The three candidates for New York City mayor each turned their attention to Queens on Sunday, where more than 57,000 voters have cast ballots early over the weekend.
On Sunday night, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani welcomed fellow progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens/The Bronx) to a rally at Forest Hills Stadium. “This mayor’s race, my friends, is different,” Sanders told the crowd. “It is not just the folks here in New York City who are paying attention.”
Sanders suggested that President Donald Trump “seems to be very, very concerned about who wins this election.” Trump — a Queens native — has not endorsed any candidate. Mamdani, a state Assembly member representing Astoria, praised Sanders and suggested that if he wins, “it will be because of the movement that Bernie built.”
Ocasio-Cortez slammed independent candidate and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, condemning “an insufficient, eroded, bygone political establishment.”
After a morning meeting behind closed doors with Orthodox Jewish leaders in Brooklyn, Cuomo rallied in Kew Gardens Hills and unleashed on Mamdani, telling an audience, “He is a divider. He is a zealot. He is an extremist. He is a radical. He is dangerous for New York City.” Cuomo accused Mamdani of glorifying a group that was convicted of funneling charity funds to Hamas and other terror groups — a reference to lyrics in a Mamdani rap video — and said Mamdani refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Mamdani has responded in the past by saying that he believes Israel has a right to exist, but only as a state with equal rights. Cuomo spoke of fear in New York’s Jewish community, suggesting that some are “afraid to walk on the street with a yarmulke, afraid to walk on the street with a Star of David.” Polls have shown Mamdani winning with more than a third of the Jewish vote in the city.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa made several appearances in Queens, including in South Richmond Hill, Whitestone, Flushing and at the College Point Halloween Parade. “After the two debates, they saw I was a ‘law and order’ candidate, as I pointed out that Cuomo and Zohran share the same points of view on ‘no cash bail,’ ‘Raise the Age,’ and closing Rikers Island,” Sliwa told News 4.
Early voting will remain open in New York City through Sunday, Nov. 2. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.
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