Andrew Giuliani announced on Tuesday that he will be running for New York governor in 2022. The 35-year-old son of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has yet to hold a political office but told the New York Post, “I’m a politician out of the womb. It’s in my DNA.”
Like his father, who was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Giuliani worked for the former president, serving in the previous administration as the associate director of the Office of Public Liaison in 2017 and later as a special assistant to the president in 2019, according to his official bio.
During his announcement speech, Giuliani indicated his father will be part of his campaign: “When you’ve got the greatest prosecutor in the history of Southern District. When you’ve got the greatest mayor — not just in the history of New York, but in the history of America — you’re foolish if you don’t use him as an asset.” In a bizarre moment, he seemed to confuse the Statute of Liberty with Miss Manhattan, a completely different and much smaller statue.
Giuliani joins Congressman Lee Zeldin and former Westchester County executive Rob Astorino on the Republican ballot.
As the first to jump into the race, Zeldin has already racked up a significant number of endorsements from local Republican county chairs and committees, including Saratoga, Nassau, and the Finger Lakes region. Astorino, who lost a previous gubernatorial bid to Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014, declared his intent to run again a little over a week ago.
Giuliani’s bid comes at a legally fraught time for his father. Trump’s former lawyer recently had his office and apartment raided by federal agents executing a search warrant. The investigators also seized the elder Giuliani’s electronic devices as part of an ongoing probe into his dealings with Ukraine.
It’s unclear who a prospective Republican nominee would face in the 2022 general election. Cuomo has always been open about his plans to run for a fourth term. But a looming impeachment probe and a state attorney general’s investigation into sexual-harassment claims have left those prospects up in the air. If Cuomo does not run, it remains to be seen which Democrats would run in his stead.
Despite this, Giuliani is raring for a dynastic showdown for the Executive Mansion in Albany.
“Giuliani vs. Cuomo. Holy smokes. It’s Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier. We can sell tickets at Madison Square Garden,” Giuliani told the Post.
