From the subway to social media, NYC mayoral candidates make their closing arguments to voters

NEW YORK (AP) – In his final ad of the New York City mayoral race, Andrew Cuomo opens on a dour note: “Life in New York is tough right now.”

Then comes a dig at Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who the former governor has argued is too inexperienced to lead the city: “Candidates who need on-the-job training can’t fix it,” he says.

In their last days on the campaign trail before Election Day on Tuesday, Cuomo, Mamdani and Republican Curtis Sliwa are offering their closing arguments to voters.

For Cuomo, 67, it’s a message that voters must stop Mamdani from leading the city into ruin, casting himself as the only one who can keep the city safe and move it forward.

Meanwhile, Mamdani is trying to keep riding the wave of progressive excitement that carried him to victory in June’s primary – while weathering the final barrage of attacks from Cuomo and other critics wary of giving a 34-year-old democratic socialist the reins to America’s biggest city.

With early voting concluding Sunday, he’s shaking hands with everyone form social media influencers to airport taxi drivers as he urges his supporters not to grow complacent. “People say ‘We got this. It’s over. Cuomo is cooked,'” he says in one of his many popular online videos. “Do not believe it.”

And Sliwa is running an aggressive ground-level campaign of his own, hitting the city’s subways and streets with his public safety-focused pitch and a warning that his Democratic opponents are “two sides of the same coin.”

Cuomo, a Democrat on the ballot as an independent, has spent the final stretch working to convince Republicans he is a more viable candidate than Sliwa.

He has met with Jewish and Muslim leaders. There have been an array of media hits on traditional news channels but also appearances on shows hosted by YouTuber-turned-boxer-turned-pro wrestler Logan Paul as well as Stephen A. Smith, a commentator on sports and politics.

Much of the former governor’s pitch has been marked by dark warnings of social and economic collapse if Mamdani were to win, along with assurances that his record as governor makes him a more suitable choice.

In an interview this week on Fox Business, Cuomo said Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent but grew up in New York City, “doesn’t understand the New York culture.”

“Republicans, there are two choices, me or Mamdani. Don’t waste your vote,” Cuomo said.

Former New York Gov. David Paterson, who has campaigned for Cuomo, said Cuomo has amped up the negativity because previous jabs on Mamdani’s inexperience and agenda haven’t slowed his momentum.

“Normally, I would say, ‘Ease up.’ You’re both running for mayor. You both care about the city, so you know, just state your message,” Paterson said. “In this case, the reason he’s doing it is that that message hasn’t filtered in yet.”

Sliwa, 71, has returned to the place where he gained fame as the creator of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrols: the city’s subways.

He’s held near daily news conferences across the transit network, hammering home his message that he’ll make the trains safer.

As a rainstorm Thursday caused localized flooding in parts of the city, Sliwa filmed a video for social media as cars drove through a small pond that had developed on one intersection, decrying the state of the city’s sewer system.

It’s reflective of the local quality-of-life issues the longtime talk-radio host has kept central to his colorful campaign.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed Sliwa’s candidacy – and mocked his passion for rescuing cats – but Sliwa has waved off the criticism.

“Homeless people, emotionally disturbed, veterans we don’t take care of – we don’t need a tough guy to be mayor. We need a compassionate, considerate, concerned person,” Sliwa said in an interview on CNN. “And that’s Curtis Sliwa.”

By contrast, he said, Cuomo is “cold-hearted” and “angry.”

“Nobody votes for anger,” Sliwa said.

Sliwa wore his signature red beret to cast his ballot on the first day of early voting, but did not bring a cat with him as he did when he ran against Mayor Eric Adams in 2021.

Mamdani, a state assemblymember, has tried to stay on the offensive.

Last weekend, he packed out a stadium in Queens with more than 10,000 people for a rally alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – playing to a friendly crowd receptive to his platform of using government programs to lower the high cost of living in New York.

But he said he “will not allow myself to become complacent” while his army of volunteers knocks on doors.

He set up a news briefing with social media influencers, appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, won an endorsement from an association of bodega owners and held a midnight news conference in Queens after canvassing night shift workers at a nearby hospital and airport.

The everywhere-all-at-once approach appeared to help him secure at least one undecided voter at a recent stop.

Dr. Rita Bellevue, a retired physician, seemed pleasantly surprised when Mamdani and his coterie of news cameras approached her at a midtown Manhattan bus stop. Afterward, she said she had been deliberating whether to vote for him or for Cuomo.

“I think I just decided,” she said with a smile before hurrying to catch her bus.

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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.