Bishop Calvin Rice Endorses Andrew Cuomo for Mayor at New Jerusalem Worship Center
“We need somebody to govern this city in the middle… and I believe Andrew Cuomo is the one,” Bishop Rice declared. “He can bring us together, but he’s going to need your help. Get out the vote, talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends, and let’s do this together.”
Jamaica, Queens – This morning at the New Jerusalem Worship Center in Jamaica, Queens, before a congregation of nearly 500, Bishop Calvin Rice delivered a forceful endorsement of Andrew M. Cuomo’s candidacy for Mayor of New York City.
Bishop Rice emphasized the need for unity and moderation, urging his congregation to support Cuomo as the only candidate with the experience to bring New Yorkers together across divides. Cuomo, drawing on his deep ties to Southeast Queens and his record as Governor, Attorney General, and HUD Secretary, spoke about tackling the city’s biggest challenges: crime, affordability, and opportunity. He reminded New Yorkers that resilience and unity have always defined the city, from 9/11 to COVID, and called on them to build a better New York together.
Transcript of full remarks as delivered below:
Bishop Calvin Rice:
We’ve had a long week. I'm not going to talk about what happened this week. I'm just going to talk about why it's happening. I'm not going to talk about that that much. We have two very extremes in this country, extreme right, extreme extreme left. And we need somebody to govern this country and this city and this state in the middle. Somebody say in the middle. We are divided. We are divided in this country, we're divided in this state, we're divided in this city, because there's one extreme over here and one extreme over here. We need someone to walk down the middle of the aisle. Amen. And reach out to both sides and pull us together. And we need a moderate to do that.
And so I keep bringing my friend back. I keep bringing my friend, Governor Andrew Cuomo back, who's running for New York City mayor, and I believe he's the one. He's the one that can do it. Now he's gonna need your help. He's going to need our help. You're going to have to get out the vote. You're going to have to bring someone with you who won't get out to vote unless you bring them. Talk to your neighbor, talk to your friends, talk to your people on your job, and tell them, we need a moderate in this city that can bring us together and get out to vote. When is the next month? No, November. We need you to do that. He's going to come and going to speak to you. And there's a few people on the ballot. I think they may not be there by time for you to vote, but if their name is on there, you just go to the one that you’re looking for. You got that Amen, amen. Governor.
Andrew Cuomo:
Thank you. Good morning, church. It’s a pleasure to be here, and God is good.
Bishop Calvin Rice — thank you for your inspiration, your leadership, and everything you do for this community and for the entire city. Our best wishes to First Lady May Rice; we look forward to seeing her here soon. Let’s give her a round of applause.
We also have Senator Sanders here — my colleague from Albany — who has always done a great job fighting for you.
I’m blessed to have my daughter, Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, with me today. I have three daughters. They’re all helping, but truth be told, Cara helps the most. There will be a reckoning. I am writing a will, and she will be recognized in the will. There is justice.
I want to thank Bishop Rice. You can feel his inspiration here. I’ve also felt it in the political arena. During the first primary debate, I was asked a question and couldn’t think of the answer. I looked up, saw Bishop Rice smiling, and suddenly the answer came to me — and it went very well. At the second debate, I got another tough question. I looked up, but Bishop Rice wasn’t there. I didn’t know the answer, and it went very badly. I lost that election. The lesson is: Bishop Rice must be at every debate. That’s the lesson from the primary.
I am running for Mayor of New York City because New York is in trouble. You can feel it when you’re on the street, when you get on the subway, when you read the news at night. Crime is an issue. Affordability is an issue. Homelessness and mental illness are issues.
We have lost 1.5 million people since COVID. Everyone talks about the wealthy who left because of high taxes. But what they don’t talk about are the tens of thousands of working- and middle-class families who have left, including tens of thousands of Black families every year — families who just can’t take it anymore.
I was at a church last week where they were saying goodbye to a longtime congregant moving to Georgia. The pastor even said he was thinking about opening a church down South because so many members had moved there. Why are they leaving? Because of problems in New York City that still have not been resolved.
But these problems are manageable — if you manage them. The Mayor’s job is to manage. It’s not about foreign policy or political slogans. It’s about operations. It’s about making the city run.
There are three priorities we must focus on:
- Opportunity. New York has to once again be the city of opportunity, of jobs, of growth. That starts with a public education system that gives every child the skills to succeed and fly as high as their talents will take them.
The Cuomos are a Southeast Queens family — three generations. My grandfather started on 150th Street, just south of Jamaica Avenue. He moved to 188th Street and Hillside Avenue. His son, Mario Cuomo, went to public schools here, moved a little further uptown, and went on to become Governor. Our family’s entire trajectory was just two miles — but from a great public education, Mario Cuomo became Governor of New York. That’s the New York we need to get back to. - Safety. We have to learn from Mayor David Dinkins, God rest his soul. We need more police, but we need them working with the community, with respect and trust. Because the community knows what it will take to end this violence.
- Affordability. Especially housing. Rents are just too high. We have less than a 1% vacancy rate. That means you pay whatever rent the landlord asks — because if you don’t, the next person will. The answer is building more affordable housing. We know how to do it. We’ve done it before. But today it can take four years just to get a building permit. That’s too long. I built LaGuardia Airport in less than four years. It shouldn’t take longer to get a permit than to build an airport.
All of these challenges are manageable. They are solvable. But government is about doing. Life is about doing. As James 2:17 teaches us: “Faith, by itself, without action, is dead.” It’s not about giving speeches and press releases. It’s about getting the job done. That’s what being Mayor is all about.
Now, you know me. You don’t want to hear me sing. You don’t want to see me dance. You don’t want to watch me swing a golf club. But I do know how to make government work.
I started at 16 years old, working on my father’s campaigns and learning government at his side. I served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for President Bill Clinton, building housing all across this nation. I served as Attorney General of New York. And I served as Governor for 11 years, balancing a budget twice the size of New York City’s, working with a legislature four times the size of the City Council, and getting more done than any governor in modern history.
We passed the highest minimum wage, the strongest gun control laws, and built LaGuardia Airport, Kennedy Airport, the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Second Avenue Subway, and Moynihan Train Hall.
This race is about experience. My opponent is on the extreme left, pushing a socialist agenda: defund the police, abolish jails, legalize prostitution. That is not the way to go. And he has no experience. This would be his first real job. Your first job should not be Mayor of New York City. The Mayor has to be ready for anything: mass violence, terrorism, public health crises. There is no on-the-job training. It is dangerous to put someone inexperienced in this role.
But here is what I know: there is no reason to give up on New York. We are New Yorkers. We don’t quit.
Think back to 9/11. People said New York was finished, that nobody would go downtown again. But we built a beautiful memorial and came back stronger. Think back to COVID. It was life and death. We were scared. But New Yorkers showed up — police, nurses, grocery clerks, sanitation workers, neighbors helping neighbors. We didn’t care about race, religion, or politics. We cared about each other. We stood together. We beat it.
That is who we are. Nothing can beat us when we are united.
We’re not just going to build this city back. We’re going to build it back better than ever before. That’s the power of us as New Yorkers.
Thank you, and God bless you.
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