Andrew Cuomo's Long Goodbye

"Cuomo was nineteen when he helped manage his father's doomed mayoral campaign against Ed Koch, in 1977. He was not yet forty when Bill Clinton named him the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 1997. When Cuomo was elected governor, in 2010, all of this early experience helped him consolidate his power and rule New York, for eleven years, as one of the most consequential governors in state history."

"By the time he resigned, in 2021, amid credible and documented accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power, he had been inflicting his forceful, recalcitrant politicking upon New York for nearly half a century. In his run for mayor this year, Cuomo's line has been that Mamdani, a thirty-four-year-old socialist who is running fourteen points ahead of him, "hasn't accomplished anything." "He's never had a real job," Cuomo shouted repeatedly on Wednesday night, at the final mayoral debate."

"During his six months of campaigning, Cuomo has tried to hold himself forward as an exemplar of battle-tested leadership. In truth, he has looked fed up and exhausted, the deepening lines on his face tensing with old resentments and bad impulses. He garbles Mamdani's name in debates and interviews. He is dismissive and evasive when asked about the women who accused him of harassment."

Andrew Cuomo began his political career as a teenager and rose to prominent federal and state positions, including HUD secretary and a long governorship beginning in 2010. Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid credible, documented accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power. He is now running for New York City mayor and has attacked thirty-four-year-old Zohran Mamdani for youth and inexperience, calling him inexperienced and without a 'real job.' During the campaign Cuomo has appeared tired, has garbled Mamdani's name, been evasive about accusations against him, and used increasingly erratic attacks despite Mamdani leading and defeating him in the primary.

Read at The New Yorker