight circle with Chi Ossé, a queer city councilman elected from Brooklyn four years ago at age 23, who has been busting through city politics with viral videos of his own and who was an early and avid Mamdani backer, as well as Ella Emhoff, the artist stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris who has become a Brooklyn fixture. Emhoff had a blue-and-yellow Mamdani bandana tied in her hair above her round glasses. Mamdani's primary night party, just like his whole campaign, did not necessarily anticipate the candidate would end up doing this well. There wasn't enough space, enough water or enough air conditioning. It was in a spot usually for beers with a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline in the rapidly gentrifying area of Long Island City, Queens. The next big event being advertised there is a candle-making class this weekend. Mamdani's mostly young staffers were still rushing to get the venue set up half an hour after the polls closed but that didn't matter much as the results became clear and politicians across the city started packing in. Some told CNN that they hadn't been Mamdani supporters initially and hadn't even ranked him first on their ballots. Brad Lander, the city comptroller who had been the race's early progressive favorite but couldn't compete with Mamdani's charisma and eventually became his cross-endorsing validator, arrived to the second-biggest cheers of the night and responded with an awkward 'raise the roof' motion. Afterward, speaking to CNN, Lander tried to explain the excitement for Mamdani. 'I don't think the line is so much between progressives and moderates, it's between fighters and fakers,' Lander said. 'What Zohran is showing is that it's worth putting up big bold ideas for change, standing up and fighting for them, and that's pretty hopeful. Yes, he's a democratic socialist, but he had a bold vision for the future of the city and that excited people.' By the time Mamdani was ready to take the stage, former Rep. Jamaal Bowman had grabbed Penn in a bear hug so big he lifted the actor off the ground. David Hogg, whose brief time as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee blew up earlier this month over his pushing of younger challengers to incumbents, found a spot to the side of the rooftop, pleased that his PAC had endorsed Mamdani last week in the primary and that he didn't have to clear it through the party structure. Mamdani's campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church, started her introductory speech by thanking the Democratic Socialists of America, with the crowd chanting 'DSA! DSA!' The campaign, she said, 'has been run by the left and organized to win.' New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who was one of Mamdani's early endorsers, told the crowd the 'campaign has shocked the world — but everyone in this room knew we were going to do it.' Left unmentioned were the many people in the room who just a few weeks before had been resigned to a Cuomo win, and just a few hours before had been bracing for a rocky few days of ranked-choice tabulation and legal challenges. Some supporters were also already telling CNN that they believe Mamdani's campaign must quickly get even more ambitious and develop a stronger management structure as he goes before a citywide electorate that in November will choose between Mamdani, current Mayor Eric Adams, locally famous Republican Curtis Sliwa, an independent candidate Jim Walden and possibly Cuomo if he decides to keep running on the separate ballot line he already secured. 'We have to build out the tent, and they're prepared to do that – but it needs to be in a more aggressive way,' said Murad Awawdeh, the president of the New York Immigration Coalition, who said he believes Mamdani's 40,000 volunteers could have hit millions more voters if organized differently. 'The campaign needs to think about that (as) they continue moving forward in hitting the ground running as if we're still at the same level as yesterday.' Bowman told New York State Rep. Khaleel Anderson that he figured moneyed interests in the city 'will do anything' to stop Mamdani, even spending $100 million and try to recruit someone like Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson as a candidate. (There's no evidence that the Rock is running.) In an interview on the streets of Brooklyn last month, Mamdani told CNN that the proof he is ready to run a city of 8 million with a $112 billion budget is the campaign he put together. At the microphone, Mamdani spoke about his campaign as a model for the Democratic Party and the New York City he wants to lead as a model for the country. Outside taking pictures, he had only one word for how it felt to win the primary outright: 'Incredible,' he told CNN. 'But I'm excited to meet every single voter now.'
RNZ News
21 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
New York mayoral primary: Mamdani on brink of stunning win
By Arit John, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gloria Pazmino for CNN New York mayoral candidate State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, out on the campaign trail. Photo: AFP / MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO New York state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is on the brink of a stunning Democratic primary win for New York City mayor, with his top challenger former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceding the race. CNN projects Mamdani's initial support will remain below 50 percent, meaning the race will formally be decided by ranked-choice votes that will be announced starting 1 July. Mamdani's strong performance will reverberate beyond America's largest city, catapulting both Mamdani and his policy ideas into the national spotlight. A three-term state assemblyman who represents parts of Queens, one the most diverse areas in the nation, Mamdani vaulted from being a virtual unknown with a mix of viral videos and proposals appealing to younger progressives. His detractors have argued his limited legislative experience, progressive policies and criticisms of Israel make him too extreme for the city. Cuomo was attempting a comeback less than four years after he resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment and mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has denied the allegations against him. "Tonight was not our night; tonight was Assemblyman's Mamdani's night," Cuomo told supporters. His spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, confirmed that Cuomo was conceding the primary race while leaving the door open for a November run on a different party's line. Mamdani was leading each of the city's three largest boroughs, including in Queens where Cuomo grew up. Besides Mamdani and Cuomo, the only candidate getting more than 5 percent of the vote was city Comptroller Brad Lander. While not all of Lander's voters will go to Mamdani when their candidate is eliminated, the two had told their supporters to rank the other on their ballots. Mamdani is positioned to face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent after he bypassed the primary he won four years ago, as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa and at least one of his rivals running on a separate ballot line. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (left) and Andrew Cuomo. Photo: AFP If Mamdani remains ahead, it would be a stunning result for a 33-year-old assemblyman with less than five years in government who just months ago was running a fledgling campaign relying on creative online videos. It would also be the biggest win to date for the Democratic Socialists of America: Mamdani is a proud DSA member and geared his volunteer-driven campaign around talking up the affordability crisis in New York through moves that include proposals to freeze rents, make buses free and open government-owned grocery stores, all paid for by a massive tax hike on the rich he will need to convince the state government to pass. Many Democrats in New York are adamantly opposed to Mamdani, both due to those socialist proposals and anger over his positions related to antisemitism and support for Israel. Mamdani refused to say he believed Israel had the right to exist as a Jewish state or to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," referencing an Arabic term used by Palestinians to describe their uprising against Israel. Cuomo repeatedly accused Mamdani of fueling antisemitic hate, a charge Mamdani denied. Mamdani will have his own work to do on the left too, including other candidates and their supporters who may like him personally but oppose his socialist politics. And he will have to convince sceptics that he is the right manager for a city facing compounding crises of affordability, crime rates, overall dysfunction, along with a massive influx of migrants that has complicated all three, all while being able to stand up to Trump. Plus, Mamdani could have a rematch against Cuomo ahead, with the former governor potentially running on his own ballot line, making the case that he is the person speaking to the mainstream of where Democrats and New Yorkers overall are as they grapple with the crises facing the city and the incoming pressure from Trump. For Cuomo, losing to Mamdani marks an embarrassing end to his attempted political comeback. Many Democrats still criticize him for the combination of the sexual misconduct and nursing home death scandals that led him to resign in 2021. He has a record of long, bitter fights with progressives that haunted him through the campaign - even as he accomplished long-held liberal goals while governor, including the legalization of same-sex marriage. Cuomo positioned himself as an antidote to both President Donald Trump - with whom he has allied and feuded for decades - and more progressive politics amid growing concerns about crime and immigration in liberal-led cities. He argued that he had the brand of politics to reconnect disillusioned Democrats to their party and the stature to push back on Trump, while also being the right manager for a city facing compounding crises of affordability, crime rates, overall dysfunction and a massive influx of migrants that has complicated all three. To an extent, it worked. Many of those same critics who called for him to leave office four years ago backed his run for mayor, citing his experience. Among them was state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a fellow mayoral candidate who made a surprising endorsement of the former governor earlier this month. Other high-profile Democrats from outside the city have also weighed in to support Cuomo, including South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn and former President Bill Clinton, under whom Cuomo served as housing secretary. But other Democratic primary opponents didn't look past his sexual harassment allegations. During one debate, former state Rep. Michael Blake quipped that the people who feel unsafe in the city are "young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo." Lander, who cross-endorsed Mamdani, appeared with two of Cuomo's accusers in the final days of the race. "The votes are still being counted, and the ranked-choice tabulations will take a few days. But this much is clear: together, we are sending Andrew Cuomo back to the suburbs," Lander told his supporters. "With our help, Zohran Mamdani will be the Democratic nominee for the mayor of the city of New York. And we are on a path to win a city that all New Yorkers can afford, and where everyone belongs." - CNN
