Sharpton calls for Cuomo to drop out of NYC mayor's race
Cuomo lost New York City's Democratic mayoral primary to state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani last week and conceded, but CNN reported that Cuomo planned to keep his spot as the 'Fight & Deliver' candidate on the November ballot.
Mayor Eric Adams (D), who is seeking reelection as an independent, also will be on the ballot as the main opponent to Mamdani's campaign.
'I think, in the best interest of the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, that he ought to let them have the one-on-one race,' Sharpton, a New York City native who is backing Mamdani, said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Wednesday. '[Cuomo] can endorse one or the other, and let them have a battle over what is best for New York.'
Cuomo isn't expected to continue actively campaign for the job, but campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told The Hill that the former governor is still weighing whether to keep his name on the list as an option for voters.
'Everyone is entitled to their own political opinion — we understand President Trump supports Eric Adams, and do not believe socialism is the answer,' Azzopardi said in a statement. 'Most New Yorkers are not Trumpers, and most New Yorkers are not socialists — the majority lies in the middle.'
'We will continue to assess the current situation in the best interest of the people of the City of New York,' he added.
Mamdani, 33, is a self-described democratic socialist, and his proposals to make the city more affordable have prompted critics to accuse him of trying to advance socialism.
Adams, who did not seek the Democratic nomination after facing bribery charges, formally launched his independent bid for reelection Thursday.
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
New York's special interests will eat Zohran Mamdani for lunch
For all his radicalism, Zohran Mamdani's program is often as vaporous as steam wafting from a Midtown manhole. It's a lot more about vibes than about delivering real change. His city-owned grocery store scheme, for starters, is almost entirely symbolic — not any real answer to the price-gouging he and his fans pretends is common at privately owned markets. The initial plan is only for one city store in each borough: That literally can't make any difference for most New Yorkers. And those five stores can't even be a meaningful test because it'd be a disaster for the new mayor if any of the stores failed. Tellingly, Mamdani brags that Chicago has already done a 'feasibility study' for city-owned groceries. Problem is, no one can read the Chicago analysis, because city leaders shelved it — almost certainly because they discovered that municipal-owned supermarkets have no chance of success. Contrary to what the hipster socialists imagine, groceries' profit margins are not rich but as thin as deli-sliced ham: Keeping the store going requires obsessive management — not the casual oversight that's given the world the phrase 'good enough for government work.' Of course, even Mamdani's plans to finance his stores is as airy as coffee-cart bagels: He said he'd tap the $140 million that the city already gives away to corporate grocery chains as a subsidy — except his crack crew misread the facts on the city's 'Food Retail Expansion to Support Health' program. That $140 million, it turns out, is how how much private store owners invested in the local economy after getting much smaller tax breaks, not city outlays a mayor could redirect. The socialist's confusion here recalls fellow DSAer Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's celebration when Amazon pulled out of the plan to build a major headquarters in Queens: This freed up $3 billion that New York could spend on schools instead of a corporate giveaway, she exulted. But no: The massive e-tailer had simply been promised (just like many other companies) tax breaks if it created so many jobs; with the deal dead, Amazon wouldn't generate any income for the state to hold off on taxing. Zeroed-out Zohran must have the same math tutor as AOC, because zilch is how much the city has on hand to pay for his food pantries posing as groceries. Of course, Mamdani actually got the funding for another of his pilot-project schemes — then lost it because he couldn't even cooperate with fellow Democrats. Ending fares on MTA buses is one of his big ideas for making NYC 'affordable'; he helped author a one-year experiment in fare-free buses on five routes in 2024 — only to see Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie quietly can the next year's funding after Mamdani refused to vote to pass the state budget. Reminder: Much of Mamdani's program — starting with getting $10 billion to cover many initiatives by hiking taxes on the rich — depends on getting Albany's OK, and he's going to need Heastie's enthusiastic support since Gov. Kathy Hochul has already said 'no go!' How will Heastie fight for a guy he already sees as a lightweight? Look: New York politics, state and city, is packed with deeply connected special interests — with public-sector outfits (unions, massive nonprofits) often more ruthless than the real-estate lobby and other private-sector players. Voters' revulsion at that corruption is a big reason Mamdani won the primary, but this crew will eat the pretty boy for lunch while he's busy filming his next viral YouTube.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
GOP eyes redistricting in Ohio and Texas as it looks to bolster slim majority
Republicans are eyeing potential redistricting opportunities in Ohio and Texas as they seek extra cushion to protect their thin majority in the House next year. In Ohio, redistricting laws mandate a redraw ahead of 2026 because the last map passed without bipartisan support. And in Texas, redistricting could be added to an upcoming special session agenda as the White House reportedly pushes the Lone Star State to consider redrawing to protect the party's numbers. Defending a narrow 220-212 majority, Republicans are bracing for a competitive election cycle as they look to defy traditional headwinds typically associated with the president's party in midterm years. 'I think the Speaker and party leadership look at even a handful of districts as really important, particularly if the natural trend — given the president's popularity at this point and given historic midterm conditions — means that the Republican Party starts out assuming they're going to lose a couple districts right off the bat,' said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who founded the database 'All About Redistricting.' 'Ohio is going to have to redraw, one way or the other. Texas is mulling whether to redraw. And there are a lot of competing pressures.' Each state redraws its maps once a decade, after the U.S. Census. But in Ohio, the lines used for the last four years are up for a redraw under a wonky state law that effectively sped up the expiration date because they didn't earn bipartisan support. Should Republicans decide to make the maps more competitive, Ohio Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes, who represent Ohio's 9th and 13th Congressional Districts respectively, would likely be impacted. President Trump won Kaptur's district, which includes Toledo, by close to 7 points, while Sykes's seat, which includes Akron, was essentially tied by Trump and former Vice President Harris in 2024, according to The Downballot. Both are already competitive for Democrats, though both Kaptur and Sykes have been strong candidates despite the political terrain. 'It's no surprise that special interests in Washington and Columbus want to ignore the voters and rig the game,' Sykes campaign spokesman Justin Barasky said in a statement. Kaptur campaign political director David Zavac projected confidence over the congresswoman's election next year, while also pointing out that the state will have seen three different maps this decade alone. 'The Congresswoman looks forward to a spirited campaign next year,' Zavac said in a statement, 'but will let the GOP focus on what will surely be another messy primary ahead once they finish their illegal gerrymandering process to try and rig the maps further in their favor.' The Ohio Constitution lays out detailed rules for drawing House districts , meaning that only certain counties and cities can be divided, some of that based on population stipulations. Ahead of the required 2025 redistricting, Democrats had sought to pass an amendment to the state Constitution last year that would have reformed the redistricting process in the state, giving the party a better chance of making seats more competitive between the parties. But voters rejected the ballot measure amid confusion over the amendment language; the Ohio Ballot Board approved language that said the amendment would 'repeal constitutional protections against gerrymandering' when its supporters said the initiative stated it would do the opposite. While the redistricting process offers Republicans a unique opportunity to reconfigure better maps for its House members, it's not without its own perils. 'I do think the best pressure that could force them to do some things that are more reasonable would be Republicans in nearby districts saying, 'Don't carve up our districts, we like our [districts], we don't want them to change,'' said former state Democratic Party Chair David Pepper. In Texas, where there are no specific timing rules for re-making maps, state lawmakers are reportedly under pressure from the White House and national Republicans to consider making mid-decade changes that could help shore up GOP numbers. The state legislature just gaveled out their latest regular session, with the next not slated until 2027. But amid the chatter about redistricting, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called a special session to kick off July 21. Though redistricting isn't among the governor's official 'initial agenda' items, there's still time for the matter to be added to the docket or included in a future special session. 'The Republicans in Congress are looking at a very, very narrow majority, and they're looking for every opportunity around the country to increase that majority with things like redistricting [and] the election. They're gonna use every tool at their disposal to do that,' said Texas Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser. 'Texas is a very red state, so if they can pick up two seats or three seats, then they might give it a try. And even if it makes a seat in a very deep red state a little more competitive, so be it. I think that's some of the thinking,' he said. One Republican strategist who requested anonymity to speak candidly told The Hill that the party will be on 'offense' regardless of how either state's map shakes out ahead of 2026. A second GOP strategist pointed out that there's more Democrats – 13 – that won in Trump districts, while there's only three Republicans hailing from districts won by former Vice President Harris in 2024 overall. 'The numbers are in our favor,' the GOP strategist said. 'It's a game of inches right now.' If Republicans do decide to redraw lines in Texas, it could blunt challenges to the maps that Texas drew after the 2020 census, including an ongoing trial in El Paso in which voter advocates allege that the maps discriminate against some Black and Latino voters. The 2021 maps were already seen as shoring up Republican power in the Lone Star State, but proponents of redistricting reportedly think the GOP's 25-12 congressional edge could expand by several seats. The situation has given some lawmakers a sense of deja vu. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) was among the more than 50 state lawmakers who fled Texas for Oklahoma to deny Republicans a quorum in 2003 as the GOP revisited drawing the state's congressional lines. Texas Republicans, however, were ultimately successful at redrawing favorable lines for their party. 'It's just a total partisan power grab that's gonna completely mess with representation in Texas,' Castro, who was a freshman during the 2003 walkout, told The Hill last month. 'And I hope that cooler minds will prevail, and they'll do redistricting when they're supposed to, which is after the end of the decade.' Another layer of uncertainty is how the courts could weigh in on potential redistricting challenges. Both Texas and Ohio have conservative majorities on the state Supreme Courts, but legal challenges over redistricting from other states have been brought up to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the high court, too, has a conservative majority, it notably struck down Alabama's maps in 2023, saying they likely violated the Voting Rights Act. But while shifting voters from solidly red districts to bluer ones could make Democratic-held seats more competitive, it could similarly blunt the edge of some now-safe GOP seats. The House Democrats' campaign suggested in a statement that the predicament is a lose-lose situation for Republicans. 'House Republicans are running scared because they know they will lose the House majority next November, and their only solutions are corrupt attempts to suppress battleground voters' voices,' Madison Andrus, a spokeswoman for the House Democrats' campaign arm, said in a statement. 'Any changes they try to make to existing maps may endanger existing Republican-held seats,' she continued, 'and in an environment where the public is wildly unhappy with the Republican agenda of broken promises, they should be careful what they wish for.' Ahead of the midterms, though, that might be a risk some are willing to take to put more districts in play for Republicans. 'Republican redistricting was key to flipping the House in 2022, preserving the majority in 2024, and can help defend it again in 2026,' said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Democrats and Republicans were out on the Virginia campaign trail. Here's what they had to say.
With four months until Election Day in Virginia, the campaigns for statewide office are heating up. Both parties are projecting a message of unity, but the ways they've sought to demonstrate unity amongst themselves has varied. Immediately after June's primaries, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger embarked on an eight-day bus tour across the state, where she was joined at stops by Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones, the nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Meanwhile, Republican candidates Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares and conservative radio host John Reid — who have been the presumptive nominees for months — appeared together for the first time Tuesday night. 'To describe the Republican rally as a unity rally requires a very flexible definition of unity,' said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. 'The party candidates barely appeared on stage together, did not have a lot to say about each other, and generally have a kind of problematic history for imagining that they're going to be able to work together this fall.' Statewide candidates are elected separately, meaning it's possible to have a governor and lieutenant governor from different parties. In 2005, Virginians elected Democrat Tim Kaine as governor and Republicans Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell as lieutenant governor and attorney general. Here's how Hampton Roads lawmakers voted on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Spanberger, other Democrats vying for office draw hundreds at Williamsburg campaign stop Virginia's Republican statewide ticket rallies together for the first time But whether Republicans Earle-Sears, Reid, and Miyares — candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — have convinced voters they're past their infighting, Farnsworth said a split ticket is unlikely. 'I do think that in this political environment, there aren't going to be very many swing voters,' he said. 'The reality of 2025 is that of a very, very partisan time, and so most voters are likely to vote a unified ticket, because the parties have become increasingly distant from each other nationally and in Virginia.' That means voting for candidates and policies for or against President Donald Trump. 'I think most people, particularly given the very combative approach to governing from President Trump, have decided they're either all in with the president or all not in with the president,' Farnsworth said. 'The old saying that all politics is local I don't think really applies these days when you're looking at what's motivating people.' Meanwhile, the Democratic statewide ticket campaigned together in Hampton Roads last weekend as part of Spanberger's bus tour. The tour concluded Saturday with stops in Williamsburg, Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Jones seemingly took aim at the Republicans, who had then not appeared in public together. 'We got a ticket with Ghazala Hashmi and Abigail Spanberger,' he said at a speech at Lafayette High School in Williamsburg. 'And I'll let you in on a little secret this morning: We actually like each other.' Jones made the same comment in Norfolk later that day. Democrats are running on a staunchly anti-Trump platform. Along the trail, Jones pledged to enter Virginia into lawsuits against the Trump administration brought by Democratic attorneys general. Hashmi criticized Gov. Glenn Youngkin for telling laid off federal workers to polish their resumes. And Spanberger said she would defend veterans' access to health care. 'At the theoretical level, people are more likely to describe themselves as conservative,' Farnsworth said. 'But when people start seeing programs cut, they're a lot less conservative than they thought there were … the challenge for Republicans in this environment is not unlike what Democrats faced during the Biden years. 'You have to live with the consequences of the policy choices in Washington, even if you had nothing to do with them.' Statewide Republicans on the campaign trail are engaging less with federal policy, and instead spoke on issues such as transgender children, school choice and Virginia's status as a right-to-work state. At a rally before a packed house Tuesday in Vienna, Earle-Sears spoke at length about her father fleeing socialism in Jamaica and the nomination of Zohran Mamdani as Democratic mayoral candidate in New York. 'You've seen where my old hometown New York has nominated a socialist,' she said. The crowd booed. 'And make no mistake about it, the ideas that my opponent has are socialist in nature, because it's all about what government is going to do and to take your money to do it.' In Williamsburg, Spanberger dismissed the connection to Mamdani. 'I'm kind of a little bit laughing because it's New York City — we're Virginia,' she told reporters. 'I don't know anything about New York politics.' Farnsworth was not convinced that was an effective political strategy. 'It strikes me as a desperate move to imagine that the voice of Democratic primary voters in New York City has any bearing on the Virginia gubernatorial election,' he said. 'People always wish they were running against the politician that they mention, but they're actually running against the politician whose name is on the ballot, or the national figure, the president.' Farnsworth predicted that Republicans will face some significant headwinds this election. Historically, the party out of power in the White House does well in statewide elections in Virginia the following year. For example, in 2021, a year after Joe Biden was elected as president, Republicans regained control of the House of Delegates and won all three statewide positions. Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881,
