Newsmax political analyst Rob Astorino pushed back against assertions that Republican Curtis Sliwa played spoiler in New York City’s mayoral race on Tuesday, arguing that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s loss to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani reflected left-wing turnout — not vote-splitting on the right.
On “Greg Kelly Reports,” Astorino said Democrats were “energized” while Republicans stayed home, a familiar trend when President Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot.
“I know what people are thinking,” Astorino said. “You’re doing simple math here — [Cuomo’s] 42 plus 8 equals 50, and that would tie Mamdani, right?
“Wrong. You can’t think of it that way, because Cuomo probably got as many Republican votes as he would have.”
Astorino explained that Sliwa’s 8% of the vote represented “solid, dyed-in-the-wool Republicans that would never vote for [Cuomo] anyway.”
“Even if he got some of it, it wouldn’t all go to Cuomo,” he added. “So Sliwa is not the spoiler.
“Andrew Cuomo couldn’t get to where he needed to get, and the energy is on the far left.”
Astorino credited Mamdani’s win to “an army of volunteers” and ground-level enthusiasm, saying, “Cuomo had a ton of money, but he didn’t have the foot soldiers — and that’s what cost him this race.”
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