Andrew Cuomo didn’t name Zohran Mamdani to congratulate him Tuesday night time, whereas Mamdani began his mayoral victory speech by slamming his vanquished opponent — two uncommon moments that capped off a deeply bitter and at occasions private feud between the 2 males that consumed the ultimate stretch of the race for Metropolis Corridor.
At a Wednesday morning press convention the place he introduced his transition staff management, Mamdani advised reporters he by no means heard from Cuomo after his win grew to become official round 9:45 p.m. It’s customary for the shedding candidate in a mayoral race to cellphone the winner to supply properly needs after the election has been referred to as.
Requested if that rubbed him the mistaken method, Mamdani mentioned he’s not specializing in “the candidates of this past election,” however famous he did get a concession name from Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral nominee who completed in third place.
“I spoke briefly with Curtis Sliwa, and then I headed to address the thousands of New Yorkers that were there waiting to hear of what this new era of government will look like,” Mamdani mentioned, including that “the first thing” he did after being elected mayor was to “drink some water.”
New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani broadcasts the members of his transition staff in entrance of the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Shawn Inglima/ New York Each day Information)
Requested why Cuomo didn’t give Mamdani the courtesy name, marketing campaign spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi didn’t immediately reply, however took a shot at what he noticed because the mayor-elect’s overly aggressive feedback concerning the ex-governor in his victory speech.
“I’ll let their respective speeches be the measuring stick for grace and leave it at that,” he mentioned.
In his raucous victory speech to a whole bunch of supporters at Brooklyn Paramount, Mamdani opened his remarks by declaring he wished Cuomo “only the best in private life.”
“But let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on the politics that abandon the many and answers only to the few,” he mentioned to deafening cheers.
Later within the speech, Mamdani additionally cribbed a line from a quote attributed to Cuomo’s late father, Gov. Mario Cuomo, telling supporters: “A great New Yorker once said, ‘While you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.’ If that must be true, let the prose we write still rhyme and let us build a shining city for all.”
In his concession speech in Midtown, Cuomo mentioned he wished to congratulate Mamdani, prompting his supporters to begin booing.
“That is not right, and that is not us,” Cuomo advised them, urging them to pipe down.
Andrew Cuomo concedes the mayoral election in a speech to his supporters at his election night time celebration on the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Each day Information)
That marked a shift in tone from weeks of Cuomo and his allies taking aggressive and private pictures at Mamdani.
In an particularly controversial second, Cuomo appeared on right-wing radio host Sid Rosenberg’s present final month and didn’t object when Rosenberg mentioned Mamdani, who’s set to grow to be town’s first Muslim mayor, could be “cheering” within the occasion of one other 9/11 terror assault on New York Metropolis. As a substitute, Cuomo mentioned, “That’s another problem.”
Professional-Cuomo tremendous PACs additionally pumped hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into adverts portray Mamdani as an excessive candidate with little expertise who would plunge town into chaos. Some echoed President Trump’s declare that Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is “a communist.”
“You have never had a job. You’ve never accomplished anything,” Cuomo advised Mamdani on the stage of the second and remaining mayoral debate final month.
The vitriol flowed each methods. Mamdani, whereas promising to create a extra reasonably priced New York, routinely slammed Cuomo as a “puppet” of Trump and of the rich.
Mamdani, who has served as an Meeting member representing Queens since 2021, is about to be sworn in Jan. 1 because the youngest mayor in over a century.
