Former NY governor endorsing Eric Adams for NYC mayor

Former New York Gov. David Paterson (D) said Tuesday he is set to endorse New York City Mayor Eric Adams in his reelection bid amid a crowded race for Big Apple mayor.

“It’ll be at 1 o’clock on the steps of City Hall, at which time I will endorse Mayor Eric Adams for reelection,” Paterson said on the “Cats & Cosby” radio show, previewing his Wednesday plans.

“And as you knew, I wanted to endorse Eric Adams back in the beginning of 2024 when that … mayoral campaign for 2025 started to really pick up,” Paterson continued. “But then, after his indictments and the other issues that happened in those next few months, I endorsed the former governor, Andrew Cuomo, because next to Adams, he would have been my second choice.”

While Cuomo was seen as the favorite in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor, New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani came out on top in the June race to win the Democratic nomination in a shock upset, instantly becoming the presumed front-runner for November. Both Adams and Cuomo are running as independents.

In early July, Paterson likened Mamdani’s success as the city’s Democratic mayoral candidate to President Trump’s political rise a decade before.

“The support that Mamdani is receiving … the number of people he’s registering, the number of people who go to his rallies … if I blinked my eyes 10 years ago, there was another person who was able to do that, and his name is Donald Trump, whose political ideology is the polar opposite of what Mamdani’s might be,” Paterson said during the “Cats Roundtable” radio show at the time.

A Siena College poll released Tuesday shows Mamdani leads in the mayoral race by almost 20 points in a five-person field, as opposition to the state lawmaker’s bid continues to be split among multiple candidates.

The poll shows Mamdani leading by 19 points over his next-closest opponent, Cuomo, 44 percent to 25 percent. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa was considerably behind them with 12 percent, followed by the incumbent Adams with 7 percent. 

Cuomo has called for the candidates to coalesce behind whichever of them appears to be the strongest in a head-to-head match-up with Mamdani based on polling next month, which surveys suggest would likely be the former governor. But Adams and Sliwa have been consistent that they will not drop out of the race.