Former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo joked that he “will move to Florida” if he fails to win the New York City mayoral race, and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis replied, “Don’t!”
“Don’t New York our Florida!” DeSantis wrote on X, responding to the report on Cuomo’s quip to a rich business donors’ breakfast Saturday in the Hamptons.
Using Republican talking points about the dangers of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo soundly in a low turnout Democrat primary last month, Cuomo told the fundraiser hosted by supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, the New York Post reported
“It’s all or nothing: We either win or even I will move to Florida; God forbid,” Cuomo reportedly said at the breakfast, drawing laughs.
“It was a wow line,” an one attendee told the Post. “It got everyone’s attention.”
But the campaign immediately walked it back as hyperbole.
“Gov. Cuomo would never give up on New York,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told the Post. “That said, the line underscored the stakes in the upcoming election and the risk of electing a dangerously inexperienced, hate-spewing 33-year-old socialist whose campaign consists of unrealistic bumper sticker slogans.”
Ironically, Cuomo is using campaign words Republicans use to target the Mamdani agenda and doing what President Donald Trump himself did during his first reelection campaign amid attempts to investigate and prosecute him in what he deemed political persecution.
Cuomo, like Trump, is a former Democrat, and he is running as an independent against Mamdani and incumbent New York Mayor Eric Adams – himself ostracized from the Democratic Party over fraud, bribery, and campaign investigations.
Cuomo, adopting a bit of Trump’s campaign bravado, called Mamdani a “kid” and a “socialist” and said Mamdani’s rent control agenda would be a “death sentence” for the New York City housing market, because landlords would be forced to spend less to maintain properties, the Post reported from sources at the Hampton’s breakfast.
New York City “feels out of control,” Cuomo added, adopting a position Trump has expressed for more than a decade.
Adams reportedly fired back at Cuomo.
Adams told the Post he would never leave New York, even if it will be taken over by a socialist, adding if Cuomo “is serious about moving to Florida, he should go ahead: He’s already spent three weekends in the Hamptons.”
Notably, fundraiser host Catsimatidis is a Democrat who has conservative ideals and made his billions as a supermarket mogul in New York City. Mamdani said he belives in state-run supermarkets in his socialist-like platform.
