Democratic Party leaders in the city’s most conservative borough are jumping on the Zohran Mamdani bandwagon in what critics are calling the political equivalent of a “shotgun wedding.”
Staten Island Democrats are making nice with the party nominee after backing his rival, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June Democratic Party primary. Cuomo is now running in the general election on an independent, minor-party line.
“Zohran is the Democratic nominee. The voters have spoken,” said Laura LoBianco Sword, chairwoman of the borough’s Democratic Party.
“We want to work together. I want to make sure Staten Island has a seat at the table.”
The Mamdani campaign confirmed it will have a big general election campaign launch Aug. 17 on Staten Island as the democratic socialist looks to expand his political base.
“While Zohran builds real support across all five boroughs, Cuomo’s campaign is withering as New Yorkers learn he stands for absolutely nothing but his own ambition, dogged by scandal, corruption, and a record of sexual harassment and humiliation,” campaign spokeswoman Dora Pekec said.
Mamdani won big as an outsider pick in the primary but he has made a push to expand his reach as he heads into the general election, where he’ll face Republican Curtis Sliwa as well as independents Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.
Rodneyse Bichotte, the Brooklyn Democratic chairwoman, endorsed Cuomo during the primary election but immediately backed Mamdani after he won the party contest.
Mamdani has also been in contact with party leaders in Queens, particularly officials who represent largely black neighborhoods in the southeast part of the borough that went heavily for Cuomo during the primary election, according to insiders.
LoBianco Sword credited Mamdani with bringing new voters into the Democratic Party, and hopes to piggyback that trend in the borough.
The island Democratic leader said Mamdani has correctly identified the city’s problems. Whether or not one agrees with his controversial plan to open government-run grocery stores in the five boroughs, she said there’s no question that there are “food deserts” in city neighborhoods.
She also said the wealthy “should pay their fair share” when asked about Mamdani’s plans to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations by $9 billion to subsidize fare-free buses, child care and housing.
Cuomo beat Mamdani in Richmond County but it wasn’t a blowout — 46.5% of the vote to 37.5% during the initial round of the ranked-choice election.
Staten Island Republican Party chairman Michael Tannousis, asked about the borough Democratic organization-Mamdani alliance, “it’s definitely a shotgun wedding.”
He predicted many moderate, law-and-order Democrats will back Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who won 65% of the vote in the borough against Adams in 2021, though Adams easily carried the other boroughs and won the mayoralty. Adams ran in that race on the Democratic line.
“There is no appetite for socialism and the socialist agenda,” said Tannousis, also a state assemblyman.
“Curtis will win Staten Island. He may get a bigger vote than four years ago. Staten Islanders will have a choice: either the Mamdani socialist Democrats or the Republican ticket.”
Sliwa, for his part, is working hard to carry Staten Island again, but he’s not taking the borough for granted.
“If I lose Staten Island, shame on me. It’s a real battleground but I’ve been out there forever,” the Guardian Angels founder said.
He said Staten Islanders will never forgive Adams for pushing migrant shelters in the borough as mayor and Cuomo is running on his legacy — making the GOP nominee the chief rival to Mamdani.
A Cuomo campaign rep, after seeing the Mamdani campaign’s zingers, called the Queens assemblyman the second coming of former Mayor Bill de Blasio — and not in a good way.
“That comment reeks of insecurity and will do nothing to erase Mamdani’s history of anti-cop, anti-capitalist rhetoric that will go over as well on Staten Island as Bill de Blasio eating pizza with a fork and a knife,” said Cuomo campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
“Ladies and gentlemen: Bill de Blasio 2.0.”
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