Mamdani leads, but Cuomo courts East Asian voters in NYC race
- asianwavealliance
- Oct 31, 2025
- 1 min read
“I want us to get away from identity politics and really engage with candidates that will be helpful to our community,” Chu said. “I want to help people participate in our election, regardless of where they fall.”
Both AWA and Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE) NYC—to which Chu is also a co-founder since September 2019 and a current co-president—have endorsed Cuomo, but AWA has urged Cuomo to run in the primary this spring before he publicly announced his campaign.
“We wanted to really see someone that’s a little bit more moderate to be on the ticket, and that was why we urged him to run.
A crucial issue that underpins Chu’s support for Cuomo is community safety. She does not want a reduction in the city police force, and said Mamdani’s history of defund-the-police rhetoric and association with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)’s decarceration platform made him untrustworthy in improving safety in Asian neighborhoods, even if Mamdani has recently distanced himself from the former and said he would keep Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner if elected in November. Chu is also skeptical about Mamdani’s plan to form the Department of Community Safety.
“He says he modeled it after other cities, but no other city in the United States is like New York City,” Chu said. "
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