Although I don’t put much stock in polls, they all point to the same conclusion: Mayor Adams and Curtis Sliwa cannot win this race. Since July, I have been warning that Zohran Mamdani’s radical agenda would destroy this city. He is anti-cop and anti-business. His “free everything” policies are economic fantasy. His hostility toward Israeli businesses is flatly antisemitic. And with so many names on the ballot, he is poised to win.
That’s why I made the painful decision to terminate my own campaign. Even though I went to court to have my name removed from the ballot, I lost, and now I am in the rare position of urging voters not to vote for me. I did so to show leadership, to prove that sometimes values matter more than ambition. My decision to endorse is not about party loyalty but about responsibility in a flawed system. It reflects principle, not party; I owe no obligation to either side. It’s not about agreeing on every issue, but about uniting when the math and the stakes are clear. This is what unity in a fractured democracy requires. And it carries national resonance: a signal moment for independents, the fastest-growing bloc in American politics, on what responsibility looks like in 2025.
Now it’s time for others to step up.
Mamdani is a gateway to extremism in New York: defunding police, abolishing prisons, sympathizing with terrorists, weighing into international disputes, over-regulation, identity politics, and a radical leftist economic policy. He has openly called for building committees of socialists in office to resist “corruption” from moderating influences of fellow electeds. Even I, as an independent centrist, have seen through his doublespeak. Most New Yorkers agree. But the only way he’ll win, with a minority of voters, is if centrist votes are split.
Make no mistake: this is not just a New York story. If Mamdani becomes mayor, it will be a national one. Trump is already calling the radical left sick and dangerous and vowing to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. A Mamdani victory would hand him his perfect poster child. New York City would become ground zero in the culture war, with consequences that stretch far beyond the five boroughs.
And that is why today, I am endorsing Andrew Cuomo for mayor. Despite his baggage, he is the only candidate with a path to victory and the strength to stop Mamdani. Cuomo plans to restore public safety by putting 5,000 more officers on patrol, strengthening transit policing, and clearing court backlogs so repeat offenders stop cycling back onto the streets.
He also has a credible plan to confront the housing crisis: expand affordable supply, protect tenants, and convert empty office and hotel buildings into apartments. These are real solutions, grounded in experience, not the empty promises of an inexperienced Zohran Mamdani, who has never managed a city budget, overseen a police force, or built a single unit of housing.
New York cannot afford experiments. It needs competence, experience, and a leader who can deliver results on day one. Cuomo has done it before, and he can do it again.
Uniting in support of one candidate, Andrew Cuomo, is the only way to save New York from extremism, and prevent the city from becoming a cautionary tale for the entire country.
Mayor Adams and Curtis Sliwa have run spirited campaigns. They have earned respect. But the time has come. For the love of this city, they must step aside.