1977 New York City mayoral election

1977 New York City mayoral election

November 8, 1977
Registered2,887,530
Turnout1,486,536
51.48% (1.27 pp)
 
Candidate Ed Koch Mario Cuomo
Party Democratic Liberal
Alliance Neighborhood Preservation
Popular vote 717,376 587,913
Percentage 50.0% 41.0%

Borough results
Koch:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
Cuomo:      40–50%      60–70%

Mayor before election

Abraham Beame
Democratic

Elected Mayor

Ed Koch
Democratic

The 1977 New York City mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 8, 1977. U.S. Representative Ed Koch defeated Secretary of State Mario Cuomo in both the Democratic Party primary and the general election, with Cuomo running on the Liberal Party ticket.

In the Democratic primary on September 8, incumbent mayor Abraham Beame was challenged by five other Democrats, including Representative Ed Koch, New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo, and feminist activist and former Representative Bella Abzug. In the initial primary, Koch had a narrow lead over the field despite carrying none of New York's five boroughs and only 19.8% of the popular vote. Because no candidate received over forty percent of the vote, a runoff vote was held between Koch and Cuomo, who had already won the Liberal Party nomination. Koch defeated Cuomo by winning narrow victories in every borough but Queens and Staten Island.

In the general election, which Cuomo decided to contest on the Liberal ticket, Koch was again victorious, coming within a few hundred votes of an outright majority. To date, this is the last election where the winner did not receive a majority of the vote. Republican Roy M. Goodman and Conservative Barry Farber finished a distant third and fourth, respectively.