“Andrew Cuomo will not drop out of the New York City mayoral race by the Friday deadline to remove himself from the general election ballot,” CNN reports.

“That leaves in place contingency plans he had established before the Democratic primary to challenge Zohran Mamdani and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November.”

“In a conference room in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams and Daniel Loeb, the hedge fund manager, met with other business leaders and political brokers to discuss how to stop the rise of Zohran Mamdani and possibly bolster Mr. Adams’s re-election campaign,” the New York Times reports.

“The business leaders were impressed that Mr. Adams was already staging a public fight against Mr. Mamdani.”

Zohran Mamdani told ABC News in a wide-ranging interview “that he plans to win over moderate voters — even as a self-identified Democratic socialist — as he runs in the general election.”

Said Mamdani: “I think that the Democratic Party must always remember what made so many proud to be Democrats, which is a focus on the struggles of working class Americans across this country. And I think that there is a need for a new generation of leadership.”

Jonathan Last: “All of that said, Mamdani has a lot of upside potential… He ran a baller campaign. The guy went from 2 percent to utter dominance over the Democratic establishment. He weathered millions of dollars in spending against him. He did it with a campaign that was positive and future-focused.”

“Dems want a candidate who can meet people where they are? Mamdani did it. Want a candidate who can do longform podcasts? Ditto. Who masters new media and transitions away from the old paradigms? Yup. A candidate who generates authentic excitement and creates something that looks less like a campaign and more like a movement?”

“That’s what Mamdani did.”

“Andrew Cuomo’s loss is Eric Adams’ gain,” Bloomberg reports.

“Just days ago, the New York City mayor faced steep reelection odds. His job-approval ratings had plunged to record lows after a federal corruption indictment. Support among Democrats fell even further when the Trump administration dropped the charges, raising questions about Adams’ indebtedness to the White House.”

“But Adams, who dropped out of the campaign as a Democrat to run as an independent, is suddenly looking less toxic to a class of moderate voters. The reason: The surprise ascendancy of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman who crushed Cuomo in Tuesday’s primary election to become the all-but-certain Democratic nominee.”

Washington Post: GOP quickly seeks to make Zohran Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party.

“Now that he’s all but won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani enters a general election against incumbent Eric Adams, who is eager to keep his seat and has nothing to lose,” Politico reports.

“On Thursday, Adams will launch his attempt at resurrection in a rally from the steps of City Hall — a longshot bid as a political independent — one day after calling Mamdani a ‘snake oil salesman.’”

New York Times: “If you scratch below the surface… there are signs that some Republicans are a little spooked, too. They have, after all, just watched a charismatic New Yorker turn one of Trump’s signature issues — the cost of living — into an insurgent and spirited campaign, one in which Mamdani’s supporters seemed to enjoy themselves as much as the Trump fans who crowd into the president’s rallies do.”

Said GOP operative Bill Stephen: “Most Republicans this morning were probably high-fiving and backslapping each other over last night’s result. I’d urge Republicans to be a little more nervous about this guy.”

“Andrew Cuomo will drop out of the mayor’s race after his humiliating defeat against socialist Zohran Mamdani — as the ex-governor’s donors and backers desert him and weigh whether to boost Eric Adams,”the New York Post reports.

“Several insiders close to the Cuomo camp said Wednesday that the thrice-elected Democrat will almost certainly not run in the general election as an independent candidate, seeing no obvious path to victory.”

Andrew Cuomo told CBS News New York that before deciding whether to run in the general election as an independent, he would take a hard look at the voting data and see “what President Trump is going to do.”

He added: “Who knows how he would choose to get involved.”

President Trump branded Zohran Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” the day after the New York mayoral hopeful declared victory in the city’s Democratic primary, the Financial Times reports.

Said Trump, on Truth Social: “It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line… We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous.”

“On the day after Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani emerged as the likely Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Rep. Jerrold Nadler endorsed him in November’s general election, giving Mr. Mamdani a key measure of support from one of the city’s most prominent Jewish leaders,” the New York Times reports.

“Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in the New York City’s mayor race shocked Wall Street,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Some of the world’s most influential and powerful financiers were left grasping to understand what Mamdani’s victory would mean for their industry—and whether they would leave the city.”

Garry Kasparov: “Andrew Cuomo positioned himself as just that person—the normalcy candidate. The problem is that the disgraced former governor wasn’t. Normalcy is not having over a dozen sexual harassment allegations to your name. It isn’t massaging coronavirus death counts to burnish your reputation (although the architects of the Chernobyl coverup might be proud). Suddenly returning to politics less than half a decade after ignominiously resigning isn’t normal. A do-nothing, ChatGPT-written campaign from someone who only moved to the city full-time last year reeks of entitlement. We should not be surprised that these things turn voters off.”

“An extremist victory is what happens when the normalcy candidate isn’t actually normal…”

New York Times: “He distinguished himself from a field of 10 rivals by offering an unapologetically progressive economic platform that was as memorable as it was ambitious. He proposed making city buses free, offering free child care and freezing the rent on rent-stabilized apartments — all financed by a large tax hike on the city’s wealthiest residents.”

“But his success also owed much to his exuberant style, demonstrative love for New York and mastery of social media that seemed to embody the kind of generational change many Democrats say they are hungry for. He filmed himself running into the icy waters of Coney Island in January and speaking with voters in the Bronx who swung to Mr. Trump last fall.”

“It was a stark contrast to Mr. Cuomo’s joyless campaign, which featured heavily staged events and a candidate who repeatedly warned voters that the city was in deep trouble that only he could fix.”

Washington Post: “Mamdani prevailed by focusing incessantly on the affordability challenges faced by New York residents, pledging to ease the cost of living by providing free child care, freezing rent and making city buses free. In a city home to the world’s largest population of billionaires, he pledged to fund his ideas by raising taxes on the wealthy.”

“Seeking to become the first Muslim mayor of a city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, he did not shy away from criticizing the Israeli government for its handling of the war in Gaza.”

Playbook: “Mamdani has promised free buses, free child care, city-run grocery stores, rent freezes, wealth taxes and more. And whatever you think of those kinds of pledges, there’s a running theme that plenty of Dems believe was the real lesson from last night: Mamdani won by focusing relentlessly on the cost of living — the issue poll after poll shows voters care about most…”

“Of course, one other lesson centrist Dems might like to take away is that choosing dismally flawed establishment candidates to run against outsider populist opponents — whether on the left or the right — really isn’t working out too well for them. (If they need another reminder, the anniversary of that CNN debate is this coming weekend.)”

“The national Democratic establishment on Tuesday night struggled to absorb the startling ascent of a democratic socialist in New York City who embraced a progressive economic agenda and diverged from the party’s dominant position on the Middle East,” the New York Times reports.

“As elections go, Tuesday’s party primary for mayor was a thunderbolt: New York voters turned away from a well-funded familiar face and famous name, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and in doing so made a generational and ideological break with the party’s mainstream. They turned to a 33-year-old, three-term state assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani, who ran on an optimistic message about affordability and the rising cost of living that has eluded many national Democrats.”

Playbook: “Every political chat group and social media feed across America was lit last night, and with good reason — this is a result sending shockwaves through the Democratic establishment and far beyond. It marks a stunning victory for the left flank of a fractured party still searching for direction after last November’s presidential defeat, boosting the voices demanding a more radical policy platform to take on Donald Trump’s GOP.”