In electoral politics, everything is relative, that is, voters judge you in comparison to your opponent. And while there is no doubt that Zohran Mamdani ran a great Campaign, it’s equally true that Cuomo blew it.

If Mamdani’s campaign is a case study in how to win as a challenger, Cuomo’s is a case study in how not to stage a comeback. So, what are the lessons here?

A Flawed Candidacy from Day One

From the very start, Cuomo was a deeply flawed candidate. While there wasn’t a trial against him, the Attorney General from New York did find credible evidence of misconduct. In fact, Cuomo was pressured to step down as Governor of New York not so long ago by his own party mates.

In politics, as in business and in private life, the same holds true: it’s much harder to win back trust after you have lost it than to establish it in the first place.

The Missing Key Ingredient: An Apology

During the past years, I’ve advised several politicians launch a comeback. Modesty aside, I’ve helped incumbents who were politically dead rise again and, in my experience, the key ingredient to accomplish that is an apology. You cannot stage a political resurrection in denial.

Cuomo didn’t do that. His apologies sounded half-hearted and until election day, he seemed to maintain that it was a politically motivated campaign against him.

Now, going down from the state level to running for city mayor could have served as a beginning of an implicit apology or a signal of humility, but alone, it wasn’t enough.

Money Can’t Buy Enthusiasm

When the full-hearted apology was missing, Cuomo tried to compensate this weakness with big-name endorsements and lots of money.

And yes, money helps in an election campaign — up to a point. But there are things money can’t buy, and enthusiasm for the candidate is one of them.

You can’t purchase passion for a candidate who doesn’t inspire it. Just ask Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris. Money can certainly amplify a message, but it cannot manufacture enthusiasm.

In the final weeks of the race, a wealthy donor poured another $1 million into the effort to stop Mamdani. At the time, I posted on social media that the last thing that was lacking to stop Mamdani was more big-donor money. It may actually even have hurt.

How to Stop Mamdani

In order to block the road for Mamdani, Cuomo would have needed to formulate and communicate a much more coherent narrative about why it would be bad for New Yorkers if Mamdani became Mayor of New York.

Cuomo tried to make that case talking about experience and age, but this was a classic mismatch between political demand and political offer.

New Yorkers weren’t looking for experience — they were looking for change.

In such a situation, the rationale goes like this: “No matter how bad you think things are, it will only get worse if the challenger comes in. Here’s why.” Cuomo never really made that case. And if you think about it, free public buses isn’t all that radical of a proposal.

Andrew Cuomo’s failed comeback shows that you can’t rebuild trust in denial, money can’t buy enthusiasm, and you can’t run yesterday’s campaign in today’s political climate.