Appearing on Chicago’s Morning Answer, Guardian Angels founder and former New York City mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa told host Dan Proft that he has no regrets about staying in the 2025 race despite pressure to drop out. Sliwa argued that even if every one of his votes had gone to Andrew Cuomo, the outcome would not have changed, and Republicans should never surrender their place on the ballot merely to engineer an intraparty Democratic showdown. “If you’re a party of law and order,” he said, “you don’t abandon the field and accept one-party rule.”
Sliwa said the election of Democratic Socialist candidate Zoran Mamdani reflects deep voter frustration over the crushing cost of living in New York, even as public safety remained one of the top four issues in every poll. He predicted that Mamdani’s first year in office will be marked by significant turmoil, pointing to the mayor-elect’s stated preference for expanding social-worker staffing over bolstering the NYPD. Sliwa noted that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s decision to remain during the transition is a stabilizing development, but argued that the city’s next leader “has no plan” to address violent crime or escalating gang activity, including the surge in offenses involving juveniles and migrants.
The longtime crime-prevention advocate also warned that the city’s population loss will accelerate unless leaders reverse course. He pointed to the exodus of young professionals, high earners, and families choosing lower-cost, lower-crime states. “You can’t maintain a city’s economic engine when your graduates and your workforce are fleeing,” he said, adding that the same pattern is already well underway in Illinois.
Sliwa recounted recent high-profile attacks in New York’s transit system, including the murder of a woman who was set on fire—an incident he called the worst he has witnessed in the subway since founding the Guardian Angels in 1979. He compared that horror to a similar case this week on Chicago’s CTA, saying the public is not desensitized to such violence but is increasingly desperate for leadership willing to confront it.
Looking ahead, Sliwa plans to actively campaign for Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is challenging New York Governor Kathy Hochul in next year’s race. He said the key to a Republican path statewide mirrors the one Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki charted in the 1990s: a focus on safety, livability, and fiscal restraint. But he cautioned that the math remains difficult, with Republicans requiring at least 35% of the New York City vote to win statewide office—something only Pataki managed to achieve in the last three decades.
Sliwa closed by warning both states that quality of life is destiny. Without serious action to control crime, reduce costs, and restore competent governance, he said, “people will simply leave for places that offer what their leaders will not.”