Will AOC's Endorsement Put Zohran Mamdani Ahead Of Sex Offender Andrew Cuomo In NYC's Mayor's Race?

A few days ago when AOC endorsed a slate of “9 brawlers for the working class” running for the NYC city council, a friendly, impatient malcontent groused “Why didn’t she endorse Mamdani though?” And a few days later, yesterday, she did. The primary is June 24 and the problem is that a lot of progressives are running, splitting the vote and allowing crooked, corrupt conservative Andrew Cuomo to keep the lead. Nick Fandos wrote that AOC “endorsed Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani for mayor on Thursday, throwing her clout behind an upstart socialist who has galvanized young voters. The endorsement, shared in an interview with the New York Times, represented perhaps the most significant attempt yet to push fractured progressives toward a single strategy to block former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s path back to power. ‘Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘In the final stretch of the race, we need to get very real about that.’”

She said she will rank progressives Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Scott Stringer and Zellnor Myrie— in that order— after Mamdani. Pissed off about being left out entirely, state Sen Jessica Ramos of Queens, erstwhile progressive, said she’s now backing Cuomo. She's been unable to raise any money andthe most recent polling showed her with less than 4% support. But, still, what an embarrassment for the progressive movement!

Fandos noted that “In elevating the assemblyman, Ocasio-Cortez, 35, chose the candidate closest to her own mold. Mamdani, 33, is a leftist representing Queens, a millennial and a person of color who entered the race as a long shot only to jump to second place by igniting grassroots support with memorable policy proposals and viral videos. His platform echoes the congresswoman’s and has inspired pushback from more [conservative] Democrats. He wants to make city buses free, freeze rent increases on rent-stabilized apartments and open city-run grocery stores— all funded by a $10 billion tax hike on businesses and the superrich. He has also been a sharp critic of Israel. But Ocasio-Cortez stressed that to defeat Cuomo, a [conservative] who she said ‘belongs to the hedge funds’ and other wealthy interests funding his campaign, the left would have to build a bigger tent and urgently begin working more collaboratively… ‘Even if the entire left coalesced around any one candidate, an ideological coalition is still insufficient for us to win,’ the congresswoman said. ‘We have to have a true working-class coalition.’”

The intervention has the potential to shape the race’s final stretch, given Ocasio-Cortez’s stature among liberal advocacy groups and among the candidates themselves, as well as her growing popularity among more traditional Democrats.

But it remains far from clear whether it will be enough either to unite progressives or actually push Mamdani to victory. He has already maxed out campaign fund-raising limits and saturated support among the young and very liberal voters most closely associated with the congresswoman. Her endorsement may further motivate supporters of Cuomo, who frequently blames the congresswoman and other members of his party’s left wing for alienating middle-of-the-road voters.

Ocasio-Cortez indicated that no immediate joint appearances were scheduled.

Her 2021 mayoral endorsement, almost exactly four years ago, helped give Maya Wiley, another progressive, some late momentum, but she still lost. Since then, strategists on the left have lamented that they failed to follow a cohesive ranked-choice strategy, allowing Eric Adams, a [very conservative, very corrupt] former police officer, to narrowly claim victory. (Adams is running for re-election as an independent.)

This time, Ocasio-Cortez’s ranked slate mostly aligns with that of the Working Families Party, a bulwark of the left. The party has urged its supporters to rank five candidates on their ballot: Mamdani, Lander, Adams, Myrie and state Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens, in that order.

Mamdani found out he had secured the endorsement, among the most coveted in New York politics, late Wednesday after he walked off the stage following the contest’s first televised debate.

In a statement, he called Ocasio-Cortez a “once-in-a-generation leader” and said they shared a commitment to helping working people and opposing President Trump.

“In 2018, AOC shocked the world and changed our politics for the better with her historic victory,” he said. “On June 24, we will do the same.”

Ocasio-Cortez and her aides spent weeks studying the race. They asked candidates to submit polling, and opposition and strategy memos, to make the case for their viability. She has faced criticism for not weighing in sooner, but a person familiar with her thinking said she had long planned for her announcement to coincide with the final weeks of the race, when many voters are just tuning in.

Her decision to rank Mamdani first will be a disappointment to Adams but especially to Lander, who has assiduously courted the congresswoman for years and entered the race as the progressive favorite. Both Adams and Lander have prominent citywide leadership positions and potentially broad appeal, but they have struggled to generate the kind of excitement Mamdani has.

Though neither candidate has openly attacked Mamdani, they have privately made the case that he has unique weaknesses that could limit his support and help elect Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations (which he denies) but still has a reservoir of support with many voters.

Mamdani, for example, has alienated parts of the city’s large Jewish community with his outspoken support for the Palestinian cause and accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza [which it is and which many NYC Jews abhor, even if Fandos wants to twist his reporting].

… Ocasio-Cortez conceded that Mamdani had work to do cutting into Cuomo’s support among Black and Latino New Yorkers. But she said he had built an unparalleled field operation that had engaged voters across the city, including in areas of her district in the Bronx that are often overlooked by the left.

“Trust can’t be built quickly,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez also indicated that she was sensitive to concerns about Mamdani’s age and inexperience. She said she had “made my expectations of the assemblymember quite clear” about the kind of expertise and support he would need to succeed, if elected.

Hugh Grant was 30 when he was elected to his first term as mayor. And “Boy Mayor” John Purroy Mitchel was 34 when he was elected in 1913.

AOC noted that “As someone who got elected when I was 28 years old, I know very intimately what it means to be trusted with an enormous job of immense responsibility at a very young age. It is not something that I take lightly.”

It’s worth noting that in hypothetical matchups for the 2028 Senate primary, AOC beats Schumer, not just among all Democrats, but even among Jewish Democrats. The Honan Strategy Group poll  for the Jewish  Voters Action Network found her trouncing Schumer by 21 points— 54% to 33%! She also holds a 45% to 33% lead over Schumer, who is Jewish and backed by the genocide coalition.

Data for Progress' polling from March shows her leading Schumer by 19 points, 55% to 36%:

New York primary voters prefer progressives to conservatives. The poll shows Bernie with the most favorable net ratings (+69), Elizabeth Warren at +60 and with AOC at +59 whereas conservative corporate Dems aren’t nearly as well liked:

• Kathy Hochul +36

• Gavin Newsom +28

• Chuck Schumer +26

• Rahm Emanuel +12 

By a very wide margin, Emanuel is the least popular of anyone polled. Schumer has the most “very unfavorable” ratings (+18%), compared to Bernie’s 7%, Warren’s 9% and AOC’s 10%. Many New York progressives are keeping their fingers crossed that Emanuel, an anti-progressive fanatic and reactionary on all working class issues, will publicly endorse Cuomo.