Andrew Cuomo made it clear he didn’t mean to rule out a White House run down the road. | AP Photo Cuomo opens the door to 2016 run

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, riding high after a successful legislative session, on Monday opened the door to running for president in 2016.

Asked directly if he is considering a White House bid in 2016, Cuomo initially said that was “not a possibility.”


“Obviously 2016, it’s silly,” Cuomo said on New York Post state editor Fred Dicker’s Albany radio show. “No, it’s not a possibility. … It’s not about 2016. It’s about the power of the passage of gay marriage.”

But later in the interview, Cuomo made it clear he didn’t intend to rule out a White House run down the road.

Asked specifically if he were ruling out a run in 2016, Cuomo said, “No.”

“Let’s be clear,” the first-year governor said, “I’m not going to engage in this conversation. … I’m not going to engage or fuel the speculation. I’ve got a very important job to do; we just started doing it.”

After New York legalized gay marriage late Friday night, Cuomo spent the weekend at the center of speculation that his Friday night victory lap press conference was the first step in a national campaign.

“This has such an effect nationwide that it’s driving this kind of speculation,” Cuomo said. “It comes back to the impact of what the state Legislature did, in Albany, when they passed marriage equality.”

Cuomo is being credited with a successful legislative session in which he obtained virtually all of his key objectives: ethics reform, a property tax cap, major budget cuts, and gay marriage.