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New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa faced off in their first general election debate on Thursday night, and, with no live audience, supporters flooded 50th Street outside 30 Rock, cheering on their preferred candidates with campaign signs and lobbing verbal attacks at their opponents.
With less than three weeks until Election Day, the debate gave voters their clearest side-by-side look yet at the candidates vying to lead the nation’s largest city.
On the debate stage, candidates made commitments to delivering affordability and public safety for New Yorkers. Outside the venue, while speaking to Fox News Digital, Mamdani supporters told Fox News Digital they are ready for change, while those cheering on Cuomo said they were voting for him for his experience.
“He’s very experienced,” Emily, a Cuomo supporter who lives in Brooklyn, told Fox News Digital. “I feel that he’s going to keep our city safe and that he is going to keep small businesses alive and that he just has the right amount of experience for the job.”
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New York state Sen. Robert Jackson, who was cheering on Mamdani from across 50th Street, said Cuomo already had his chance to deliver for New Yorkers as governor, telling Fox News Digital Cuomo “was not the leader that we wanted. He never came through on it.”
On the flip side, Jackson praised Mamdani for getting New Yorkers excited about politics, explaining that he loved Mamdani’s “straightforward” and “no nonsense” policies.
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However, both Emily and Anthony Braue, a Bronx union worker, said Mamdani’s policies are driving their support for Cuomo.
“Giving away free stuff is not the answer,” Brau said, telling Fox News Digital he appreciates how Cuomo supports union workers, wants to build infrastructure in New York City and make it a safer place to live.
Emily added that Mamdani is “not experienced,” and his “policies seem too extreme.”
“Nothing’s free. Giving free stuff means the hard-working people’s taxes are going to pay for the free stuff,” Braud said. “There’s nothing free. It never works out. It might be a good selling campaign pitch, but I don’t think it’s the right thing.”
Braue said he couldn’t understand why members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a union supporting hospitality workers, were across the street cheering for Mamdani. Ahead of the debate, the New York City Police Department designated three respective pens for supporters to gather.
“I don’t know exactly what they’re doing over there,” he said. “They should be on this side with the rest of the union workers, but everyone’s got their own opinion. They’re entitled to it.”
After Thursday night’s debate, Mamdani met with a roundtable of union workers at the Service Employees International Union headquarters Friday morning in Manhattan.
“The reason I support Zoran Mandani is because he’s a make-it-make-sense politician,” SEIU member Pedro Francisco told Fox News Digital ahead of the debate. “He really understands what this city needs. The city needs to be affordable for all of us.”
While acknowledging that Cuomo is a “great politician” with great ideas, Francisco said, “Cuomo was the past, Zohran is the present and the future of New York City.”
Jim Golden, a 67-year-old New Yorker, agreed that “it’s time for a change, simple as that.”
“We’ve screwed up this city enough, and it’s time to let some other people try and fix it. It’s a mess,” he said.
Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa all greeted their supporters ahead of the debate on Thursday night, with Mamdani sparking the most raucous commotion as he marched through a gaggle of reporters and glad-handed his supporters lined up along a police barricade.
Thursday’s mayoral debate was hosted by NBC 4 New York/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU, in partnership with Politico. Election Day is Nov. 4 in New York City in the race to replace Mayor Eric Adams, who suspended his re-election campaign last month.
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