Former President Barack Obama held a 30-minute call with self-declared socialist Zohran Mamdani, praising his “impressive” campaign and offering to be a “sounding board” should he win the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday.
The call, reported by The New York Times and confirmed by Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, came on Saturday, when Mr. Obama also campaigned in person for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill.
During the private call, Mr. Obama reportedly said he was “invested” in Mr. Mamdani’s success ahead of Tuesday’s election, where polls show him with a double-digit lead over his next closest contender, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The two also spoke about the challenges of staffing an administration that would help Mr. Mamdani implement his ambitious agenda of government-run grocery stores, free public transportation and rent-controlled housing, among other things.
“Zohran Mamdani appreciated President Obama’s words of support and their conversation on the importance of bringing a new kind of politics to our city,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
Ms. Spanberger, a retired CIA operative, and Ms. Sherrill, a retired Naval officer, hoped bringing in a political heavyweight such as Mr. Obama would help jolt to their campaigns in the final stretch.
Ms. Sherrill, in particular, is running neck-and-neck with her Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli. She has flip-flopped on her support for Mr. Mamdani — initially pledging to back him if he were the Democratic nominee in neighboring New York City, but later declaring that she was staying out of the race.
Ms. Spanberger has polled ahead of her GOP challenger, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle‒Sears, in the Virginia race. She has avoided direct confrontation over transgender accommodations in northern Virginia schools, an issue that helped elevate incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, to victory four years ago.
At his rallies on Saturday, Mr. Obama sounded the alarm about the “growing concentration of economic power in the country, with just a handful of mega-billionaires and companies controlling what we see and what we hear.”
