One by one, the four Democratic candidates for mayor endorsed by the progressive Working Families Party took turns attacking former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his housing record at a rally.

Tenant advocates called him the candidate of the landlords.


What You Need To Know

  • Democratic candidates for mayor endorsed by the progressive Working Families Party criticized Cuomo's housing record

  • Cuomo's campaign was under scrutiny for using artificial intelligence in making his housing policy report

  • Zohran Mamdani is the only candidate endorsed by the Working Families Party who promised to freeze rents as mayor

“Cuomo is bad for housing,” Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn state senator, said.

“He can’t fix our city if he couldn’t fix our state,” Adrienne Adams, the City Council Speaker, said.

“This is someone who has eliminated far more affordable housing than he ever created or preserved,” Brad Lander, the city comptroller, said.

“He is working with those profiting from the inequality of today,” Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens, said.

The rally comes days after reports revealed the Cuomo campaign used artificial intelligence for his housing plan.

The Cuomo campaign defended his record, citing a program as governor to finance throughout the state more than 100,000 affordable apartments. Most of them in the city, the campaign says.

“New Yorkers know he’s the candidate with the experience and the record to help fix what’s broken in this city and they are not going to be swayed by this gaslighting from far left political operatives and a clown car of career politicians with no vision or achievements of their own,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

The candidates took turns bashing Cuomo, who is holding onto his frontrunner status in the polls, while standing next to tenants who had signs and hats calling for rent freezes in stabilized apartments.

But only one candidate, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, pledged to do so.

“We must freeze the rent for more than 2 million rent stabilized tenants across the city,” he said. 

The other candidates wouldn’t commit to one.

Adrienne Adams told WNYC Radio this week, “I would look to make sure that our renters were protected first, but I’m certainly not opposed to a rent freeze.”

Myrie told NY1 after the rally, “Everyone wants to get to affordability to bring the cost of living down. I think there are different approaches to get there.”

Lander told NY1 he wanted to look at the data first.

“I always want to keep rents as low as we possibly can, consistent with making sure that the homes can be maintained and heat provided and the super’s paid,” he said.

After his remarks, a campaign aid said Lander would endorse a freeze at an upcoming meeting of the Rent Guidelines Board, which decides whether landlords can hike rents on stabilized apartments.

Joanne Grell, a Bronx tenant organizer and rent stabilized tenant, said it bothered her that candidates wouldn’t take a stand.

“We want them to take a stand, we are begging them to take a stand,” Grell said, wearing a hat that read: Freeze the Rent. “Freeze the rent is gonna be a huge deal breaker.”