Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign denied a report claiming he will drop out of New York City’s mayoral race after suffering a devastating loss during the Democratic primary to socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani. 

Cuomo last month formed the Fight and Deliver party, which would allow him to run as an independent in the general election after losing his party’s primary. The New York Post reported Wednesday that the former governor had abandoned the option following his bruising loss to Mamdani this week, with unnamed sources saying, “The understanding is he’s not running, every indication is that he doesn’t want to do it and the money wouldn’t be there even if he did want to do it.” 

However, on Thursday, Cuomo’s campaign dismissed such talk in comments to the Washington Examiner.

“Whomever is telling you that is clearly not talking to the Governor,” spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

Azzopardi pointed to a CBS interview Cuomo conducted Wednesday, in which the former governor left the door open to running for New York City mayor on the independent ticket and said he would take things “one step at a time.” 

“The Democratic primary is always an interesting situation, right? There are about 5 million voters in New York City, there are about 8 million people in New York City, and about 1 million people vote in the Democratic primary. So it’s not, necessarily, representative of the city at large,” Cuomo said the day after the election. “That’s why I qualified for an independent line in November, I did that several months ago, because in the general election, more people come out to vote. It’s a broader pool, if you will, of New Yorkers, more representative pool of New Yorkers.”

Cuomo indicated he would make a final decision about running in the general election after reviewing the results from the Tuesday primary. 

HOW ZOHRAN MAMDANI TOOK DOWN ANDREW CUOMO IN NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY

“We’re going to be looking at the numbers that come in from the primary, and then we have to look at the landscape in the general election, which is a totally different landscape,” the former governor said. “There are issues that came up, the issue of affordability, which the assemblyman spoke to with offering a lot of free services, and is that feasible? Is that realistic? Can that be done? So, basically, looking at the landscape in the general election, as it develops, and we’ll take it one step at a time.”

New York City’s incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, a Democrat campaigning for reelection on an independent line, said he expects to see challenges from Cuomo and Mamdani.