Upstate Rep. Nick Langworthy — the former New York State Republican Party chairman and close ally of President Trump — endorsed Andrew Cuomo instead of GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa for mayor Thursday to stop “communist” Zohran Mamdani.
Langworthy said the former three-term Democratic governor, now running for mayor as an independent, has a better shot than Sliwa of beating Mamdani in the Nov. 4 election.
“This is about saving the city from communism,” Langworthy told Fox News. “I’ve had plenty of disagreements — very publicly over the years — and fought tooth and nail with Gov. Cuomo. But there’s no doubt in my mind he would be a far superior mayor than a communist.”
He said Cuomo was polling better than Sliwa, with a few surveys showing him 10 points behind Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner in the race. Mamdani identifies himself as a democratic socialist.
“There’s only one candidate running against Mamdani that has a credible path to win. And there’s Andrew Cuomo. And, you know, he knows how to run a government ….he’s certainly a better option than the alternative of Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America running the city with no checks and balances,” the congressman said.
Langworthy was the state Republican Party chairman before getting elected to Congress in 2022, representing the 23rd District in Western New York that runs from Binghamton to the Buffalo suburbs.
But Langworthy said he believes what happens in the Big Apple impacts the rest of the state.
Republican Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district is just north of New York City, on Wednesday also plugged Cuomo over Sliwa, as preferable to Mamdani.
But Rep. Nicole Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican who represents parts of New York City, told The Post Thursday she’s behind Sliwa. Her 11th congressional district includes Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.
Trump, the leading Republican in the country and native New Yorker who follows politics in his hometown closely, has not endorsed Sliwa. Instead, he has disparaged the GOP candidate, even saying Cuomo has a better shot to win.
The president’s lack of support for Sliwa has signaled to other Republicans that it’s OK to back Cuomo.
“But maybe, I don’t know, if he [Sliwa] dropped out, maybe Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance, but not much, because it looks like the lead is, it’s not a great lead, but it’s big enough that he [Mamdani] should be able to win,” Trump told reporters last week.
“So I don’t know that I want to get involved. It’s really a question of, would I rather have a Democrat or a Communist? And I would rather have a Democrat than a Communist if he [Sliwa] dropped it,” Trump said.
Sliwa has rejected calls by some anti-Mamdani forces to abandon his campaign.
