Mamdani Won The Election But Lost UES: Block-Level Breakdown

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won by eight points in a historic election against former Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night, but he was not the Upper East Side's choice, voter data shows.

According to a Patch analysis of preliminary voter tallies from Tuesday night, Cuomo won about 60 percent of the vote on the Upper East Side, with Mamdani winning around 36.5 percent of the vote. Sliwa tailed with 3 percent of the vote.

According to voting data from the New York City Board of Elections, compiled by the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, Cuomo swept the Upper East Side, with the strongest support for him coming from voters who live closer to the east side of Central Park.

Meanwhile, Mamdani's Upper East Side supporters lived closer to Yorkville and the East River, per the voter data.

Across the park tells a different story — Mamdani won the Upper West Side with 51.46 percent of the vote, according to Patch's calculations, with his strongest support coming from the area of the neighborhood that flanks the park.

Here is a block-level breakdown of where Cuomo and Mamdani got the most support on the Upper East Side.

Cuomo's strongest blocks

Cuomo's strongest section of the neighborhood was a little block in Lenox Hill between 68th Street and 69th Street flanked Second Avenue and Third Avenue, where he won 87.2 percent of the vote compared to Mamdani's 10.4 percent.

In that section, Sliwa won just 2.1 percent of the vote, a steep decline from when he ran in 2021 against Mayor Eric Adams and earned 18.2 percent of the vote for the same area.

Cuomo's second-strongest block was further uptown between 86th Street and 88th Street, also between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue. There, he held 82.8 percent of the vote, compared to Mamdani's 14.3 percent and Sliwa's 2.2 percent.

In 2021 during the last mayoral election, that area had 421 total votes, and during this election, netted 721 votes.

One of Cuomo's other strongest areas was a four-block radius between 69th Street and 71st Street flanked by Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue.

There, he won 82.5 percent of the vote, compared to Mamdani's 15.1 percent of the vote, putting the former governor up by 67 points. In the same area, Curtis Sliwa earned 2.1 percent of the vote.

Mamdani's strongest blocks

The block where Mamdani had the most pull on the Upper East Side was on the border of Yorkville between 78th Street and 79th Street from FDR Drive to York Avenue. There, Mamdani pulled 67.1 percent of the vote, with Cuomo trailing at 26.5 percent.

Mamdani's second best result on the Upper East Side is a sliver of the neighborhood between 90th Street and 91st Street bordered by Second Avenue and First Avenue, where he finished with around 66.7 percent of the vote, compared to Cuomo's 30 percent of the vote and Sliwa's 3 percent.

This chunk of the map is six blocks away from the East Harlem border, and its northeastern corner touches the Holmes Towers and Isaacs Houses, two public housing complexes.

Mamdani's third-best showing in the neighborhood is just two blocks north from the previous one, between East 94th Street and East 95th Street framed by First Avenue and Second Avenue.

There, Mamdani got 63.4 percent of the vote, while Cuomo got 32.4 percent of the vote, and Sliwa got 2.5 percent.

Cuomo fell short in Manhattan

Though Cuomo swept the Upper East Side, it wasn't enough to result in an election win, with Mamdani claiming victory in nearly every other neighborhood in Manhattan, with the exception of Midtown East, Murray Hill, Tribeca and Battery Park City.

The results reported so far remain unofficial, not including some mail-in and affidavit ballots.

Voting data is via the New York City Board of Elections, compiled by the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.