Nearing the end of its Democratic primary of 2025, and its second time ever doing ranked choice ballots, New York City’s election continues to be plagued not only with the malfeasance of corrupt Eric Adams but with former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Not only is Eric Adams running as an independent, but Cuomo has stated he’s considering a third party run whether or not he wins his primary. Confusing as that decision is, both candidates are aware of just how impossible it would be to run under anything other than a D or R label, and yet would rather split the Democratic vote to give the race to Republican nominee Curtis Silwa.

Cuomo has limited his public appearances, with few press conferences throughout the campaign, and up until the debate had refused to even acknowledge his opponents. His decision not to engage in the primary isn’t just a mediocre strategy to handle his unpopularity, but reveals that he doesn’t believe he owes answers to his electorate. Besides his infamous reputation for the nursing home COVID scandal and sexual harassment allegations, Cuomo got pressed last night on nearly every issue by his opponents and moderators alike.

All the while, candidate Zohran Mamdani is getting punch after punch especially by legacy media outlet the New York Post. Critics once even accused Mamdani of using AI for a Spanish-speaking ad, though Mamdani successfully clapped back with a blooper reel from the same video to verify it was real. The banal attempts to hit the candidate either backfire or just won’t stick, and last night the socialist charges were no different. Mamdani has in fact worked with the DSA, but tell me how their platform is any different than a Social Democrat from fifty years ago? Even when pressed on his views on public safety, his views were not as close to radical as the room wanted to portray him.