Left-of-Center Millennial Mamdani, Conservative Gen X Adams, and Moderate Boomer Cuomo: The Generational and Policy Divide

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
“I think the difference between Mayor Eric Adams and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani–is largely a generational divide, as well as a policy divide in terms of one being more moderate, and the other being far more progressive,” political strategist and Columbia Professor Basil A. Smikle Jr. told Our Time Press. “I think there is a generational divide in the support he gets from African American voters. Mr. Mamdani does need to do some more work with older voters who are tied to traditional Democratic Party politics. And, there are older and more moderate voters who still like Eric Adams.”

On Monday, former Governor David Paterson held a press conference with some fellow Democrats who focused on Queens Assemblyman Mamdani. He said that he was inexperienced and that either the current mayor or the former three-term governor should drop out of their independent races and let folks coalesce around one main opponent.

“Some of the things Zohran Mamdani says are very difficult to deal with, including for the Black community,” Governor Paterson told Our Time Press. “He sees himself as the next mayor. My point to Adams and Cuomo is that if they both run against him, they are going to split the vote. He is on the Democratic line. They are not. Both of them are on independent lines. So he is in pole position and able to win.”

Cuomo lost the primary last month, with the frontrunner beating him by 12 points. Adams weighed up the fallout from the reaction to President Trump dismissing his five federal corruption and bribery indictments, and pulled out of the Democratic primary race, and decided to run as an independent.

With Mamdani battling Republican, Presidential, independent, and Democratic challenges, he says he will not be distracted from his five borough affordability agenda. As Trump has stated that he will pull money from his hometown, should Mamdani win, former Democratic State Chair Paterson said that, “It’s a job for someone who can make a plan work, and it’s got to be someone who is going to consider the people in the city and not single them out for some type of retribution.”

Cuomo’s campaign said, “We do not see any path to victory for Mayor Adams. This is the time to put aside the usual political selfishness and agree to do what is truly best for all New Yorkers.”
At the same time, Adams slammed the “arrogance” of Cuomo’s phone call request asking him to step aside.

“I’m the sitting mayor of the City of New York, and you expect for me to step aside when you just lost to Zohran by 12 points?” he asked on CNBC.
Mamdani’s campaign said that more than 545,000 New Yorkers voted for him, “The most votes any Democratic primary candidate has received in 36 years. In the coming months, Zohran looks forward to growing this coalition and reaching new voters with his vision for an affordable New York City and his plan to deliver universal childcare, fast and free buses, and a rent freeze for more than 2 million New Yorkers.”

In the media this past week, Adams and Cuomo have demanded an investigation, charged fraud, and disrespect, as they challenged the Ugandan-born, Indian-by-bloodline, South African and New York-raised Mamdani for his unsuccessful 2009 Columbia application self-description as a African American and Asian – as he ticked the designated race/ethnic description boxes.

“Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo want you to believe that the biggest scandal amongst them is Zohran Mamdani and a denied college application,” said Public Advocate Williams.
The 2008-2010 NYS Governor Paterson said, “Adams has come a long way. Last year, we thought he might be convicted of some crime or something, but everything was dropped, and he has a free hand to run in this race any way he wants. Cuomo thought he won the primary, he says it wasn’t the polls, it was the turnout…whatever.. He got turned out. So now he is trying to be the candidate.”

Paterson said he does not see either of them dropping out. “In 2021, Adams got the people and mowed everybody else down. In 2025, because of his problems, the community is moving back towards him, but perhaps maybe not as quickly as he would like, because there is sort of a sense of a Trump connection. Then, that situation with Thom Holman, the immigration czar, when he was sitting next to him on Fox. He says if he doesn’t get things done, he will put his foot up his rear end, and Eric just sat here, and didn’t do anything. That was terrible. It made Eric look like a houseboy.”

Looking at the busy political landscape, Paterson added, “So, I made the gesture. None of the candidates seemed to be interested, which I respect. They want to stay in. If they want to talk about this later in the year when things are different, I am available..
“I wanted to raise the possibility of the candidates consolidating, but as it stands now I think Mr. Mamdani would win the General Election,” said the former governor, adding that concern is “his capacity to run the City, and in what direction…we don’t know enough about him to say one way or the other.”

Mamdani’s massive ground swell
“He certainly created a movement around his candidacy, because he is young, and relatively new to politics, certainly at this level, he has an opening to develop a narrative for himself that is more open and encompassing, and not tied to a specific or significant legislative record,” Smike determined. “I think it is likely that Mamdani will win because he is a Democrat in a predominantly Democratic city…There’s a lot of attention around wanting New Yorkers to stand up against Donald Trump.”

“If he does win, I’ll be the first to say ‘Give him a chance,’” declared Paterson. “I think, at this stage, Mayor Adams or former Governor Cuomo would be an easier fit. We are stuck because neither one of them wants to back down, and I don’t blame them.”

Mamdani recognized that visiting that old staple election move–Black churches, “I was able to reintroduce myself…So these next few months are an opportunity to continue to do just that.”
Smikle said, “I think a lot of African American voters have supported him, it’s just not the ones who are tied to traditional Democratic Party politics in New York City. So, he does have some work to engage with older African American voters. There’s time to do that.”

This mayoral race has also taken on national and even international standing, with Trump threatening to take away the Ugandan-born Queens assemblyman’s citizenship and deport him.

“The more the President attacks him, the more it raises his profile, and voters feel the need to rally for him as likely the next mayor of New York, and protect New Yorkers against threats by this administration,” said Smikle. “The attacks against him serve a very specific constituency of the president, but ultimately it can only serve to bolster Mamdani’s candidacy and within the party nationally.” (The President has said that if Mamdani “the communist” wins, he and the federal government will takeover.)