On Thursday, seven candidates squared off in the second of two debates before New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. As with the first debate, former governor Andrew Cuomo bore the brunt of criticism, but this time far more of it came from a newly energized third-place contender—City Comptroller Brad Lander.
In the eight days between the two debates, riots erupted in cities across the country in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Zohran Mamdani, who has quietly benefited from the city’s improving public-safety situation, has centered his campaign almost entirely on affordability, not crime. But the nationwide unrest is pushing him onto unfamiliar ground: the 33-year-old assemblyman lacks executive experience or a track record that might reassure voters he could lead the city through turbulent times.
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Cuomo seized on the riots to highlight his rival’s greatest weakness, calling the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty “reckless and dangerous.” Mamdani shot back that he had “never had to resign in disgrace” and recited a litany of Cuomo’s past sins—but he offered no real rebuttal to Cuomo’s argument.
By contrast, Cuomo brandished his dealings with Donald Trump during his tenure as governor in the chaotic summer of 2020. He boasted that President Trump never sent the National Guard to New York during the city’s rioting after the killing of George Floyd “because he didn’t want to deal with me.” Cuomo again portrayed himself as a bulwark against a menacing president, saying, “Donald Trump only picks fights that he can win. He cannot win a fight with me as mayor of New York.”
Another difference in the second debate came from the New York Times. Last year, the Times’s editorial board announced that it would no longer make endorsements in mayoral or gubernatorial races. Instead, it asked 15 New Yorkers from various fields and industries—including Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam—about their views and preferred candidates. A near majority of seven selected Lander as their top choice, putting wind in the comptroller’s sails before the debate.
Lander, energized by the New York Times panel, teamed up with Mamdani to go on the offensive against Cuomo. The duo hammered the former governor over alleged corruption, sexual harassment, ties to billionaire donors who also backed Trump, and more. Mamdani repeatedly criticized Cuomo for mispronouncing his surname, casting it as racially insensitive.
At times, the moderators fueled the pile-on. After asking Cuomo about the sexual harassment allegations that led to his 2021 resignation, moderator Katie Honan invited the other candidates to “chime in”—prompting laughter from the audience. Lander seized the moment: “Everybody here knows that you sexually harassed women, that you created a toxic work environment,” he said, then repeatedly interrupted as Cuomo tried to respond.
Another striking moment came during the “cross-examination” segment. Lander ceded his time to audience member Peter Arbeeny, whose father reportedly died of Covid in a nursing home after Cuomo’s administration ordered Covid-positive patients back into such facilities. But Cuomo came prepared, citing the facts of Arbeeny’s unsuccessful lawsuit against the state. He noted that no Covid-positive patients had been sent to the nursing home where Arbeeny’s father died—though he added, “I’m very, very sorry for your loss.”
Mamdani, who had taken heat in the first debate for failing to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, turned the tables by accusing Cuomo of Islamophobia. Moderator Errol Louis initiated the exchange by pressing Cuomo on his apparent failure to visit a mosque. As Cuomo began, in his words, to “correct the record,” Louis pointed out that the same issue had come up during Cuomo’s 2018 campaign—yet he had still, reportedly, never made such a visit.
Even if unintentional, Louis’s question effectively set up a false equivalency between the threats faced by Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers. Anti-Semitic incidents have risen sharply in the city since Hamas’s October 7 attack. Jews were the target of 54 percent of hate crimes in 2024, more than all other minority groups combined.
This framing created a dynamic where candidates focused more on Muslim outreach than on the topic nominally at hand—anti-Semitism. Mamdani largely sidestepped the issue, speaking about nonviolence and affordability before zeroing in on Cuomo’s perceived indifference to Muslims: “The reason [Cuomo] doesn’t have a message for Muslim New Yorkers is because he has nothing to say to us.” Lander, after pledging to “fight like hell” to keep New York a haven for Jews, noted that he had visited a Bronx mosque for the Eid holiday. State Senator Zellnor Myrie and former comptroller Scott Stringer also used their time to emphasize outreach to Muslims.
Cuomo did as well as anyone could expect under two hours of withering fire. He hit back at Lander’s fiscal management of the migrant crisis, equating the comptroller with “the bookkeeper at Tammany Hall.” And he reminded voters that executive experience matters in times of civil unrest. He also won support from pragmatic financier Whitney Tilson, who, when asked whom he would rank second, answered: Cuomo.
The Cuomo-Mamdani-Lander melee deprived the less viable contenders of oxygen. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Myrie, and Stringer struggled to deliver memorable moments. Adams, the only remaining female candidate, cleverly asked Mamdani if he believed she was less qualified than he, despite her greater experience—an appeal to Mamdani’s women supporters.
Following the debate, Mamdani and Lander solidified their alliance by cross-endorsing each other and urging their respective voters to rank the other candidate second. After spending months moderating many of his progressive stances, such as defunding the police, Lander’s support for Mamdani suggests that, at core, he remains firmly on the left. Mamdani stands to benefit far more than Lander, as the comptroller has a base of Manhattan voters who care about competence and experience, making many of them likely Cuomo supporters. But Lander is running out of time; the cross-endorsement seems a desperation play.
Mamdani’s campaign also suffered a blow this morning, when the New York Times editorial board dealt the neophyte socialist a devastating rebuke. “We do not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots. His experience is too thin, and his agenda reads like a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio’s dismaying mayoralty,” wrote the board.
With the primary just eight days away and early voting underway, the Cuomo vs. Mamdani-Lander race has reached full boil.
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