Andrew Cuomo on His Downfall—and Unlikely Comeback

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When you think about great political comebacks, maybe you think of Donald Trump, or Richard Nixon, or “comeback kid” Bill Clinton.

You might soon add Andrew Cuomo to that list. In 2020, Cuomo was at the top of the world. He had been governor of New York for a decade. He had an illustrious career in New York politics—which is sort of the Cuomo family business. He learned how the state worked from his father, three-term Democratic governor Mario Cuomo.

When Covid hit, Cuomo’s star just kept rising. Millions of Americans—even outside of New York—tuned into his Covid briefings and his CNN segments with his brother, Chris Cuomo, then of CNN.

He was “America’s governor.” On the cover of Rolling Stone. Women and men were even self-identifying as “Cuomosexual.”

Then it all came crashing down. With two scandals—one personal and one political.

As Covid was peaking in New York City, Andrew Cuomo was hit with a wave of allegations. In the end, state Attorney General Letitia James brought forward a report that alleged Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women. (Cuomo denies wrongdoing.)

The other scandal, as many will recall, had to do with Covid. Specifically, Cuomo’s administration was accused of mishandling the readmission of elders who’d had Covid into nursing homes—and many alleged that he misrepresented the nursing home death count. (The governor also disputes that, as you’ll hear today.)

On August 10, 2021, Cuomo announced his resignation. His political career appeared to be over.

For a time he totally disappeared from public life. He went from having a huge audience—59 million viewers in total—tuning into his Covid briefings… to zero.

Today, in May 2025, the picture is dramatically different.

Andrew Cuomo is now the front-runner to be the next mayor of New York City. Among Democrats—the party that tore him down—he has a commanding lead, polling at around 37 percent ahead of next month’s primary. His closest competitor, 33-year-old socialist state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, is hovering around 18 percent, according to a Marist poll from just last week.

So: What is it about Andrew Cuomo? Will New York choose him again? And if so: Why?

What does that say about the state of the city and our political choices? And why does he want the job of mayor at all?