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<\/p>\nAndrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a former special assistant to disgraced ex-President Donald Trump, declared Tuesday that he\u2019s running for New York governor in a bid to knock out Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiuliani vs. Cuomo. Holy smokes. It\u2019s Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier. We can sell tickets at Madison Square Garden,\u201d he told the New York Post on Tuesday.\u00a0 (The beleaguered Cuomo has not officially launched a reelection campaign for a fourth term.)<\/p>\n
Giuliani changed his Twitter bio to read \u201cCandidate: 57th Governor Of New York.\u201d He touted his run in a promo on Fox 5\u2019s \u201cGood Day New York,\u201d saying it\u2019s \u201cwhere the road to Albany begins.\u201d He also retweeted the Post\u2019s article.<\/p>\n
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The younger Giuliani has never held public office. But as the son of Rudy Giuliani \u2015 whose time during the Trump presidency was spent fruitlessly pursuing the ex-president\u2019s baseless legal claims that the election was stolen, publicly\u00a0ranting, and appearing with his hand down his pants while being pranked in the \u201cBorat\u201d sequel \u2015 the gubernatorial run feels like a natural transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a politician out of the womb. It\u2019s in my DNA,\u201d Giuliani, 35, told the tabloid.<\/p>\n
Giuliani, who previously said he was mulling a gubernatorial bid, has recently served as a contributor on the far-right Newsmax channel, NBC New York noted.<\/p>\n
He vigorously defended his father after the FBI raided the elder Giuliani\u2019s home in connection with his dealings with Ukraine. The son even served up a conspiracy theory about the judge who signed the search warrant.<\/p>\n
Politico noted that before even facing Cuomo, now dogged by sexual harassment allegations and accusations of mishandling the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes, Giuliani will have to defeat fellow Republican Lee Zeldin. Zeldin, a congressman, \u201ccould complicate\u201d Giuliani\u2019s path to the nomination, the website wrote.<\/p>\n
Still, Giuliani was looking ahead. \u201cI know we can defeat Andrew Cuomo in 2022. I am going to be the 57th governor of New York,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n