House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said a potential political comeback bid from former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) would draw “a lot” of interest from constituents in the Empire State.
Jeffries told Spectrum News NY1 on Wednesday that he hasn’t spoken with Cuomo but looks forward to speaking with him “sooner rather than later” if he enters the race, as he is expected to do.
The House Democratic leader declined to take a position on Cuomo’s expected candidacy but said a bid from Cuomo to replace Mayor Eric Adams (D) would draw interest from many voters.
“I think he’d be a candidate that a lot of people, as I’ve heard from the district that I represent, would be very interested in checking out,” Jeffries said.
Cuomo’s entrance into the mayoral race appears to be imminent after speculation has built for months that he would attempt a political comeback.
He served for a decade as a popular governor of New York before resigning in 2021 amid controversies surrounding allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women, which he denies, and criticism of his administration’s oversight of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Cuomo has stayed quietly active in politics and is likely in a strong position to be an early frontrunner in the Democratic primary for the mayor’s race should he enter.
Polling has regularly shown him well ahead of his potential competitors for the nomination, including the incumbent mayor Adams, whose favorability ratings took a dive after he was indicted on corruption charges, which alleged that he accepted and sought bribes for years. Adams denied the charges.
The mayor’s trial scheduled for April was put aside as the Justice Department under the Trump administration moved to drop the case against him, but the end of his immediate legal jeopardy won’t automatically mean an end to his political difficulties as he seeks a second term in office.
Jeffries’s acknowledgment of voters being interested in Cuomo — and declining to say if he is the right candidate for New York City — marks a shift from when he called on Cuomo to resign from office in 2021.
Cuomo has already received several notable endorsements, including from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), former state Comptroller Carl McCall and the Staten Island Democratic Party. Torres also had called for Cuomo’s resignation toward the end of his gubernatorial tenure.
While Cuomo has been a strong fundraiser and shouldn’t have difficulty raising money to support his likely bid, his campaign would have an extra boost with allies reportedly forming a super PAC, called Fix the City, to support his effort, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
