Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

With Election Day two weeks away, all eyes are on Curtis Sliwa, as pressure grows on the Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee to drop his mayoral bid.

On Monday, John Catsimatidis, a businessman and top conservative donor, urged Sliwa to quit the race, saying that Republicans “cannot take a chance” on Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani winning. Catsimatidis is also the owner of the radio station 77 WABC ,where Sliwa has hosted a radio program for years. “Curtis has to realize that he should love New York more than anything else. It certainly looks like Curtis should pull out right now,” Catsimatidis said on radio host Sid Rosenberg’s show, per the Daily News.

The New York Daily News and New York Post editorial boards are both in agreement. They both published articles calling for Sliwa to suspend his campaign in order to make the race a one-on-one matchup between Mamdani, the heavy favorite, and independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo. “It burns to write this, but: It’s time for Curtis Sliwa to face reality, and admit that the city’s best hope to avoid the disaster of a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty is for him to drop out of the race, the Post editorial board wrote.

Still, local Republican Party leaders are standing united behind their candidate.

Sliwa got a boost on Tuesday when Republican Party chairmen from all five boroughs issued a joint statement reiterating their support for him. Republicans should not have to clean up the mess Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats created, and we will not allow the political class to interfere with voters or hijack our ballot,” the county leaders said. “Curtis Sliwa is our candidate, the credible leader who will defeat the radical left and restore safety, affordability, and common sense to City Hall.”

Cuomo, who has consistently trailed Mamdani in the polls, has attempted to make overtures to Republican voters and has dismissed Sliwa as a “spoiler” in the race. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Cuomo addressed Republican voters directly, saying the mayoral race is about “the future of New York and saving New York City.”

“The only alternative is Zohran Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa is not an alternative. He is not a viable candidate. You vote for Curtis, you might as well vote for Zohran Mamdani directly,” Cuomo said. “And if this city becomes a Zohran Mamdani city, a socialist city, it’s going to be the death of the city as we know it, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican.”

The former governor seemed to suggest he was open to extending Sliwa a job offer in a possible Cuomo administration. “I haven’t even thought about it to tell you the truth, but, yes, that would be something that I am interested in,” he said on Rosenberg’s radio show on Tuesday, per the Daily News.

But Sliwa has consistently rebuffed such proposals, and appears poised to take his campaign to the end. On Monday, he addressed his supporters in a video, telling them that elites are trying to push him out of the race and urging them to join him on the first day of early voting Saturday, when he intends to cast his own ballot.

We will never surrender. They’re not just trying to push me out, they’re trying to silence YOU. The people who’ve had enough. The people who feel pushed out, unsafe, and ignored for years. For years, politicians turned their backs on you, they disparaged us, and now they come… pic.twitter.com/EfyMu64tLo

— Curtis Sliwa (@CurtisSliwa) October 21, 2025

“The billionaires are not going to determine who the next mayor is. You, the people will,” he said.

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