Andrew Cuomo scorns the voters who can save him: Republicans

Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid has hope, but only if he embraces 20% of New York City voters instead of acting like they don’t exist.

As a registered NYC Republican and three-time Trump voter watching from the sidelines, I see a Democratic machine that calls itself “moderate” but governs like a hostage negotiator afraid to leave the table.

The result: A city sliding toward socialism, with a floundering former governor too timid to seek a lifeline from the very voters who could save him.

I spent days reaching out to Cuomo’s inner circle, his canvassers, his supporters, anyone who’d listen.

I asked them tell Republicans they’ll be seen, heard, and welcomed in a Cuomo administration.

The response?

Crickets — and a flyer warning, “A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Zohran Mamdani.”

No policy contrast, no outreach, no acknowledgment that GOP voters might need a reason to vote for Cuomo beyond fear. 

They just don’t get it. 

Why not endorse a non-mayoral Republican to show genuine outreach?

Maybe someone like Maud Maron, the Manhattan DA candidate running against the unpopular Alvin Bragg.

She’s a former public defender, mother of four, and lifelong Democrat until the party left her.

Now a Republican, Maron is precisely the bridge Cuomo needs: palatable to Democrats already voting for him, and to the GOP voters he can’t win without.

Endorsing her would signal respect to the voters he’s ignoring.

Instead, he pretends they don’t exist.

Republican City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov went so far as to endorse Cuomo on Tuesday — yet Cuomo hasn’t publicly acknowledged it.

Why not go to Brooklyn and shake her hand?

To many Republicans, there’s no daylight between Cuomo and Mamdani.

“I’m not the socialist” isn’t a platform; it’s a surrender.

Worse, it’s insulting: the ex-governor’s supporters now scold Sliwa voters for “handing the city” to Mamdani, as if the June primary, which Cuomo lost decisively, was someone else’s fault other than their own.

You don’t get to ignore a chunk of the electorate for months, then demand they bail you out in November.

In a group chat of 200 Cuomo supporters, I floated coalition-building: endorse Maron, nod to Staten Island’s Frank Morano, court Vernikov and GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino.

The replies were revealing.

One scoffed: “80% of the city is Democrat; Republicans will never win.”

That’s missing the point.

In this race, those 80% of Dems are essentially split down the middle.

The remaining 20% is the entire margin. Treat them like an afterthought, and they’ll pull the lever for Sliwa.

Why reward disdain?

Cuomo has gained in the polls as early voting started and reality set in.

But his camp seems obsessed with poaching Mamdani’s voters, as if the socialist’s inexperience isn’t his main selling point to the DSA base.

Meanwhile, they show open contempt for the GOP, yelling at Sliwa voters instead of earning their vote.

You can’t persuade voters you refuse to respect.

Cuomo’s record only deepens the skepticism.

He signed disastrous bail reform into law well before the 2020 riots that got NYC into the mess it’s in now.

He presided over nursing-home deaths, then wrote a self-congratulatory book using state resources.

What guarantees he won’t drift left again?

And why should city Republicans rush to save the man who handed New York to the DSA, anyway?

New York City’s GOP may be small, but it sure is mighty: Voters in Vernikov’s, Paladino’s and Morano’s districts, and all of Staten Island, reliably turn out.

A simple gesture from Cuomo — endorsing Maron, praising the Republican councilmembers’ diligent work for their constituents — could flip thousands of votes.

Instead, he and Mamdani tweet out nearly identical messages opposing ICE raids on Canal Street.

To many voters, they’re indistinguishable.

Cuomo is running a terrified campaign, paralyzed by the same hidebound Democratic instincts that lost him the primary.

He has nothing to lose by embracing the 20%, by reaching across the aisle to build a durable coalition.

But his team fears alienating Mamdani voters more than missing a once-in-a-generation chance to unify this city.

It’s the Democratic Party playbook in action: take moderates for granted, demonize the right, then act shocked when the center collapses.

Cuomo isn’t even his party’s nominee. 

He is free to reinvent himself.

Yet he clings to the arrogant, apathetic, out-of-touch mindset that got him here. 

New Yorkers deserve better than a mayor who governs by subtraction.

If Cuomo wants to win, he must treat all voters like they matter.

Ignore the city’s Republicans, and he’ll lose by exactly that margin.

Live by the Dems, die by the Dems.

Jaclyn Dolinsky is a New York City attorney. X: @JackieDolinsky