Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 following a report that found he had sexually harassed multiple women, officially declared himself a candidate for mayor of New York City on Saturday, ending months of speculation about his potential candidacy.
Cuomo released a 17-minute video declaring his candidacy on Saturday on his website, newly rebranded as Cuomo for Mayor.
“We have had times when we are at our shining best, and there are times when we struggle and endure great hardship. But we also know we can handle a crisis because we have,” he said. “We recently did it together through COVID,” a pointed reference to his leadership of the state during the peak of the pandemic.
Cuomo went on to describe a city in turmoil, calling out the experience of seeing mentally ill homeless people, passing empty storefronts and encountering graffiti, the influx of migrants and random violence.
“The city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis,” he said.
Although Cuomo enters the race with considerable advantages, the former governor will have to overcome major stains on his reputation as he campaigns.
In addition to the sexual harassment finding that led to his resignation, he was accused of a cover-up of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19. And New York’s highest court recently validated a state ethics board that determined that Cuomo improperly used government staffers to help write a book about his response to the pandemic for which we received a $5.1 million advance.
Instant Frontrunner
Cuomo’s hotly anticipated entry into an already packed mayoral field dramatically reshapes the race’s dynamics. He has led multiple mayoral polls by double-digit margins even before his entry (although polling experts caution that early surveys should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism).
His formal announcement follows a steady drumbeat of political moves, endorsements and rumors surrounding his bid.
This past fall, he made a fiery speech at a Brooklyn church, railing against progressive Democrats. In January, he reportedly hired a major public relations firm, Mercury Public Affairs, where longtime Cuomo aide Charlie King is a partner, to gear up for a campaign.
In late February, the former governor picked up pre-endorsements, including Rep. Ritchie Torres in The Bronx and former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall — who Cuomo ran against for the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2002 — and the Carpenters Union.
Last Wednesday, supporters of the former governor registered a super PAC, Fix the City, with the State Board of Elections, with the reported goal of raising up to $15 million from deep-pocketed donors.
Cuomo, a formidable fundraiser, also has almost $8 million in the state campaign account he kept after his resignation. He could roll some of that money into his mayoral campaign account or transfer some to an independent expenditure committee like Fix the City — although city campaign rules limit how much and restrict coordination with super PACs.
Governor Cuomo holds a press conference about gun violence with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, July 14, 2021 . Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams, running for a second term while saddled with historically low approval ratings, has frequently dismissed polls showing Cuomo with a huge lead even before entering the race.
Adams this week compared Cuomo to Andrew Yang, who led the field for months in 2021 before fading in the race’s closing weeks.
“We’re not calling the mayor Andrew Yang. We’re calling the mayor Mayor Adams,” Adams said in an interview on Fox 5. “This is going to be a long, competitive race.”
The mayor is also still contending with a five-count federal corruption indictment even after his trial, scheduled to begin in April, was cancelled amid an ongoing effort by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to have the charges dropped. The judge presiding over his case recently appointed an outside counsel to examine the proposed dismissal before making a final decision.
Adams has repeatedly had his requests for public matching funds in the 2025 campaign denied, and he may have to pay back the $10 million he received in matching funds for his 2021 campaign, which the federal indictment alleges he obtained illegally.
The ranked-choice Democratic primary is on June 24, 2025, and only registered party members can cast a ballot in that race. (The deadline for changing party registration was earlier this month.)
Petitioning by candidates to get on the ballot officially began on Feb. 25 and runs through April 3.
Made in New York
Cuomo, 67, is the son of three-term New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who served from 1983 to 1994 and who ran for New York City mayor himself in 1977, losing to Ed Koch.
Andrew, born and raised in Queens, famously grew up helping run his father’s campaigns before serving as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Bill Clinton administration.
Mario and Andrew Cuomo are seen in an undated photo. Credit: Andrew Cuomo/X
When he challenged McCall in 2002, Cuomo had never held elected office, and his entry upset many Black voters in particular who felt the son of a governor wasn’t willing to wait his turn.
But Cuomo was then elected state attorney general in 2006. After Democratic incumbent Gov. David Paterson chose not to run after completing the term Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned during a prostitution scandal, Cuomo easily defeating Republican Carl Paladino to become governor in 2010.
His three terms were marked by some significant accomplishments, including the rebuilding of Penn Station and LaGuardia Airport, the construction of the first leg of the Second Avenue Subway and New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage and marijuana.
During his first term, a small group of state Senators broke away from the Democratic leadership to form the “Independent Democratic Conference” in 2011. The IDC, as it came to be called, teamed up with Republican lawmakers, ultimately weakening the Democrats even after the party won the Senate majority in the 2012 elections.
According to a report in Politico, Cuomo and his aides helped the IDC come together and empowered Republicans, so “he wouldn’t be handing over power to New York City Democrats.” The governor ultimately condemned the alliance during his 2014 reelection effort against progressive challenger Zephyr Teachout.
In 2013, Cuomo came under fire for a $140 million ad campaign that aimed to attract business to New York using funds earmarked for other purposes. This included $40 million from Hurricane Sandy relief and $50 million from the State Power Authority which was created to lower the cost of energy bills for residents.
That same year, Cuomo launched the Moreland Commission to investigate corruption following a series of scandals in the state legislature. But as the commission began issuing subpoenas, the governor’s office shut down inquiries that involved Cuomo himself. In less than a year, the initiative was shuttered, and Preet Bharara, the Manhattan U.S. attorney at the time, began investigating.
Still, the governor declared the commission a “phenomenal success.”
When New York City became the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in 2020, Cuomo’s daily briefings — intended as a counterpoint to President Trump’s often unhinged ones — earned him the moniker of “America’s Governor.”
Some super fans started calling themselves “Cuomosexuals,” purchasing tees and other merchandise as his national celebrity increased. At the time, he seemed on a path to win the fourth term voters had denied his father and was frequently talked about as a presidential contender.
‘America’s Governor’ Resigns
But by January of 2021, Cuomo’s reputation began unravelling when Attorney General Letitia James released a report finding that his administration had significantly undercounted the number of COVID deaths in nursing homes after he had ordered them to accept all medically stable people, including those with the virus.
The scandal widened when a top Cuomo aide, Melissa DeRosa, reportedly told Democratic lawmakers that the data had been withheld out of fear of becoming a target of the Trump administration.
One Democratic state lawmaker said Cuomo threatened his career if he did not toe the governor’s line amid the fallout. Following James’ report, the first Trump administration indeed began investigating Cuomo’s reporting of nursing home deaths.
As the nursing home scandal gained traction, a series of women, including multiple state employees, came forward in early 2021 accusing Cuomo of inappropriate sexual behavior. The accusations ranged from requests to play strip poker to inappropriate touching and kissing.
In August 2021, an investigation commissioned by James found Cuomo had harassed at least 11 women. The report led to widespread calls for him to step down, including from President Joe Biden and state legislators, who began taking steps toward impeachment.
A week after the report was released, Cuomo resigned, saying he was doing so for the good of the state even as he insisted that “the most serious allegations made against me had no credible factual basis in the report,” which he deemed a hit-job.
New York, NY – March 24, 2020: Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to media during daily briefing on COVID-19 pandemic at Jacob Javits Convention Center Credit: lev radin/Shutterstock
Cuomo apologized only for making women feel uncomfortable and attributed his behavior largely to shifting social norms over time. “There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have. No excuses.”
An investigation by the Biden Department of Justice confirmed the attorney general’s report and found that Cuomo had subjected 13 women to a “sexually hostile workplace environment.”
The investigation was resolved with a January 2024 settlement agreement with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was elevated into that position by Cuomo’s resignation, that included making workplace reforms at the state executive chamber.
As Cuomo has sought to raise his public profile and prepare for a political comeback since stepping down, he has remained adamant that he has not committed any wrongdoing. In December, he sued one female accuser for defamation after she withdrew her own case.
“Governor Cuomo did not make any sexual advances toward Bennett and did not sexually harass her,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing.
Since leaving office, Cuomo has kept an eye on making a successful political comeback. De Rosa, the top Cuomo aide, wrote in her 2023 book that her boss had considered running against Hochul to reclaim his old job in 2022 but declined in consideration of his family.
Last fall, he changed his voter registration back to New York City for the first time in decades.
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