Curtis Sliwa Has the Spotlight. He’s Not About to Give It Up.

Even for Curtis Sliwa, the lifelong Republican showman running for mayor of New York City, it would be hard to imagine a more head-spinning 72 hours.

Soon after Mr. Sliwa stepped off the debate stage on Thursday, the president of the United States mocked him on national television. The billionaire patron of his radio career, John Catsimatidis, urged him to drop out to consolidate opposition to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner.

And the rival candidate hoping to benefit, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, chided Mr. Sliwa as nothing more than “a spoiler” who would help elect Mr. Mamdani and hasten “death for New York City” if he stayed in the race.

Yet for anyone questioning if he would fold, Mr. Sliwa had a ready answer as he strode through an Italian American festival on the outskirts of Queens on Sunday. Not a chance.

He likened campaign events to a mosh pit (“I can’t wait to dive in”) and accused Mr. Cuomo of being more interested in trying to buy him off than actually winning votes (“Desperate people do desperate things”), before getting to the point.

“I have earned the right to be on that stage,” he told a crowd waving Italian flags, as anger rose through his Canarsie accent.

The flamboyant founder of the Guardian Angels subway patrol group, Mr. Sliwa has spent the last half-century laboring as one of New York’s most enduring characters. An urban folk hero, a sometimes fabulist. A shock jock, a subway populist. And always better known for his signature red beret than his electoral prospects.

But with two weeks left in the scramble for City Hall, Mr. Sliwa, 71, has finally and improbably emerged as a full-fledged protagonist on the city’s biggest stage — and he is ready to fight anyone trying to push him off before Nov. 4.

The defiant posture has made him one of the most prominent Republicans in America to openly flout President Trump’s wishes. It has enraged Mr. Cuomo, 67, a longtime foe seeking a comeback as a third-party candidate after losing the Democratic primary. And it has helped shift the glare away from Mr. Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist.

“This is what Curtis has always wanted,” said former Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat who once co-hosted a radio show with Mr. Sliwa and is married to one of his three ex-wives.

“Whether you like him or don’t like him, you’re talking about him,” he added.

Currently polling in the high teens, Mr. Sliwa has an exceedingly steep climb to actually win in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. But his influence — and the fury he has inspired in some — derives from the loyal Republican following he has built over decades.

Recent polls have shown that as long as Mr. Sliwa remains in the race, Mr. Mamdani is on track to win in a blowout. But in scenarios where Mr. Sliwa exits, Mr. Cuomo could close most of the gap with the front-runner and make the race competitive in its final days.

Mr. Cuomo and his powerful supporters, like the financier Bill Ackman, see that as more than enough reason for the Republican to exit. By Mr. Sliwa’s account, they have offered jobs and payoffs and leveled vague threats (though he has not shared details). At one point, advisers around Mr. Trump were even considering how they might help.

The blowback was swift.

In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Mr. Trump questioned, “Is he really a Republican?” and made light of Mr. Sliwa’s commitment to animal rescue. (At one point, Mr. Sliwa lived with 16 cats in a studio apartment, and he is also running on the Protect Animals line.)

“This isn’t exactly ideal where he wants to make Gracie Mansion the home for the cats,” the president said.

On Monday, The New York Post and the Daily News weighed in. “It burns to write this,” the conservative Post’s editorial board wrote. “But: It’s time for Curtis Sliwa to face reality, and admit that the city’s best hope to avoid the disaster of a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty is for him to drop out of the race.”

Mr. Cuomo was the most exasperated. He has repeatedly gone on Fox News and WABC, the conservative talk radio station where Mr. Sliwa hosts a show, to blame his rival’s presence for his own difficulty landing blows against Mr. Mamdani.

“All this stuff that I hear on your radio station, ‘Oh, Curtis loves New York, Curtis loves New York,” Mr. Cuomo said Sunday on WABC. “No, he doesn’t. He loves Curtis.”

Far from persuaded, Mr. Sliwa appears to be invigorated.

Over the weekend, he addressed hundreds of people at a Diwali parade in Queens, spoke in an Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, rallied with Chinese voters in Brooklyn, attended a funeral of a man beaten in a subway station and spoke at a Hare Krishna temple.

“All these offers of jobs and threats against his life — ‘he’s going to be destroyed if he doesn’t get out’ — I think it just makes him far more likely to stay in,” said former Gov. George E. Pataki, one of Mr. Sliwa’s most prominent backers.

“I know I probably just lost a lot of friends who are counting on me to get Curtis out,” he added. “But I’ve always tried to be realistic.”

Mr. Sliwa is no fan of Mr. Mamdani. He has denounced the Democrat as soft on crime, hostile to the city’s Jewish population and a threat to its economy. He does not, however, share Mr. Cuomo’s apocalyptic view of a Mamdani administration. And he likes to remind voters that Mr. Cuomo already had one chance of beating Mr. Mamdani in the Democratic primary and blew it.

“This is called voting. Since when do we not let people vote,” Mr. Sliwa said this weekend when an interviewer pressed him on why he was staying in the race. The clip went viral, racking up 9 million views by Monday.

“Billionaires determine the next mayor? If they don’t like it, they can leave, they have options,” he said. “Blue-collar working class people don’t.”

Mr. Sliwa has been battling Mr. Cuomo for decades and appears to harbor a special distaste for a former Democratic governor whom he blames for many of the state’s liberal policies. He frequently mentions the allegations that Mr. Cuomo sexually harassed numerous women and mismanaged the Covid pandemic. (Mr. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.)

Mr. Sliwa had his own advice for Mr. Cuomo: “What he has to do is run a campaign!”

Mr. Mamdani, for his part, appears to be relishing the spat, and eagerly making common cause with Mr. Sliwa against Mr. Cuomo and the wealthy donor class backing his campaign.

“We have a little over two weeks left until the general election,” he said on Monday. “And Andrew Cuomo is spending more time pleading with another candidate to drop out than making his case to New Yorkers as to why he would be the next mayor.”

In interviews and in polls, Republicans are split on what Mr. Sliwa should do.

One camp views their nominee as well-meaning but unserious. He has tended to attract unsavory headlines over the years. In the 1990s, he admitted that the Guardian Angels had fabricated crimes and injuries to burnish their reputation. He was once suspended by NY1 for making lewd remarks about a female City Council speaker. (Mr. Sliwa has apologized for both.)

Others, though, see a relatable figure who has proved his commitment to public safety over decades and helped lead opposition to local Democratic policies, from congestion pricing to the influx of migrants that strained the city’s finances in recent years to attempts to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

They include party chairs for all five boroughs, who reiterated their support in a statement on Monday, and prominent Republican elected officials.

“Republicans should not have to clean up the mess Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats created, and we will not allow the political class to interfere with voters or hijack our ballot,” the chairs wrote.

At the Italian pride festival in Queens, voters mobbed Mr. Sliwa, asking for selfies and sharing their memories of his days as a Guardian Angel. One man pulled Mr. Sliwa into a FaceTime video with his cousin in Italy.

“Mamdani? Forget about it,” said one such voter, Maria Lynn Kyrkostas after meeting Mr. Sliwa. “Cuomo? He really was destructive during the pandemic. Curtis has been there from the ’80s already to today. He represents you and he represents me.”

Others, though, were clearly listening to Mr. Cuomo.

John Tiburzi, an independent who said he leans Democrat, approached Mr. Sliwa to say he was the only candidate at the table who “addressed real issues.” But he said he top goal was to defeat Mr. Mamdani.

“I am worried about the spoiler,” he said. “That’s what I’m concerned they will make him be.”

Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.