QUEENS, New York — A cook at the Silver Spoon Diner, a family-owned joint beneath a parking garage, was scratching off a lottery ticket when former New York governor Andrew Cuomo walked right past him.
“Ay, dios mío,” the cook said, nearly fumbling his coin.
This was the former governor’s first campaign stop in LeFrak City, Queens, a working-class housing complex so large that it has its own post office, as he tries a new approach after June’s bruising Democratic primary defeat to State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist. A senior Cuomo campaign aide described Cuomo’s visit to LeFrak City as part of an urgent course correction.
“Everyone just assumed that Andrew Cuomo would win,” the aide told me. “So there were a lot of stones left unturned because we didn’t work them enough in person.”
The Cuomo aide added: “We have to go back to our base. They need to learn the stakes of this race.”
One longtime Cuomo supporter, Shawn Williams, was nothing but excited to meet him—at least at first. She beamed for the camera as a friend snapped their photo together at the diner. But once the shutter clicked, her smile dropped.
“I know you’re here to take pictures,” she told Cuomo, “but what are you actually going to do for the city?”
