Andrew Cuomo Is Betting on Jewish Voters. But Do They Want Him as the Next Mayor?

Even by the madcap standards of New York City mayoral races, the 2025 campaign for City Hall looks like a doozy. The election’s most unanticipated elements are the surprise surges of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo—who survived short-lived political exile to become the race’s frontrunner—and his chief rival, Queens socialist and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.

One of Cuomo’s big bets is on Jewish voters. Anti-Semitism, Cuomo declared in early April, is his campaign’s “most important issue . . . the toughest issue facing the city of New York and the country.” He’s made fighting the city’s anti-Semitic outbreak central to his tough-guy persona—and used it to present himself as the ideal foil to Mamdani, an outspoken opponent of Zionism.

Though Mamdani is trying to connect with Jewish voters—including making an appearance at an annual breakfast event hosted by the Orthodox-heavy Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush, in Brooklyn—he has a long road ahead of him in that effort. Mamdani has called Israel’s war with Hamas a “genocide,” and he protested with other Democratic Socialists in anti-Israel rallies just after Hamas’ October 7 massacre. He has taken part in a hunger strike—alongside celebrity activist Cynthia Nixon—in support of a Gaza ceasefire. And he introduced a bill that would make it harder to donate to charities that support West Bank settlements, part of his well-documented support of the odious Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

When it comes to the Jews, Mamdani also has questionable taste in allies. The mayoral hopeful recently called it “an honor” to meet with Rev. Al Sharpton, instigator of the infamous Crown Heights riots. And late last month he earned the endorsement of French Communist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has a long history of playing footsie with anti-Semites.

Mamdani isn’t the only target of Cuomo’s anti-anti-Semitism campaign. The former governor has also taken aim at New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a past Democratic Socialists of America member (and Jew) also running for mayor. In early April, Cuomo accused Lander of various anti-Israel transgressions, including “divest[ing NYC pension funds] from Israel Bonds for the first time in 50 years,” and suggested that Lander is aligned with the notoriously anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America. Lander’s response to Cuomo—delivered in both Yiddish and English—was “get the f-ck out of here . . . Andrew Cuomo doesn’t get to tell me how to be Jewish.”

Though Jews make up just 12 percent of New York City’s population, they’re overwhelmingly Democrats in a city where Democratic mayoral primaries almost always determine the final winner. With Mayor Eric Adams now running as an Independent, and Cuomo elevating anti-Semitism to star billing, Jewish issues could play a big role in the mayoral primary.

The tensions around these issues could extend beyond New York to other progressive-led cities, too. In Chicago, for instance, Mayor Brandon Johnson was blasted by Jewish groups for failing immediately to call an October shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man a “hate crime.” Six months later, Johnson is one of four big-city mayors called to a meeting with a Trump-appointed federal task force tackling anti-Semitism on college campuses.

The taskforce will also spend time with Boston mayor Michelle Wu, a progressive urban leader pursuing reelection this fall. Though anti-Semitism has not shaken Boston as it has New York, Jewish issues may soon figure in local politics: Wu’s main rival, Josh Kraft, is the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Both father and son have long supported pro-Israel and pro-Jewish causes. The elder Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, in fact, produced the pair of multimillion-dollar anti-hate campaigns that ran during the past two Super Bowls—the most recent featuring appearances by celebrities like Tom Brady and Snoop Dog.

The emergence of Sharona Nazarian—the new Iranian-Jewish, pro-Israel mayor of Beverly Hills—meanwhile, could also heighten the importance of Jewish issues in Los Angeles. L.A. mayor Karen Bass has been accused of failing to protect Jewish residents. Bass, like Johnson, will be interviewed by the Trump federal task force. Having already established a rocky relationship with Trump following last fall’s wildfire disaster, Bass’s anti-Semitism grilling could prove consequential.

The fourth mayor targeted by the Trump task force is Eric Adams himself, though he is almost universally considered a strong ally of Jews and Israel. From an electoral standpoint, however, Adams’s most serious liability could be his association with Trump—a connection that might be even more toxic to New York Jewish voters than Mamdani’s unsavory friends.

Eight weeks remain before New York’s Democratic primary, but the November mayoral race already looks like a showdown between Cuomo and Adams. Mamdani is likely too far left for a city increasingly weary of the insecurity and disorder many attribute to progressive-led legal reforms. Still, the Trump factor could test some Gotham centrists, who might come to see Mamdani as the only effective check on White House overreach.

Cuomo may be betting that support for Israel and opposition to anti-Semitism are winning issues in New York politics—but time will tell whether voters’ antipathy toward the president outweighs everything else.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images