MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to news about New York City's mayor's race. In the Democratic primary yesterday, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded to 33-year-old state assembly member Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani then spoke to his supporters and talked about what he hoped to accomplish as mayor.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: A life of dignity should not be reserved for a fortunate few. It should be one that city government guarantees for each and every New Yorker.
MARTIN: Here with more is NPR's Sarah Ventre in New York, who's been following the race. Good morning, Sarah.
SARAH VENTRE, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So yesterday, you were telling us how this primary election had a lot of candidates, and it was conducted with ranked choice voting, and that it might take a while to get results. So this seems to have happened awfully fast.
VENTRE: Yeah, it really did. I don't think anyone could have predicted this because, as you said, the election uses ranked choice voting. That makes the ballot a little bit more complicated. But unofficial results from the Board of Elections show that Mamdani is in a commanding position, so much so that Cuomo conceded even before elections officials ran through the ranked choice procedure.
MARTIN: So we heard a little bit from his - from Mamdani's speech last night. Tell us a bit more about his campaign. What were some of his key issues?
VENTRE: Well, affordability has been a huge part of his campaign. He wants to freeze the rent, eliminate bus fares. He wants to implement free child care for children between 6 weeks and 5 years old. He wants to also, interestingly, create a network of city-owned grocery stores in order to help keep food prices low. And he wants to create a Department of Community Safety, which would assume some of the duties currently held by the police department. He says this is going to free the police up to do things like solve crimes and respond more quickly to calls. He was also endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, as well as a handful of labor unions.
MARTIN: Could you say a bit more about Andrew Cuomo's concession?
VENTRE: Yeah. It was brief, but in it, he said that he called Mamdani to congratulate him. And he acknowledged that Mamdani's campaign really spoke to people, especially to young New Yorkers, who were very mobilized on Mamdani's behalf. Here's a clip from the local ABC affiliate, where you can hear Cuomo acknowledge this to his own supporters.
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ANDREW CUOMO: He put together a great campaign. And he touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote.
VENTRE: But interestingly, even though he's conceded in this primary, Cuomo did not say this was the end of the race for him. He said he wants to look at all the numbers as they come in. And there is some talk that he could decide to run in the general election as an independent.
MARTIN: OK, interesting. OK. So what might we expect in the general election in November?
VENTRE: Well, I would say buckle up. Right now it appears we are looking at a race between Zohran Mamdani, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa - he is, you might remember, the founder of the citizens patrol group the Guardian Angels - and current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Then, on top of that, we might also see Cuomo in this race. And remember - Eric Adams' popularity plummeted after he was indicted on federal corruption charges, even though he denied them and they were later dropped. And Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor following sexual harassment allegations, which he also denied. But no matter how you slice it, it is shaping up to be a memorable election, for sure.
MARTIN: OK. You're going to be busy. That is NPR's Sarah Ventre in New York. Sarah, thank you.
VENTRE: Thanks so much, Michel.
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