Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday publicly backed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in his independent bid to be New York City’s mayor in the general election on Tuesday.
In a post on his social platform X, Musk warned his nearly 229 million followers that supporting the city’s Republican mayoral nominee, Curtis Sliwa, will only boost the chances of the race’s frontrunner, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“Remember to vote tomorrow in New York! Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is,” Musk said in a post Monday, the day before Election Day.
“VOTE CUOMO!” he added.
Musk’s last-minute support came after President Trump, in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, signaled he would support Cuomo over Mamdani.
“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist,” Trump said in the interview, referring to Mamdani, “I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”
Mamdani seized on the moment, teasing Cuomo in a post that highlighted a graphic that read, “TRUMP endorses CUOMO.”
“Congratulations, @AndrewCuomo. I know how hard you worked for this,” Mamdani wrote on X.
A Cuomo spokesperson accused Mamdani of “lying and gaslighting his way through this election,” in response to Mamdani’s post.
“Only one candidate has a record of standing up to Trump when he tried to hurt New York and winning and that’s Andrew Cuomo,” spokesperson Rich Azzopardi added in the earlier statement.
Cuomo’s team did not respond to an immediate request for comment Monday.
A large share of New Yorkers have already cast their early ballots in the general election race this Tuesday. According to the NYC Board of Elections, more than 735,000 early ballots were cast across all five boroughs.
Mamdani emerged from the primary with a healthy lead over Cuomo, who lost the Democratic nomination but decided to run instead as an independent. Recent polls, however, have shown Cuomo closing the gap with the front-runner.