Former New York City mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa stood outside the Hofstra University Student Center Theater flanked by two public safety officers while wearing his signature red beret. At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, a speaker listed Sliwa’s achievements, and when he walked into the room of less than 100 people, applause and entrance music rang out. His signature New York accent rang through the theater as he revisited his memories of Hofstra.
Sliwa praised Hofstra for housing the New York Jets’ summer training camp, daily practices and off-season workouts from 1968 to 2008. He last visited Hofstra in 2016 for the Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump presidential debate.
President of the Hofstra College Republicans, Issac Brendel, wanted this event to be open to everyone, not just republicans.
“College campuses – at least used to be places for free thought, free debate, critical thinking skills,” Brendel said. “We want to bring that and restore that back to campus by giving students a chance to come and be heard and listen to differing thoughts.” The panel was moderated by Brendel, Hofstra College Republicans Vice President John Vira and Programming Chair Jacob Aurelus.
Sliwa stated he had no regrets on his decision to continue running for mayor despite bribes and calls to drop out. Sliwa alleged he was offered $10 million dollars from unnamed billionaires to drop out of the race in favor of Independent Party candidate Andrew Cuomo. President Trump had also called for Sliwa to step down.
“I would’ve needed to take a hot shower every night, I would’ve felt soiled,” Sliwa said. “[Cuomo] was responsible for the death of 15,000 elderly because of his executive order during the lockdown pandemic and sexual harassment charges – 13 I might add.”
He labeled Cuomo a sore loser and called Republicans “Cuomo-sexuals.”
“Not billionaires, not masters of the universe, not the insiders, not influencers – the people will decide in elections,” Sliwa said.
Sliwa’s red beret is a uniform of the group he founded 47 years ago called the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit volunteer organization. The organization patrols subways and the streets to reduce crime and help the underserved. They have been criticized for obsessing over the public eye and targeting people of color and immigrants.
“One rationale for why the Guardian Angels came about, why they continue to operate globally, it’s because we care about people and taking care of those who are least capable of defending themselves,” Sliwa said.
This rhetoric is why Sliwa disagreed with how New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani handled the snowstorm in late January.
“He messed up on that by refusing to remove the homeless and emotionally disturbed, especially in sub-zero, freezing weather,” Sliwa said. “Close to 20 died. He’s stubborn. He thinks they should be able to live in encampments, that’s wrong.”
Mamdani discontinued sweeps of homeless encampments that existed under former Mayor Eric Adams. According to The City, sweeps did not result in permanent housing for anyone and only 3% of people affected by sweeps were placed in homeless shelters. Involuntary commitment and admitting homeless people deemed unable to care for themselves to a hospital was a last resort for Mamdani.
As of Feb. 12, 19 outdoor deaths were linked to the cold, although none were in encampments. Mamdani has since reversed his stance and will now conduct sweeps of homeless encampments, with the goal of connecting them with homeless shelters.
Sliwa’s visit came just 24 hours after Trump’s State of the Union address. The Hofstra College Republicans panelists asked about Sliwa’s policy in relation to this state of the union. Sliwa rejected portions of the SAVE Act, including two bills that would require citizens to present documents, like a birth certificate or a passport, when registering to vote and present photo ID each time they vote.
“There’s plenty of legal IDs you can use to register to vote, let’s not get greedy,” Sliwa said. “The population is on our side, about 80% of the population says you should have to show ID when you vote each and every time, and I believe you do.”
Sliwa compared the current operations of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk quota. Around 5 million people from 2002 to 2013 were stopped and frisked by police, majority of which were Black and Latino men who had committed no crimes.
“I know some ICE agents who have had discussions with me, ‘Curtis, you know I got a quota every day,’” Sliwa said. “‘You know towards the end of the day, if I haven’t gotten a really bad hombre … I’m going to have to grab anybody I can.’”
Josef Winter, a sophomore music education major, attended the panel to gain insight on how Sliwa energized young people who are stepping away from the Democratic Party. The panel left little room for questions from audience members, including Winter, who left wanting more.
“I thought it was kinda poorly ran,” Winter said. “I think we could have benefitted from more audience questions or more time for [Sliwa] to be talking and less so of the three people that we know all of their political views filibustering.”
Vira ended the event by gifting Sliwa a Hofstra College Republicans shirt. Brendel said that Hofstra College Republicans is open to anyone, regardless of political affiliation. They meet every Wednesday at 1 p.m. in room 302 of CV Starr Hall.
*CORRECTION March 4, 2026: The printed version of this article incorrectly attributed “[Trump]” for Curtis Sliwa’s quote. The online version has been corrected to “[Cuomo].”
