Andrew Cuomo’s phone lit up with a Venmo notification in late December 2020, as COVID-19 cases surged across the country. Someone was asking for $2,000. Their justification: “You owe us this stimulus.”
The request, no doubt intended for then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, instead reached the inbox of a college student in Rochester who happens to share the same name — and is well-accustomed to such mix-ups.
“I’ve been dealing with this my whole life,” Cuomo, a 26-year-old engineer from Connecticut, told The Independent. “I finally get to tell somebody about it.”
A victim of pure coincidence, he has seen his identity become entangled with the ex-governor. Online, he’s been bombarded with misdirected messages, including profanity-laced hate mail. In person, he’s faced awkward questions about familial ties.
But, after the politician’s crushing defeat in New York City’s mayoral election yesterday, the college student is hoping to get some relief.
This bizarre case of the conflated Cuomos — seemingly taken from the pages of a Patricia Highsmith novel — is not entirely unprecedented.
In October, the Times of London inadvertently interviewed Bill DeBlasio, a Long Island wine importer, instead of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to Semafor. And in 2015, two men named Ted Cruz and one man named Jeb Bush complained of being mistaken with the Texas senator and former Florida governor, Newsweek reported.
For Cuomo, the confusion has largely played out over social media. Over the years, he has received dozens of direct messages meant for the Empire State politician, who served as governor from 2011 until 2021, when he resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Later that year, the state’s attorney general released a report concluding New York officials severely undercounted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
In January 2018, one X user simply wrote, “You are a piece of s—-.”
“That one was probably one of my favorite ones,” Cuomo said.
Some comments were more positive, with users in February 2018 writing, “I hope you are running for POTUS” and “I was a big fan of your father,” referring to former three-term governor Mario Cuomo.
Meanwhile, other individuals came with specific requests. In December 2017 — when Cuomo was a freshman at the Rochester Institute of Technology — an X user asked him to sign a bill requiring nurses to obtain a baccalaureate degree. The same month, another individual wrote to him attempting to rent out Hither Hills State Park in Long Island.
Cuomo, who grew up in Oxford, Connecticut, said that when people meet him, they often ask whether he is related to the former governor, whose televised pandemic briefings rocketed him to national prominence.
At his high school, a history teacher posed the question on the very first day of class. When he started an internship in New York, his boss immediately asked the same thing.
“We said our hellos and stuff and as he’s walking me to my desk, he’s like ‘So I have to ask you, are you related?’ And I’m like ‘Oh my god,’” Cuomo said.
His father, who also grew up in the tri-state area, faced a similar experience, Cuomo said, noting that “Everyone always called him Mario.” But, as far as he knows, his family blood relation to the more well-known Cuomo clan.
Not all in-person interactions have been negative, though. Cuomo recalled a specific night at a bar in New York. After handing over his credit card, he noticed the bartender scrutinizing it. Then, recognizing the name, he began parading it around to show other patrons.
“He ended up giving me a couple free drinks that night,” Cuomo said, laughing.
But, with the former governor’s election loss to Zohran Mamdani yesterday, Cuomo expects these strange occurrences to become “a little bit” less frequent.
“It depends how much he stays in the news,” he said. “After he resigned in 2021, the messages definitely subsided.”
“The jokes among my friends will probably never subside though,” he said.
What did he make of the election result? Was he disappointed that his namesake was defeated?
“I’m not too into politics,” Cuomo admitted. Though he added, “I’m surprised they let him run again because I know he’s kind of disgraced.”
