New York governor endorses pro-Palestinian candidate Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor
New York governor endorses pro-Palestinian candidate Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Sunday endorsed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City.
Hochul, a centrist Democrat who has served as New York's governor since 2021, wrote an opinion article in The New York Times endorsing the assembly member from Queens who won the New York Democratic primary in June against establishment figure Andrew Cuomo with 56.4 percent of registered voters.
Hochul said that while she and Mamdani did not always see eye to eye, they share similar views on making New York both safe and affordable and had “frank conversations” on issues that she sees as priorities, such as ensuring the New York Police Department has enough resources, “the need to combat the rise in antisemitism”, and ensuring “New York remains the center of the global economy”.
“In our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family,” she wrote. “I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable - a goal I enthusiastically support.”
Hochul, who grew up in an Irish Catholic working-class family which once lived in a trailer park, said she knows “what that struggle feels like”.
“My mom bought our clothes on layaway or at secondhand stores, and she stretched dinners with Spam sandwiches on day-old bread pulled from the freezer,” she said. “Those experiences will never leave me. Families cannot wait another year, another month, another election cycle. They need urgent action now,” she added.
While Hochul has courted controversy for "sweetheart deals" for donors, her comments about Black children and Black church-goers, and clamping down on pro-Palestine advocacy at Hunter College and City College, she has also found alignment with Mamdani on resisting President Donald Trump.
“Mr Mamdani and I will both be fearless in confronting the president’s extreme agenda - with urgency, conviction and the defiance that defines New York,” she wrote. “And we must never allow Mr Trump to control our city like the king he wants to be. Anyone who accepts his tainted influence or benefits from it is compromised from the start."
Analysts say Hochul's endorsement could have a ripple effect on voters who are politically aligned with her.
Mamdani thanked Hochul in a press release on Sunday, saying, “I’m grateful to the Governor for her support in unifying our party - as well as the work she’s done standing up to President Trump, securing free lunch meals for our kids, and expanding access to childcare."
'Spineless politics'
US Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland also endorsed Mamdani for mayor on Saturday, calling on his peers within the Democratic Party to step up and speak out in support of the Democratic Socialist.
“Many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines,” Van Hollen told Democrats gathered in Des Moines, Iowa, for a party fundraiser. “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of. They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”
Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have not endorsed Mamdani so far.
Trump described Mamdani as “my little Communist mayor” during an interview on Fox and Friends on Friday.
Mamdani will run against Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York who is running as an Independent; incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who is also running as an Independent; and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, in the November elections.
New Yorkers of all faiths have rallied around the 33-year-old, and on 25 June of this year, he secured a stunning political upset, defeating his main rival, Cuomo.
Despite being a relative unknown before the primary election and polling as low as one percent in February, Mamdani's campaign has mobilised a broad coalition of voters.
Mamdani ran on a campaign promoting progressive policies, including a citywide rent freeze, taxpayer-funded childcare, and "fast and free" public buses.
