Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo offered a scathing assessment of Democrats on Monday, saying he was unable to name any living member of his party whom he admired.

“Admire? None comes to mind,” he said, when asked in a New York Times interview to choose three elected officials whom he holds in high esteem or considers “ideologically similar” to himself.

Mr. Cuomo, who is running as an independent for mayor of New York after losing the Democratic primary, responded by listing his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York; former President John F. Kennedy; and Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general and senator from New York. His father died a decade ago, and the Kennedy brothers were both assassinated in the 1960s.

“The Democratic Party is not meeting the moment,” said Mr. Cuomo, who did not detail how he believed his party had failed. “I think the Democratic Party has created the moment.”

After being repeatedly pressed to identify a living public official, Mr. Cuomo said that Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a longtime Democratic Party stalwart, was a “doing a good job as a manager of his state.” He later offered tepid praise for Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, saying he was “doing the best he can” in his efforts to combat the Trump administration.

When asked the same question in a separate interview last week, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the party nominee and democratic socialist who leads Mr. Cuomo in the race, quickly rattled off the names of three liberal Democratic Party officials: Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston; Letitia James, the attorney general of New York who has endorsed his candidacy; and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee.