Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary to Zohran Mamdani as the 33-year old member of the state Assembly had a significant lead in the race Tuesday night.
Cuomo’s concession came as the race’s outcome will be decided by a ranked choice count after neither Democrat got a clear majority in the vote.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist member of the state Assembly, started to pull ahead with more than an estimated 80% of ballots counted.
FIRST ROUND KNOCKOUT! 🤛
Incredible result for him and NY, and I hope this signs the death knell of Cuomo’s career. Step off, creeper.
As non american I just discovered Mamdani and he seems like a legit dude who cares and has the energy to match. Wishing luck to New York friends here!
Some good news for the week.
he was already the poisoned fruit, no need to push.
Sure would be nice if this is a sign of things to come
Mamdani destroyed Cuomo in the first round of RCV, when it was expected to be much closer. This gives me a hesitant hope that nationally the voters want real change within the Democratic party. Let’s just hope this isn’t a fluke, and the technofascists have really awoken a huge progressive voting bloc.
Fingers crossed, but give us rank choice voting or I fear the progressive bloc will not be obvious
That’s why there’s such fervent pushback against any RCV proposals across the country (from both sides of the duopoly). Many places have already outlawed it because they see it would actually affect real change, and they just can’t have a challenge to their financial streams and power.
The squad was born in the original Trump administration so it shouldn’t be that surprising to see a return of these kinds of progressive candidates.
This is why ranked choice has been banned in a lot of places. It breaks the duopoly.
The election here was the Democratic primary. It didn’t cut the Democrats out of the loop.
TBF it’s possible that RCV created an incentive for Democrats to nominate a better candidate. They’re smarter than they look.
I suspect that a party that ran a ranked choice primary to select a candidate for a FPTP election would have an advantage over an opposing party that didn’t. I haven’t got the math or statistics to back it up, but everything I’ve read about ranked choice discouraging scorched earth politics sounds like it would be healthy in a primary.
Democrats hate progressives. The two would be separate parties in a sensible democracy, but in the legacy first-past-the-post American system, splitting the party while Republicans exist is political suicide. There are more progressives than center Democrats, but they are not as united as the core establishment Democrats are, which made any one of them irrelevant in primaries up to now. RCV has given them a real chance for the first time. For example by giving Lander votes to Mamdani in the instant runoff. The moment RCV got implemented, long-serving Democrats started suddenly getting kicked out in the primaries. This terrifies them, so Democrats will continue to fight against RCV in the future. Just look how both Cuomo and Adams will try to commit political murder-suicide now by running as independent in the general just so that the “official Democratic party nominee” would not win.
At least RCV is a single and measurable cause to ralley around. I feel like public pressure tends to be more effective when focused on causes such as these.
Democrats hate progressives
Democrats hate socialists. Their job is to ensure that the leftward fringe of the party, and of acceptable mainstream discourse, never moves past progressive/social democracy. The Democratic Party serves capital by ensuring a neutered American left
Hopefully this can be changed
They’re acting as close to a controlled opposition as ever before.
Democratic Voters don’t hate progressives, its the rich doners that hate progressives so they spend millions to fund the status quo candidates to keep thenselves rich.
Ha ha, whoops I should read the articles.
Let’s fucking goooooo
Holy shit! It happened! I’m elated.
Edit: Congrats New Yorkers!
I’m honestly surprised Mamdani is still alive in the US, given his name.
It’s like hearing about a mayor in a town in Nazi Germany named Abram Mankowitz.
NYC is easily the most diverse and integrated major city in the country. That kind of rhetoric doesn’t apply to the majority of NYC.
“Nearly a quarter of early voters had not voted in a Democratic primary at any point between 2012 and 2024.”
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-primary-results-2025-election
Here you go folks- GET INVOLVED! Go vote! Every single election, especially primaries.
Alternately: people actually fucking vote when you give them something, anything, to vote for!
Guessing there will be a new appointment announced soon
Thank fuck
Hopefully he wins the general
Adams doesn’t stand a chance
Wtf happened to Adams? Sure, he was under criminal corruption indictments, then cozied up to Trump and got “pardoned” (charges dismissed). But then he was supposed to be on the Democratic primary ballot, his picture was even in the official voter guide from a month ago, but on election day his name wasn’t even in the list? Now he’s apparently running as independent incumbent instead? What a booger!
EDIT: Both Cuomo and Adams are intending to run as independent in the general? WhyTF do we even have primaries then! If they are not going to play by their own rules of their special little club, let’s just extend Ranked Choice Voting to cover the general and scrap the primaries altogether!
This is the dream of ranked choice. The more candidates the better.
Don’t understand why it wasn’t done this way in the first place. RCV was approved as a New York City Charter amendment by a voter initiative in 2019, but only applies to primary city elections, not general. You’d think procedurally it would be easier to justify altering the general election process that the Constitution actually applies to, rather than what is technically internal business of independent private organizations (the Democratic and the Republican parties).
I don’t realize it wouldn’t be in the main election. If so, then Cuomo better not run… Maybe they do it like this as a stepping stone. Get everybody used to the process in the primaries before rolling it out to the main.
centrists are still the wing of puma pac.
And they had the temerity to say “no matter who” for three fucking election cycles.
WhyTF do we even have primaries then! If they are not going to play by their own rules of their special little club, let’s just extend Ranked Choice Voting to cover the general and scrap the primaries altogether!
Because the US doesn’t really have a true democracy. It’s always going to be weighted against the actual interests of the people. The more success candidates the Zohran have, the more the established politicians will stack the deck against them. The good thing is that the more the game is rigged the more obvious it all becomes.
The article says Adams is running as an independent, and that Cuomo has the option and is looking into it! It’s not decided.
He’s probably trying to save face; he’s on record in May saying he’s running no matter the result of the primary.
WhyTF do we even have primaries then!
So progressives don’t get any ideas. As I said elsewhere in the thread: I better not hear another liberal saying we can’t split the vote again.
As I said elsewhere in the thread: I better not hear another liberal saying we can’t split the vote again.
Do you actually understand the difference between FPTP and ranked choice?
They’re talking about the general election, which is FPTP, and losing primary moderates refusing the result and trying again in the general.
Do you actually understand the voting process you’re commenting on?
The NYC general is FPTP, and Cuomo is running anyway despite having lost the primary. Neither me nor the other person are criticizing anyone for running in the primary.
I assume you mean in reference to the general last year? I raged against the way the left brought disaster upon the Palestinians despite their best intentions. This outcome, however, is exactly what I argued the left should be doing: fight FOR the left in primaries, vote AGAINST fascists in the general. You are damn close to sham elections as it is, giving the facisits any opportunity to shut down democracy is self defeating.
fight FOR the left in primaries, vote AGAINST fascists in the general
That’s how it should have worked, except that in the 2024 Democratic Presidential primary, when Biden was the only name on the ballot, we were STILL told to vote for him and only him or we’d be supporting Trump. In the primary! Voters in Michigan tried to campaign for “uncommitted” option in protest of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and how the administration was ignoring it, and they were crucified by establishment Democrats. Even Bernie Sanders distanced himself from the protest vote, saying to vote Biden no matter what. In the primaries!
The way Democrats run primaries is shameful, no denying it. But the only way to change the dems is to get actively involved, push for RCV, start grass roots, and, yes, vote for the good guy in the primary.
and, yes, vote for the good guy in the primary.
when the party deigns to have them.
I assume you mean in reference to the general last year?
That’s the most recent example, yes, but you get this spiel whenever you suggest going against the party in anything beyond local elections.
I raged against the way the left brought disaster upon the Palestinians despite their best intentions.
Where are you getting the idea that it was the left that let Trump win? Democrat non-voters were for the most part moderates.
fight FOR the left in primaries, vote AGAINST fascists in the general.
The whole point of this mantra is to not split the anti-fascist vote. And what are the Democrats doing now after not getting their way? Ignore the primary and split the anti-fascist vote. The whole point of not splitting the vote is defeated when the liberals then decide to split the vote. I’m also very much not convinced that a vote for Democrats is a vote against fascism given that they just voted not to impeach Trump.
Where are you getting the idea that it was the left that let Trump win? Democrat non-voters were for the most part moderates.
no centrist has ever cared. they don’t want to move to the left under any circumstances, so they blame the left every time their unpopular policies, refusal to represent anyone but themselves, cowardice, and complicity lose them elections.
The fact that Clinton endorsed Cuomo is the cherry on top.
When do you think they’ll realize their name is poisonous? Or would that require more introspection than a Clinton is even capable of?
I’m suspicious that sociopaths are a parasitic subspecies. Like there are these alien creatures that look entirely human walking around among us. They look like us, talk like us, but think that the general human species is inferior to their own.
What if they could identify other sociopaths, and were working in concert. Hmm, this is ridiculous.
Anyway, yeah. I don’t think Clinton is capable of that level of introspection.
I’m suspicious that sociopaths are a parasitic subspecies.
That’s an interesting perspective. I wouldn’t go so far as to dehumanise them, though. I think they’re just another type of human — that’s particularly well adapted at fucking shit up in such a way that they, and potentially their ingroup, come out on top.
It’s a highly unfortunate type of person of course and a very likely cause for the premature death of our biosphere if it comes to that.
Evolution - at a species level or a societal level - has no “guiding hand”. It throws shit at a wall to see what sticks, and the best-adapted variants tend to propagate.
Selfish behavior is very powerful in a large and strong society where most people are producing more value than they’re consuming. There’s so much wealth to be found that if you don’t care about the enemies you make, you can just jump from victim to victim as you amass power faster tab the people you leave behind. The problem is, this drives the society towards no longer being one of such surplus.
In a smaller society where people are largely just surviving, selfish behavior will cripple your own ability to survive. If everybody has only a modest surplus, they only want to share it with people they can trust to return the favor when they’re the one in need. If you make enemies with everyone in a small community, you’re going to have a hard time finding community support.
Let’s see if Chelsea runs.
Oh this news made me smile. Let’s go NYC!
I mean, yay, but…
an estimated 80% of ballots counted.
That’s just the first round, right? Does he not understand how RCV works? Unless his team already knows who everyone’s second and third choices are, it’s not remotely over yet. What am I missing?
There were a lot of “Don’t rank cuomo” chants and fliers around the city. That’s not data, but I wouldn’t be surprised if few people had him as lower ranked choices.
He must have had polling or results that showed he wasn’t picked high enough on enough ballots to win
From https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/24/mayoral-election-first-round-results-cuomo-mamdani/:
In this ranked-choice primary election, Lander cross-endorsed Mamdani as his number-two pick, meaning that many voters who selected Lander are likely to send additional votes to Mamdani in the final tally.
So I’m guessing Cuomo didn’t think round two was going to do him any favors.
A historically massive over performance of the polls and how the candidate (Lander) who is third on the first round is also a progressive
Few polls had Zohran winning. Even the polling that had Zohran winning had him losing the first round vote by a fair amount and only flipping to win in the 7th round. No polling had him winning the 1st round. He’s just won the first round by like 7% of the vote. He’s not far from 50% of the vote outright on round one
We won’t have the official results from the later ranked choice rounds until July 1st, but just ~60% of Lander’s #2 votes alone would push him above 50% even if all candidates below Lander went 100% Cuomo for #2. Lander cross endorsed Zohran and told his supporters to rank Zohran #2
He saw the writing on the wall and decided to make a strategic exit. A definitive defeat now would permanently end his career as a politician, but by conceding he leaves the door open to possible future efforts like a presidential bid.
A definitive defeat now would permanently end his career as a politician
Based on the results reported that’s already in the bag. There’s no doubt he can’t govern with what his current support looks like.
He’s not going to avoid the definitive defeat, the votes are still going to be counter, he’s just not holding out to the bitter end refusing to recognize reality. That might help make the final tally a less interesting news story.
Cuomo was projected to be ahead after the first round. The election was going to be a question of whether or not Mamdani’s certain gains in subsequent rounds would be enough to catch up. Mamdani being so far ahead after the first round meant Cuomo was done.
If the sexual predators coalition had won this thing the party might have collapsed. So this is good for the party and the city.
I saw this somewhere else, but if Cuomo tries to run in the general election as an independent, Mamdani’s line should be: “Cuomo: no means no”.
It is unfair to reduce them to that. They are also staunch supporters of genocide and imperialism.
