New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is carefully calculating his moves against local Democratic leaders to avoid ruffling the wrong feathers as he prepares to take office.
The socialist could back socialist primary challengers to Democrats unaligned with his agenda, but he has chosen not to do so yet.
Several of Mamdani’s allies, including City Comptroller Brad Lander, Councilwoman Alexa Avilés, Councilman Chi Ossé, and former state Assemblyman Michael Blake, have shown interest in running for the House within the city’s borders.
However, the mayor-elect has, so far, worked against showing an outright preference. He attended a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement forum for Ossé’s bid against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to persuade people not to back the socialist.
Mamdani said it would be “more difficult” for him to implement his affordability agenda if Ossé were to earn the group’s endorsement. The New York City DSA voted against endorsing Ossé last week, which will likely cause him to drop his congressional bid.
Mamdani said Sunday that he wants Jeffries to become House speaker.
He has not weighed in on New York’s 10th Congressional District, where Lander and Aviles are possible challengers to Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a centrist, pro-Israel Democrat who did not back the Mamdani during his campaign.
Goldman said in October that he was “very concerned” about Mamdani’s rhetoric, though he congratulated him on his mayoral win. He endorsed state Sen. Zellnor Myrie in the Democratic primary.
Lander, a progressive Democrat who ran for mayor and gave a decisive cross-endorsement to Mamdani in the primary, reportedly wants the mayor-elect to campaign for and endorse him if he runs. A September poll showed Lander easily beating Goldman in a primary, 52% to 33%.
Mamdani has declined to endorse Lander so far, but early tensions with the NYC DSA have bubbled to the surface. Aviles, a socialist, was endorsed by the organization in its bid to primary Goldman. The organization acknowledged that it did not want to split the leftist vote but endorsed Aviles anyway.
“While we are united in our desire to not split the left in this race or anywhere, Alexa has earned the endorsement of our members through our robust, democratic, and member-driven process and remains our endorsed candidate for NY-10,” NYC DSA co-Chairwoman Grace Mausser said in a statement to City & State. “We intend to continue to work with Alexa and Zohran to defeat Dan Goldman and win the affordability agenda.”
While Mamdani has endorsed no House Democratic primary challengers, he spoke glowingly of former state Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is running against Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) in New York’s 15th Congressional District, outside of a church where Blake serves as an assistant pastor. Blake ran in the Democratic primary for mayor and cross-endorsed Mamdani.
“Michael is a friend,” Mamdani said after a service. “I appreciated having his introduction here at church. And I’ve also made no formal endorsements in any races, and I’ll let you know as soon as I do.”
Torres did not endorse Mamdani in the primary or general election. Blake, who is attacking Torres on his support for Israel, said Mamdani’s presence at the church sends a “very powerful message.”
“On a very personal note, he could have been at any church in New York City today, after being with the president, ahead of Thanksgiving,” Blake said. “I think it sends a very powerful message that he was at Union Grove.”
The DSA is ambitious and wants to expand its member base even further following Mamdani’s win. There’s a belief that the organization is infectious and uncompromising, New York Democratic strategist Max Burns told the Washington Examiner.
Burns said those characteristics are dangerous to centrist Democrats who disagree with socialists, but he added that Mamdani is an outlier and wants to be the socialist who can compromise.
“Mamdani is going to try and show them a better path, and I hope they listen to him,” he said.
But why hasn’t Mamdani, whose vision for New York varies from that of many congressional Democrats there, endorsed any primary challengers yet? Burns believes it is because he is not a “bomb-thrower,” and any suggestion otherwise is an invention of the GOP and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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“He’s not a bomb-thrower; he understands effective coalitions,” Burns said. “Mamdani is making his preferences clearly known; they just aren’t the preferences that validate the image of him as some cartoon leftist.”
The Washington Examiner contacted the Mamdani transition team for comment on any endorsements, but received no response.
