As the polls closed in the 2025 general election for New York City mayor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo found himself in a position he had rarely before been in: as a real, bona fide underdog.

He used to be – and was used to being – the top dog. But after his shocking loss to now-Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary, many of the institutional power players and advisers who had flocked to him earlier in the year deserted him even as he decided to stay in the race as an independent candidate.

The polls at the start of the primary had Cuomo in the lead. Despite having been forced out of office less than four years earlier, he had near-universal name recognition. A relentlessly shifting news cycle had softened the usually career-ending scandals that might have kept lesser

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