‘They’re More Than Happy To Blame Me Instead of the Democrats’ If Mamdani Wins, Sliwa Tells Sun
“They can blame me. I’ve been blamed for many things before,” the Republican candidate for New York City mayor, Curtis Sliwa, told The New York Sun on the eve of Election Day about a potential Zohran Mamdani win.
It was 10 p.m., and the 71-year-old Guardian Angels founder, flanked by a handful of supporters and a security detail, was descending the steps of the Rockefeller Center subway station on West 47th Street. He started his campaign earlier in the year in the subways, and he said he planned to finish it that way.
“They’re more than happy to blame me instead of the Democrats, who created this mess,” Mr. Sliwa said. “I live my life one day at a time. Don’t worry about Curtis Sliwa. I’ve survived the worst of the worst. So if I do lose in an election, that’s what elections are, you have winners and losers.”
This wasn’t Mr. Sliwa’s last stop of the night. This may, though, be Mr. Sliwa’s last foray in electoral politics. If polls are right, it’s unlikely this New York icon will be living in Gracie Mansion next year.
New York City voters are heading to the polls today in a race that’s garnered national attention for the rise of Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim Democratic Socialist with a penchant for viral TikTok videos and a trail of unapologetic anti-Israel and anti-police statements. Mr. Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June and is poised to win the general election.
President Trump crossed party lines to endorse the Democrat-turned-independent candidate, Governor Andrew Cuomo, on Monday to try to prevent a Mamdani victory. This comes after weeks of pressure from moderate Democrats and Republicans for Mr. Sliwa to drop out of the race to clear the field for Mr. Cuomo to take on Mr. Mandani one-on-one.
“A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” Mr. Trump posted to Truth Social. “Whether you like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”
Elon Musk jumped on board this train on Monday as well. “Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is. VOTE CUOMO!” he posted to X.
“Well, of course, his friend Cuomo gave him a billion dollars,” Mr. Sliwa said. “What did he make — 25 solar panels with a billion dollars? That was quite a kickback for Elon Musk.”
On Mr. Trump, Mr. Sliwa is more diplomatic. “I would have preferred he support me,” he said. “I have a legacy that precedes politics. People know I was here when nobody else was there for them.”
Mr. Cuomo is denying Mr. Trump’s post is an endorsement of him at all. Such an endorsement could prove a liability in the city, though for Republicans on Staten Island and in pockets of the city, Mr. Trump’s words could sway their votes. Mr. Cuomo needs every last vote he can get.
“President Trump doesn’t support me. He opposes Mamdani,” Mr. Cuomo said at an impromptu press conference on East 54th Street, outside his daughter’s apartment, on Monday night. “He believes that Mamdani is an existential threat to New York. He believes he’s a communist. He believes he’ll bankrupt New York.”
A new AtlasIntel poll released Monday shows Mr. Cuomo within five points of Mr. Mamdani, with Mr. Sliwa earning 15 percent support. The poll’s sample, though, doesn’t comport with the partisan demographics of those who’ve come out to vote in the week of early voting that ended Sunday. Other reputable polls show Mr. Mamdani with a double-digit lead.
One Cuomo supporter walking his dog on the block as the Cuomo press conference ended told the Sun he thinks the former governor will lose. Other Cuomo backers, though, say the election will all come down to turnout. Mr. Cuomo predicted Monday night that turnout could reach 2 million, a major jump from the 1.1 million who voted in the last mayoral election in 2021.
In contrast to Mr. Sliwa, who took two-dozen questions and invited the press to speak further with him as he rode the subway to his next stop, Mr. Cuomo answered three questions at his press conference and was quickly whisked away by campaign staff. When the Sun asked Mr. Cuomo if he will blame Mr. Sliwa if he loses on Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo deflected.
“I’m not going to blame anyone because I’m not going to lose tomorrow,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo and his supporters are projecting optimism into the final stretch, but that hasn’t stopped Mr. Cuomo’s campaign staff from accusing Mr. Sliwa of “making a deal” to get Mr. Mamdani elected. Mr. Sliwa calls Mr. Cuomo a “pathological liar.”
Mr. Mamdani, meanwhile, started Monday with an early morning walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, carrying a banner that said, “Our time is now.” He released his final campaign ad set to the 1960s anthem of social change, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin.’” His closing vibe is more victory lap than struggle for every last vote.
The Mamdani campaign doesn’t respond to outlets it doesn’t like or thinks won’t give it favorable coverage. The New York Sun falls in that category. The Mamdani campaign is likely hoping for the state assemblyman to break 50 percent or to win by a large enough percentage to consider his victory a “mandate.”
Mr. Cuomo says the Democratic Party is fighting a “civil war” between moderates and a Democratic Socialist wing. If Mr. Mamdani wins in New York — and wins big — this may signal to progressives that their flank is winning. The adage, though, is, “As New York goes, so do the 5 boroughs.” Tuesday’s outcomes in the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races may portend a centrist future for the party.
The Republican Party in New York may also face a reckoning. If leaders in their party think their nominee has no shot at winning, why did they nominate him? And if New York City mayoral elections become multi-party contests, as in this year — a possible result of ranked choice primaries, public matching funds, and a leftward lurch of the Democratic Party — what will this mean for Republicans and Republican candidates in the city?
