Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his run for mayor of New York City on Saturday.
Cuomo has been largely absent from national politics after resigning from the New York governorship in 2021 following a sexual assault scandal. He has sought to rehabilitate his image in recent months, seeing an opening in New York City amid the crumbling of incumbent Mayor Eric Adams‘s popularity following his indictment.
Cuomo cast a bleak image of New York City in his announcement video, expressing hope that he could turn it around.
“New York City is in trouble. You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person, or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway,” Cuomo said. “You see it in the empty store fronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence the city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis, these conditions exist not as an act of God, but rather as an act of our political leaders, or, more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.”