In a bid to make a political comeback, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday he is running for mayor of New York City.

Cuomo made a 17-minute pitch for his candidacy in a video announcement released on his website, looking directly into the camera as images of New York City played along.

“We know that today our New York City is in trouble,” Cuomo says as the video shows images of homeless people on city streets and the city’s subways. “You see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence. The city just feels threatening, out of control and in crisis.”

Cuomo’s entrance into the already crowded race sets up a potential political comeback for the former governor, who resigned from office in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal after 11 women accused him of sexual misconduct.

Cuomo has denied the allegations, which at the time were outlined in a report by the state attorney general.

The entrance also sets up a clash between the former governor and current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has been facing renewed scrutiny and calls to step aside after the Trump-led Department of Justice directed prosecutors to drop corruption charges against him.

Adams has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and his campaign did not return a request for comment

Cuomo has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office.

CNN previously reported Cuomo and his aides have been laying the groundwork for a run for months, encouraged by the controversy surrounding Adams.

Signs Cuomo was working to set up a run increased in recent days. Last week, allies for Cuomo launched a super PAC under the name “Fix the City,” according to State Board of Elections data.

Opposition quick to respond

Cuomo’s competitors reacted to the former governor’s announcement on Saturday.

There are at least eight candidates already in the race and lawmakers who do not want him back in office have been working behind the scenes to draft additional candidates to fend off Cuomo’s candidacy.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said Cuomo’s candidacy is the “last thing New Yorkers need right now is another agent of chaos.”

“The greatest city in the world deserves better than this,” said Lander, who has declared himself a mayoral candidate.

Scott Stringer, a mayoral candidate who also ran for mayor in 2021, released a video response to Cuomo’s announcement Saturday, saying the former governor has, “always put his ego and his interest ahead of our city.”

“Being mayor of New York may help Andrew Cuomo, but it don’t do a damn thing for New Yorkers,” Stringer said in the video.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who investigated the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo has been working to draft City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams into the race, according to two sources familiar with her thinking.

Adrienne Adams, who has not officially announced a plan to run, opened a campaign committee account last week, in the latest sign she is taking a serious look at adding her name into the race.

Cuomo hit the campaign trail shortly after his video announcement, making a stop at 32BJ SEIU union headquarters in Manhattan, where he attended a candidate screening, followed by a stop for lunch at a Dominican restaurant in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

Video posted on social media shows Cuomo shaking hands among diners as he makes his way around the restaurant.

Campaign can leverage Cuomo’s many years in office

Cuomo, the scion of a New York political dynasty, spent decades in government before his stunning 2021 fall from grace.

Fresh off a job as President Bill Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, he launched a 2002 bid for governor against Carl McCall, who was state comptroller at the time and on track to become New York’s first Black governor. After a series of missteps and a racially charged race that alienated the city’s Black Democratic leaders, Cuomo, who had never held public office before, was forced to bow out of the contest in what he has described as one of the worst moments in his life.

Years later, Cuomo successfully ran for New York attorney general in 2006, followed by a successful run for governor in 2010.

Cuomo rose to national prominence at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, with daily televised briefings about how the virus was spreading across the state quickly becoming must-watch television for millions of Americans quarantining at home.

But as the pandemic progressed, killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world, Cuomo’s response also faced intense scrutiny over a controversial directive to transfer recovering Covid-19 patients back to nursing homes. His administration was accused of manipulating data and death toll numbers to cover up the impact the nursing home decision had on thousands of people.

Accusations of sexual harassment against Cuomo began to emerge in December 2020, including from Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former executive assistant and health policy adviser who said Cuomo asked her questions about her sex life while inside his office in the State Capitol. Bennett also said Cuomo told her he was open to relationships with women in their 20s.

Lindsey Boylan, another former aide, also alleged in 2018 Cuomo kissed her on the lips following a one-on-one briefing in his New York office.

Cuomo denied the allegations and apologized at the time for making comments he said had been misinterpreted.

“I never touched anyone inappropriately,” Cuomo said in his first public remarks addressing the scandal. “I never knew at the time that I was making anyone feel uncomfortable.”

Boylan said Saturday “New York City deserves better,” according to a piece in Vanity Fair.

“As frustrated as city residents rightfully are about the behavior of its scandal-plagued mayor, Eric Adams, it can indeed get worse,” Boylan wrote.