NYC Mayor: A Complex and Disappointing Democratic Primary
Who should registered Democrats in NYC vote for?
Either Andrew Cuomo or Zohran Mamdani will win the Democratic Primary for NYC Mayor, that much is clear. Early voting just started today.
Under no circumstances can TEACHERS FOR CHOICE support Mamdani. He plainly told all fired unvaccinated workers to go to hell, and he will mandate vaccines on NYC workers again if he is told to do so by “public health experts.” Former NYPD Lieutenant John Macari was the one who got Mamdani on the record about this issue when he interviewed him on the Finest Unfiltered Podcast.
Watch Mamdani tell us to go to hell in the following clip:
We cannot explicitly support Andrew Cuomo either.
Cuomo has refused to go on record at all regarding fired unvaccinated NYC workers. Last month, I had the honor of meeting with Frank Seddio - one of the most powerful Democrats in NYC - who is backing Cuomo. I pitched Reinstate-&-Compensate to him and it was well received. But no word back from Cuomo or his campaign.
In addition, Cuomo is the guy who repealed the religious exemption to vaccination for kids to attend school when he was Governor. His handling of COVID was atrocious, he oversaw the COVID nursing home debacle that killed over 15,000 seniors, and he was fully supportive of forced vaccine mandates for all New Yorkers before he was forced to resign in shame and disgrace as Governor.
So what to do in this mayoral primary?
Shout out to Paperboy Prince!
Two weeks ago TEACHERS FOR CHOICE announced we could not endorse any Democrat in the NYC mayoral primary because none of the candidates spoke to our issues for fired unvaccinated NYC workers:
Teachers for Choice Endorses NO DEMOCRAT for NYC Mayor
It is really pathetic that with ten candidates running in the Democratic Primary for Mayor of NYC not one of them engaged TEACHERS FOR CHOICE in any meaningful way on our issues. But that is the sad reality.
When we made this announcement, Paperboy Prince replied to us on X saying we never engaged him. This was a mistake on our part, as I had thought Prince was an independent candidate, not a Democrat.
Paperboy Prince fully supports reinstate and compensate. In fact he does not support Resolution 5 in City Council, the Let Us Work Resolution, because it does not include backpay for fired unvaccinated workers. Paperboy Prince told me too many of his friends were devastated by the vaccine mandate and he feels strongly that they (we) deserve to be fully compensated with backpay.
Any NYC Democrat who feels they need to put their vote towards someone with integrity who supports fired unvaccinated workers should vote for Paperboy Prince in the primary, or at least rank him as your second pick.
But Paperboy Prince is not in a position to actually win the Democratic primary for mayor in NYC, so we need to fully dissect what the possible outcomes of this election could be.
If Cuomo Wins
If Andrew Cuomo wins the primary, this means there will be a 5 man race for mayor in the general election:
Andrew Cuomo - Democrat
Curtis Sliwa - Republican
Eric Adams - Independent
Jim Walden - Independent
Zohran Mamdani - Working Families Party (WFP)
WFP has already sworn they will not endorse Cuomo or Adams, so obviously Mamdani will be their pick.
In this situation, Curtis Sliwa becomes a viable candidate to win the general election. When Sliwa ran against Eric Adams 4 years ago, he obtained nearly 30% of the vote. If that same base of support comes out for Sliwa again, he only needs a few more points to be in a position to defeat his four competitors.
If Mamdani Wins
If Zohran Mamdani wins, there will be a 4 man race for mayor in the general election:
Zohran Mamdani - Democrat and WFP
Curtis Sliwa - Republican
Eric Adams - Independent
Jim Walden - Independent
In this scenario, retired NYPD Lt. John Macari believes Eric Adams jumps to the front of the race and becomes a viable candidate once again. According to Macari, the national conservative media and local NYC media are already showing signs of supporting Adams. Macari has even called Adams the “Trump-backed candidate” and he may be correct about that. Many people in DC privately seem very favorable to Adams remaining the Mayor of NYC.
If this analysis is correct, the viability of Sliwa drops drastically in the 4-man scenario, as voters who would have voted for Sliwa if Cuomo was the Democratic nominee would be pushed by the media and fear of a Mamdani victory to support the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams.
So what does this all mean?
Many registered Democrats are going to be holding their noses and voting for Cuomo in this primary as the lesser evil compared to Mamdani. Some will be doing this even if they don’t intend to vote for him in the general election com November. TEACHERS FOR CHOICE will not be endorsing Cuomo, but we do understand the logic of those who are making this very difficult decision.
Democrats of NYC, the choice is yours…