Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, is stirring division among moderate members of his party’s state congressional delegation. But while those members criticize the nominee for his past positions, they are unwilling to signal public support for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Mayor Eric Adams—both of whom are running as independents.
Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary by a commanding 12 points in the final round of ranked-choice voting. With a platform featuring pledges to freeze rent payments and resist federal immigration raids, Mamdani could signal a sharp turn in the direction of progressive politics if he’s elected in November. While the 33-year-old has been endorsed by New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, Nydia Velázquez, and Adriano Espaillat, Mamdani has yet to garner support from New York’s other 15 House Democrats, as well as the state’s two senators, as some remain publicly critical of his harder left positions.
Rep. Laura Gillen, a first-term congresswoman representing a Long Island district, offered sharp criticism of Mamdani’s proposed taxation policies, which she feels will adversely affect her Nassau County constituents who work in or visit the city.
“I would not vote for Mr. Mamdani under any circumstances,” Gillen told The Dispatch last week. “We have a cost-of-living crisis in New York, and raising taxes is not the way to ease people’s burden. … Over the past five years, we’ve seen $14 billion worth of tax revenue leave New York City.”
Mamdani’s plan to raise taxes on the city’s top earners would hike the combined state and city tax rates to the highest in the country, a move experts warn will worsen New York’s so-called wealth flight. Mamdani’s platform also calls to “shift the tax burden” to “richer and whiter neighborhoods,” a proposal which, in her interview with The Dispatch, Gillen blasted as “outrageous” and a “tax policy that’s based on race.”
Mamdani’s “richer and whiter” tag follows years of similarly controversial remarks pertaining to economic policy. As a speaker at the Young Democratic Socialists of America conference in 2021, Mamdani expressed support for the anti-Israel boycott, divest, and sanctions (BDS) movement, and couched it as an “end goal” of “seizing the means of production.” Later that year, he appeared in a video posted by the progressive Gravel Institute, where he proposed a plan to “buy up housing on the private market” and “convert it to community ownership.”
Such rhetoric has been enough to convince Rep. Joseph Morelle, who represents a western New York district, that Mamdani is an outlier among Democrats. “I don’t believe in socialism or communism. I believe in capitalism, and so I would not associate myself with that kind of language. And I don’t think it’s reflective either of where most Democrats are,” Morelle told The Dispatch.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, who cautioned Democrats over Mamdani’s economics in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece earlier this month, made a similar point of contrasting his own politics with Mamdani’s. “I’m a democratic capitalist, I’m not a democratic socialist,” Suozzi told The Dispatch.
Mamdani’s past positions on Israel have also caused New York’s House Democrats to wince. In a June interview with The Bulwark, Mamdani compared “intifada,” an Arabic term historically associated with violent uprising against the Jewish state of Israel, to Jewish-led uprisings against Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Mamdani has since refused to condemn the term, although he has reportedly told allies privately he will “discourage” its use.
But certain lawmakers insist that Mamdani should go further and disavow the term altogether. “We know what it stands for,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, who represents a Queens district, adding, “I think he has to move from where he was.” When asked whether he would express his concern to Mamdani directly, Meeks said, “I will talk to him and meet with him.”
Rep. Joe Mannion, from central New York, expressed similar concern over Mamdani’s use of the word “intifada.” “That is a phrase that, for me, is hateful and targeted towards a community which I support. I reject his statement. That statement, in my opinion, should not be used,” he said.
Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel and the Palestinians is all but certain to be a continuing issue in the campaign, one that his fellow Democrats will have to navigate if they choose to support him. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has already had to apologize to Mamdani in a phone call shortly after the primary election after she incorrectly claimed that he had made “references to global jihad” in an interview on The Brian Lehrer Show.
While Mamdani is stepping up outreach efforts to congressional Democrats, Gillibrand and Reps. Gillen, Morelle, Suozzi, Meeks, and Mannion have declined to publicly endorse a candidate.
“I don’t really get involved in races that don’t impact my area or give endorsements, other than the fact that I have to speak out against these policies,” said Gillen. She began calling for Adams’ resignation a couple of years into the besieged mayor’s federal bribery probe.
Meeks implied he may endorse a candidate in the future, but has not yet personally vetted the candidates. “I’m not at this point endorsing anyone until I talk to them,” he said.
Rep. George Latimer, who ousted former “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a Democratic primary last year and went on to win his suburban New York seat, has been more muted than some of his colleagues in his criticisms of Mamdani. Latimer’s successful challenge to Bowman, a loud critic of Israel, was made possible in part by $14.5 million spent by AIPAC, a leading pro-Israel political action committee.
Although his district includes part of the North Bronx, Latimer told The Dispatch he’s not focused on the mayoral race. “The New York City mayoral race does affect that portion of the Bronx that I have covered, but it’s a very small portion of the city at large,” he said. “The city voters will have to determine how to handle these things.”
Despite Mamdani’s unfriendly stance toward Israel, he appears to have secured an unexpected ally in Rep. Ritchie Torres, a vocally pro-Israel Bronx Democrat who formerly backed Cuomo. While Torres has not endorsed Mamdani, he has stood out among his moderate colleagues to repeatedly defend Mamdani in recent weeks—including when Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, called for Mamdani’s deportation.
“It is no secret that I have profound disagreements with Zohran Mamdani. … Demanding the deportation of an American citizen simply because he is Muslim—or simply because he holds political views different from your own—is not only bigoted. It is profoundly unAmerican,” Torres wrote in an X post. He later introduced a House resolution to censure Ogles.
“Congressman Torres is a committed liberal Zionist,” Torres spokesperson Benny Stanislawski told The Dispatch. “He sees no contradiction between condemning anti-Jewish bigotry and condemning anti-Muslim bigotry.”
That Mamdani has yet to score an endorsement from New York’s two most prominent Democrats, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, highlights the complicated nature of the New York mayoral race. Following Mamdani’s primary victory over Cuomo, Schumer praised both Mamdani’s campaign and his past collaboration with Mamdani, an assembly member representing Queens, on a state-level climate pollution initiative.
“I have known [Mamdani] since we worked together to provide debt relief for thousands of beleaguered taxi drivers & fought to stop a fracked gas plant in Astoria,” Schumer said on X. “He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, & opportunity.”
Mamdani met with Jeffries in Brooklyn on Friday, but Jeffries has thus far not extended an endorsement.
