When candidates enter a high-profile political race, they often announce their campaign with a short online video. It’s an opportunity to present themselves in the best possible light to voters and highlight the themes they are running on. Most candidates know to keep it short and leave people wanting to hear more. 

In this year’s mayoral race, City Comptroller Brad Lander’s gauzy launch video clocked in at two minutes and four seconds, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s battle cry for a more affordable city is one minute and 41 seconds. State Senator Jessica Ramos’ paean to progressive governance is one minute and 38 seconds. 

And then there’s former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He takes 17 minutes and 27 seconds to celebrate himself. A little over 12 minutes into the video, he briefly adopts a contrite tone and acknowledges he made “mistakes” in the past, promising to do better. 

Cuomo never says what he is sort of apologizing for. Is it the thousands of deaths caused by his decision to send COVID-19 patients back to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic? The sexual harassment claims by nearly a dozen women? The pay-to-play scandals that sent some of his closest aides to prison? 

Since he can’t change his record in office, what has Cuomo done during his years of political exile to show he has turned a new leaf? Here are some quick highlights, or lowlights, if you will: 

• Spent more than $60 million in New York taxpayer money on his legal fees, according to a recent report by the New York state comptroller.
  
• Used the discovery process in a civil lawsuit to demand that one of his accusers, Charlotte Bennett, hand over her gynecological records. Bennett withdrew her claim against Cuomo rather than endure further legal harassment from him.
  
• Sought to dismantle the state ethics commission that has been investigating a $5.1 million book deal Cuomo signed during the pandemic. In a 4–3 split decision, New York’s highest court ruled against Cuomo.
  
• Joined the legal team defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November 2024 after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza. 

None of this seems to matter to the roughly one-third of registered Democrats who consistently support Cuomo in the polls and have made him the frontrunner in the June 24 Democratic primary, where eight other candidates are each trailing him by 20 points or more. 

So what is the source of Cuomo’s enduring appeal? For some, it’s the memories of the daily press conferences he held during the early months of the pandemic when his reassuring, fatherly tone posed a stark contrast to Trump’s unhinged incompetence. For others, it’s the notion that he “gets things done.” For some older voters, there’s the name that he shares with his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo.

It’s a New York Thing

Cuomo has mastered the aesthetic of authority, which is a nice way of saying that he is an overhyped product of New York City’s political and media culture — just like Donald Trump, Eric Adams and Rudy Giuliani before him. It’s a culture that elevates attitude over aptitude and swagger over substance, that substitutes the ability to posture over real achievement. A culture that turns a failed-businessman-turned-grifter into a one-of-a-kind tycoon, a clueless former cop into a mayor, and the failson of a former governor into a model of rational, super-competent leadership even when history suggests otherwise. 

New York is a city of strivers who pride themselves on shrugging off adversity and pushing forward. The likes of Cuomo, Adams and Trump try to seduce us when they adopt a “New York tough” persona. We pay a high price for welcoming their flattery. 

Like Trump, Cuomo is deeply damaged. They are both heirs to family dynasties, one in business and the other in politics. Their fathers were workaholics — powerful, emotionally distant men from mid-20th-century America whose approval they will forever be seeking and whom they are forever seeking to surpass. Like Trump, Cuomo must control everything and everyone in his world. Like Trump, Cuomo’s mistakes are always someone else’s fault. Like Trump, he has a penchant for victimizing women. And like Trump, he governs with the concerns of the billionaire class foremost in his mind. 

Unlike Trump, Cuomo is hard-working and highly intelligent. However, his unwillingness to listen to others has often led to bad outcomes, as we saw with the nursing home scandal. 

There are likely hundreds, perhaps thousands, of New Yorkers who voted to re-elect Cuomo in 2018 because of his “experience” and who later died due to his negligence during the pandemic. 

Cuomo’s Strategy

If his record is poor at best, Cuomo has perfected the art of his own political advancement. As governor, he took Albany corruption to the next level, creating a pay-to-play paradise for the wealthy and the well-connected. Cuomo in turn raised tens of millions of dollars and massively outspend his opponents. He will try to do the same in this race. Other candidates will trek across the city to one civic forum after another to debate each other. Cuomo will seek to dominate the airwaves. 

“Andrew Cuomo is running for Eric Adams’ second term: the same donors, the same agenda, the same chaos,” tweeted Zohran Mamdani, the socialist Assemblymember from Queens whose burgeoning campaign is threatening to emerge as the progressive frontrunner in the race. 

The Democratic primary is on June 24. There are many better options out there besides Cuomo. But over these next three months, can New Yorkers resist falling once again for a swaggering leader who doesn’t give a damn about them?

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