Andrew Cuomo Banking on Pro-Israel Bet to Quash Zohran Mamdani Surge

Zohran Mamdani is closing the gap with Andrew Cuomo.

New polling from the campaign of Zohran Mamdani has the the democratic socialist surging closer to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the upcoming NYC mayoral primary. In the first round of ranked-choice voting, Cuomo leads him 40-27 percent, a lead that becomes 56-44 when the tabulations are finished. A poll of Jewish voters in New York finds 31% backing Cuomo and 20% siding with Mamdani. Cuomo’s relatively narrow lead among Jewish voters complicates his effort to paint Mamdani as antisemitic.

Cuomo, though, thanks to two major super PACs that are pumping more than $10 million into the race, has far more resources to throw at voters, making him the favorite heading into the final stretch. New York-based reporter Ted Hamm filed the following dispatch for Drop Site.

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Zohran Mamdani arrives for a campaign event on May 27, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images.

Story by Theodore Hamm

In the summer of 2024, Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of an antisemitism advocacy group called Never Again, NOW! At the time, cynics wondered aloud whether Cuomo was sincerely dedicated to the cause or using the group to fuel a coming political campaign.

One year later, Cuomo, with the heavy backing of pro-Israel donors, has managed to turn June’s New York City mayoral primary into a referendum on support for Israel. A fed up Scott Stringer, a moderate Jewish Democrat trailing in the race, lamented that Cuomo’s group was simply “a vehicle for his mayor’s race—and everybody knows it.”

As the June 24 election nears, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, currently in second place with a new internal poll showing him narrowing the gap with Cuomo, has faced a relentless barrage of questions regarding his outspoken support for Palestinian rights.

The far-right New York Post recently accused Mamdani, a Muslim, of Holocaust denial, smearing him as antisemitic. “Mamdani passes on condemning the Holocaust,” read a similar subject line of an email that appeared in many inboxes earlier this month. It was the lead item in Politico’s New York Playbook, an influential daily newsletter, but the story provided a dubious explanation of the alarming suggestion that Mamdani was pro-Holocaust.

Mamdani, who represents Astoria (Queens) in the state assembly, had not voted for a recent pro-Israel resolution—and earlier this year, he “passed on signing a separate resolution” in support of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mamdani’s pro-Israel critics, Politico reported, saw these positions as “evidence of a trend.”

Mamdani clarified that he indeed voted for the Holocaust resolution. The Post nonetheless ran a second story, accusing Mamdani of “doubling down” on his “bizarre refusal” to condemn the Holocaust. The paper’s far-right editorial board declared that the socialist’s supposed “shameless Jew-hate” meant that no one should vote for Mamdani.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a centrist Democrat and frontrunner in the mayoral primary, denounced Mamdani and his fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America because of their support for BDS, the movement calling for boycotts and divestments from Israel.

Most, but not all, of the hostility has come from pro-Israel critics. When Mamdani told reporters he supported Israel’s right to exist, some pro-Palestine activists denounced him for using “Zionist talking points.” Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of Within Our Lifetime, said Mamdani was naively trying to “appease genocidal maniacs.”

Mamdani addressed the controversy last week at a gathering of trans and queer activists, many of whom have participated in Gaza solidarity protests. The May 21 Trans Community Town Hall was convened by Brooklyn figurehead Ceyenne Doroshow.

At the outset of his remarks, Mamdani said that before discussing trans rights, he wanted to “address something I know is on many of your minds.” The candidate stated that his position on “Palestinian human rights, liberation and Gaza” had not changed.

“I will not walk away from my principles or my track record,” Mamdani said. “And I don’t believe any of us can look away while Israeli war crimes continue to escalate, and thousands of children are being slaughtered.”

Mamdani, a member of the state assembly since 2021, reaffirmed his support for BDS, and reminded the gathering about the controversial “Not on Our Dime!” legislation he sponsored. The bill initially stripped the tax exemption only from New York charities funding illegal settlements in the West Bank, but the AOC-endorsed measure now does so from any nonprofits contributing to Israel’s war crimes.

Andrew Epstein, Mamdani’s communications director, also issued a statement directly responding to the “Israel’s right to exist” question. According to Epstein, “Zohran has been consistent in his belief that Israel has the right to exist, a responsibility to adhere to international law, and that he supports non-violent movements to ensure compliance with that law."

Cuomo, meanwhile, is using Mamdani and the DSA positions on Israel as wedge issues. “I don’t consider them Democrats,” the former governor told the Times of Israel. “I consider them socialists.” He specifically denounced the DSA’s support for BDS and their pledge never to visit Israel.

As governor, Cuomo in 2016 issued an executive order punishing supporters of BDS. His large financial supporters have long included hedge-funder Daniel Loeb, a prominent Israel hawk. Loeb is a leading fundraiser for Cuomo’s current campaign. In April, Loeb’s fellow ultra-Zionist billionaire hedge-funder Bill Ackman plunked down $250,000 on a pro-Cuomo PAC.

Although the extent of Cuomo’s legal work since resigning office amid a sexual harassment scandal in August 2021 is not fully known, late last year he joined Alan Dershowitz on the team defending Benjamin Netanyahu against the war crimes charges brought against Israel’s prime minister by the International Criminal Court. Cuomo announced his new role at an event convened by members of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which strongly supports both Netanyahu and Trump.

According to a Politico headline, a Marist College poll released in mid-May showed that Cuomo has a “commanding lead” over Mamdani and the rest of the field in the upcoming primary. Among “likely” voters, the pollsters indeed recorded Cuomo ahead of Mamdani by 37-18 percent, with the former on track to win the primary after reaching the required 50 percent in the fifth round of ranked-choice calculations.

This week, an internal poll conducted by Mamdani’s campaign found Cuomo ahead by 40-27 percent, with Cuomo not reaching 50 percent until round seven. The DSA’s voter outreach tactics may be paying dividends. Mamdani recently gave a pep talk to hundreds of excited campaign volunteers at a roller rink in Bushwick. His supporters have already knocked on over 600,000 voters’ doors, with the goal of reaching one million by June 24.

According to the Marist poll, Cuomo’s pandering to the Netanyahu regime is not embraced by significant numbers of Jewish voters. While Cuomo leads that diverse group with 26 percent, Brad Lander, a Jewish progressive who supports Palestinian rights, checks in at 17 percent. Mamdani, meanwhile, is the preferred candidate of 14 percent of Jewish Democrats.

Cuomo has nonetheless brazenly accused both Lander and Mamdani of “antisemitism” for joining the international human rights community in denouncing the Netanyahu regime’s war crimes. In endorsing Cuomo in mid-May, the pro-Trump American Jewish Congress echoed that characterization of the two candidates.

“My position is 100 percent supportive of Israel,” Cuomo assured the Times of Israel. The lifelong Catholic politician is thus at odds with both the late Pope Francis and his successor Leo XIV on Gaza. Pope Leo recently reaffirmed his predecessor’s support for a ceasefire.

Early voting in the June 24 primary starts in just over two weeks.