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Election Day is now a month away, and the Zohran Mamdani juggernaut looks more and more inevitable. The dream of consolidation behind one candidate never happened, as only Eric Adams withdrew, but Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa stayed firmly entrenched in the race. Cuomo has the better chance of stopping Mamdani, but not by much. What do Democratic voters do if they want to pick a winner, and Mamdani is not their choice? Likewise, what do Republican voters do knowing they have the longest of long shots in a heavily Democratic city? Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to assess the chances Cuomo and Sliwa have of pulling an upset out of their back pocket.
Astorino gave host Larry Mendte a blunt assessment of Sliwa’s chances to rally by November: “I think the Yankees have a better chance of beating the Blue Jays than Cuomo does of Mamdani, but- the ‘but’ is what happens with Curtis. I think I wouldn’t want to be in Curtis’s shoes this month. He is going to get an enormous amount of pressure from everybody to suspend his campaign, Curtis keeps saying no, no, no, no, and I believe him. I don’t think he will, but the pressure is going to be enormous, and I think at some point you might see the dam break with some Republicans… who might just say, ‘Look, we stuck with you, but we’re not sure you can win and what are we going to do here.’”
That leaves many Republicans addressing the choice of crossing party lines and voting for Cuomo simply to stop Mamdani. Astorino feels that’s too bitter a pill for them to swallow. “I think they would’ve had an easier time doing it for Eric Adams. I think for Cuomo there’s going to be a lot of resistance, but- and that’s the ‘but’- it’s like, oh my God, look at the alternative. I guess I’ve got to vote for this guy. That’s what it’s come down to.”
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