Andrew Cuomo suffered a shocking and humiliating defeat in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday night. Despite possessing pseudo-incumbency as a nearly three-term governor of the state, arguably the most recognizable last name in New York politics and a massive fundraising advantage, he lost to Zohran Mamdani, a relative political newcomer who is just 33 years old. Cuomo lost so quickly on Tuesday that he conceded before the city even counted rank choice votes.

Across the five boroughs, many of the people the pugilistic former governor angered over the years rejoiced. Brad Lander, another mayoral candidate and current city comptroller, told a crowd of supporters that “Andrew Cuomo is in the past. He is not the present or future of New York City.”

”Good fucking riddance,” he added.

Joel Wertheimer, who worked for Cuomo beginning in 2017, shared his own thoughts on Bluesky as it became clear the former governor was in trouble. “From the depths of my heart: fuck Andrew Cuomo and everybody who works for him.”

But Cuomo’s defeat was perhaps most satisfying to the dozen or so women who accused the former governor of sexual harassment. Less than four years ago, Cuomo resigned over allegations of workplace harassment — the majority of which were substantiated by investigations conducted by the New York attorney general’s office and the Department of Justice. Democrats from all corners of the country, including then-President Joe Biden, called on Cuomo to step down or possibly face impeachment.

Cuomo denies all of the allegations against him, though he initially apologized that some of his comments to one female employee were “misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.”

“I can’t even describe how good it feels to know that someone who was trying to obliterate me and all the other women that he harmed did not succeed,” Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, told HuffPost on Wednesday morning.

“His path to victory was to destroy all of us … and it didn’t work,” she said.

Boylan and many of the other women have been fighting costly and emotionally draining legal battles against Cuomo for the past few years. Three of the women, including Boylan, told HuffPost last month that they worried Cuomo’s legal attacks wouldn’t stop if he became New York City’s next mayor; he would simply continue with more power and resources.

“If he had risen back into power, there’s a lot of influence and resources that would accompany that elevation,” Ana Liss, who accused Cuomo of inappropriate workplace behavior, told HuffPost. “Understanding how vicious and cruel and senseless the legal warfare was that I experienced in just the last couple of years, I thought it’s likely that that would continue and maybe get worse.”

It came as a shock to many of the women when Cuomo announced in March his candidacy for New York City mayor. It was even more stunning when many of those same Democrats who had called for his departure now supported his bid for mayor.

After last night’s upset, Boylan had only three words for those Democrats: “Shame on you.”

All three women who spoke with HuffPost had little hope that Cuomo’s behavior toward women would sway voters. Maybe the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars Cuomo spent on legal fees in his multiple sexual harassment cases would motivate some to not vote for him. Mainly, they thought there was a higher likelihood that Mamdani’s campaign message about freezing the rent and making buses free would most resonate with New Yorkers.

“Cuomo represents the past — and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with everything about the past — but if you’re going to be part of the present and the future, here and now, you have to adapt to what voters need to hear and believe and want,” Karen Hinton, a longtime Cuomo staffer who accused him of making unwanted sexual advances toward her in 2000, told HuffPost.

“Mamdani is that candidate. Andrew Cuomo was not,” she added.

It didn’t feel like Cuomo actually wanted to be mayor, Hinton said. Instead, it seemed like he wanted to use the mayor’s office as a launching pad to position himself as someone who could run against President Donald Trump in 2028. (Despite being term-limited, Trump has hinted at a third term.)

“He [Mamdani] was everywhere. Andrew was hiding in his apartment in Manhattan. He wasn’t out there with the people,” said Hinton, who has worked in politics for more than 40 years. “And I think that was a sign that he didn’t really want to be the mayor of New York City.”

Several lawsuits have been filed against Cuomo over the sexual harassment claims; three of them are ongoing.

Boylan spent most of primary day canvassing for Mamdani in the East Village in the 100-degree heat. Instead of going to a watch party when polls closed, she headed to her local restaurant bar. Sitting in her “Zohran for New York City” shirt, drenched in sweat like most other New Yorkers on Tuesday, she quietly read the polling data as it came in.

The stakes were just too high for her to be around other people. “This was so personal,” she said. “I feel like my family, everyone I know, every woman I care about, put themselves on the line for this.”

Boylan worked closely with Lander’s and Mamdani’s campaigns leading up to primary day, door-knocking and attending rallies for months. During one rally, Boylan said, a Cuomo supporter accosted her 11-year-old daughter — yelling at her and accusing Boylan of lying about her allegations against Cuomo.

When Boylan finally came home from the restaurant on election night, confident that Mamdani was about to win, she went right to her daughter’s room.

“She knows exactly who Cuomo is. She knows exactly what he’s trying to do. She knows exactly what he’s done to our family,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “And the best feeling in my life was to be able to tell her that he didn’t win.”

Mamdani is now the presumptive front-runner in the left-leaning city. But Cuomo has said he might run on a third-party ticket — a strategy that was successful in the 2021 Buffalo, New York, mayoral race.

All three women were relieved to see Mamdani win the primary, but they’re not claiming full victory just yet.

“While I am relieved today and I feel really optimistic about last night’s outcome, I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch,” Liss said, referring to Cuomo possibly still running as an independent. “We’ll see what happens in November.”