1977 New York City mayoral election

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.