Is Jessica Ramos Gone and Forgotten? Not Quite.

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 21:02:57 +0000

This is The Sprint for City Hall, a limited-run series on the critical Democratic primary race for mayor.

Seven of the Democratic candidates for mayor will face off at 7 p.m. Thursday in the primary’s second and final debate, as the race seems to be narrowing to a two-person contest.

Hi, I’m Dean Chang, the editor running The New York Times’s coverage of the mayoral primary. This week’s parade curiosity: Does anyone actually use any of the four pockets on a guayabera shirt?

In this edition of the newsletter, we’ll go over some of the race’s most surprising late-stage developments, and hear from two candidates who appeared in last week’s debate but will not take part in this week’s.

The News

Endorsements on parade

Andrew Cuomo was practically beaming. He worked the crowd, grasping outstretched hands on the parade line, wearing a white guayabera-styled shirt as he was closely trailed by Jessica Ramos, a primary rival who dropped a campaign stunner last week by endorsing him.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade has traditionally been a late-stage opportunity for mayoral hopefuls to try to appeal to Latino voters. But on Sunday, the parade through Manhattan was a stage for Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the two leading Democratic candidates, to showcase their latest endorsement prizes.

For Cuomo, that meant walking with Ramos, a state senator, who somehow got past her long-held disdain of Cuomo to throw her support behind him days earlier. She released a campaign-style video after the parade, but not on her own behalf. Instead, she told viewers that “we’re going to have a great summer with a brand-new mayor,” as the video cut to images of Cuomo.

For Mamdani, it meant appearing with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gave him her coveted top endorsement, and Representative Nydia Velázquez, who endorsed him as well. Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez rode atop a float decked out with palm trees, the two enthusiastically waving Puerto Rican flags.

With the start of early voting just four days away, the crowded Democratic primary seems to be narrowing to a two-person contest between Cuomo and Mamdani. Their rivals have one last debate, on Thursday, to try to flip the script, or at least widen it to allow for an alternate ending.

It likely won’t be easy. But some potential attack lines may be found in some of our recent coverage. Earlier today, we delved into how Mamdani’s youth appeals to some voters, but his inexperience concerns others. We also revisited the sexual harassment complaints made against Cuomo, and how he’s counting on voters’ having moved on. Because he has.

When New York City elected a mayor in his 30s

If Mamdani is elected, he will become the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century. If so, hopefully he’ll arrive at a better fate than his would-be historical predecessor. Nick Fandos has more.

In 1913, as the world slid toward war, New York City elected the second-youngest mayor in its history. At 34 years and 5 months, John Purroy Mitchel was considered so youthful his fellow New Yorkers called him the “boy mayor.”

Mamdani, who would be almost three months younger on Inauguration Day, would probably prefer to skip the moniker. But he could do worse than emulating Mitchel — up to a point.

Like this year’s candidate, Mitchel was educated in the Bronx (Fordham Prep vs. Mamdani’s alma mater, the Bronx High School of Science), ran as an anti-establishment reformer (against Tammany Hall) and was highly focused on transit issues.

Some historians consider Mitchel the city’s first Hispanic mayor because he descended from Spanish nobility. Mamdani is hoping to be its first South Asian mayor.

The city’s youngest mayor, Hugh J. Grant, was believed to be 30 when he took the oath of office in 1889, though historians have struggled to pin down his exact birth date.

Cuomo would also make history, if elected, but for the opposite reason. He would be the oldest man known to take the oath of office as mayor of New York, besting Abraham D. Beame by a few months.

As for Mitchel, his life took a tragic turn. After losing re-election in 1917, he signed up as an officer in the Army Air Service as the war raged in Europe. He was flying a training mission in Louisiana in July 1918 when he fell 500 feet to his death.

Authorities blamed an unfastened seatbelt.

A few questions with Jessica Ramos

So this is awkward.

We invited the nine leading Democratic candidates to be interviewed at The Times. We’ve run five of the interviews so far, and the exchanges have offered broad insight on everything from the candidates’ views about the most important issues facing New York City to their favorite breakfast orders. (Yes, Cuomo did say bacon, cheese and egg on an English muffin. It’s not a B.E.C. Maybe it’s a B-CEEM. Who knows.)

Our latest installment appeared this morning, with Mamdani explaining why his favorite mayor of his lifetime was Bill de Blasio.

We interviewed Ramos before her bombshell decision to endorse Cuomo. The move essentially eliminated her from contention, making the interview both less relevant and outdated. (She told us that she couldn’t think of any issue where she’s changed her mind. Days later, she changed her mind on Cuomo.)

We still appreciate that she spent time with us, so we’re excerpting her responses here.

Why has it been so difficult to qualify for matching funds?

I don’t have a rich network. I have constituents, friends and community that are also struggling to get by in New York City, and so without institutional support from any party or any particular industry, it’s increasingly difficult.

Could you talk about your relationship with the Working Families Party? You said you didn’t really feel welcome at one of their rallies.

I have given the Working Families Party many of my years and lots of my activism and my volunteer hours, and it was disappointing to me not to be supported by the Working Families Party. I work for people who clock in and clock out every day. That’s who I legislate for. I don’t know that that’s who they represent.

What’s your bagel order or favorite breakfast sandwich?

An everything bagel with cream cheese, lox, capers and red onions.

Why don’t you seem to like or support Assemblyman Mamdani?

I appreciate his voice. I wish he was a harder worker. I believe in the last four years in the Senate, I’ve delivered a tremendous body of legislation, and I believe that anybody who should be mayor of the City of New York should have a legislative record to match. What good is it to be there everyday and accomplish so little?

I don’t think anybody who went to prep school is my savior. I don’t need someone who cosplays being a working-class person, no matter what Uniqlo jacket they wear, or whatever Timex watch they wear.

For a more detailed look at the candidates, go over to our Who’s Running tracker. If you want to brush up on where the most prominent Democrats stand on various issues, we’ve got you covered. And if you want to find stories you may have missed, our mayor’s race landing page is right here.

Michael Blake, we hardly knew ye

At last week’s debate, Michael Blake was something of a surprise scene-stealer. He landed several effective attacks on Cuomo, livened the stage with Jamaican patois and displayed his sense of humor.

But anyone looking for a repeat performance on Thursday will be disappointed. Blake did not qualify for the debate. (Neither did Ramos, which is perhaps just as well.) Jeff Mays checked in with Blake.

“You’re missing the person who won the first debate,” Blake said.

His assessment, while self-laudatory, was shared by others on social media. But the Campaign Finance Board has ruled that Blake did not meet the fund-raising, polling or spending thresholds needed to qualify for the second debate.

Blake disagrees and filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, saying valid donations were incorrectly disqualified because of “the inflexibility of C.F.B.’s database fields.”

Tim Hunter, a spokesman for the board, declined to comment, citing the litigation.

Blake said that were he given the chance to appear, he would try to get across three points:

If elected mayor he would end the use of credit checks for the city’s housing lottery and increase its income limits.
He’d hire 1,000 mental health professionals to help the mentally ill in the subway and on the street.
With New York City facing threats from President Trump and the federal government, “you don’t need a bully to be mayor, you just need someone from the Bronx,” Blake said. “We’re used to overcoming the odds.”

And he would have tried to re-emphasize his devotion to his go-to breakfast sandwich of bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant with salt, pepper and ketchup. “One thousand percent,” he said.

What’s Your Ranked-Choice Ballot Look Like?

Floyd Abrams, superlawyer

Floyd Abrams, the renowned First Amendment lawyer, helped win two of the most politically consequential Supreme Court decisions of the last half century, in the case over the Pentagon Papers and Citizens United. He shared his ranked-choice ballot plans with Nick Fandos.

Abrams has argued more press freedom cases before the Supreme Court than any lawyer in United States history. Now, he said he was looking for a “barrier” to protect New York City from President Trump.

“My view is that it is especially important to have a strong person who can lead the public and resist whatever demands are made of us,” he said. “I think that is Governor Cuomo.”

He said he believed Cuomo would be the opposite of Mayor Eric Adams, who “owes his freedom to President Trump.”

Abrams, 88, grew up in Queens and lives on the Upper East Side. He spent his career as a private litigator, but has been involved in high-profile cases in his hometown. He defended the Brooklyn Museum in its battles with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, as well as numerous news organizations, including The Times.

Abrams once represented Cuomo and the State of New York in a case related to the disclosure of political donors. But he said his support had to do with the former governor’s record.

Abrams spoke positively of Scott Stringer’s “New York liberalism,” but said he was “disinclined to give anyone else a leg up” against Cuomo by ranking them.

Photo of the week

A free bus ride? Tilson abides.

DATES TO WATCH

Thursday: The final Democratic debate, restricted to leading contenders. (7 p.m., NY1.)
Saturday: The first day of early voting and the last day to register to vote in the primary election.
June 22: The last day of early voting.
June 24: Primary Day. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Jeffery C. Mays and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

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