Call it the Mamdani tsunami.
Zohran Mamdani’s earthshaking political rise continues to pick up speed as the mayoral candidate racks up endorsements from New York City’s most powerful labor unions and woos party bosses in Washington. This raises all sorts of speculation around whether the democratic socialist has already drowned out the competition.
Asked whether Mr. Mamdani could be stopped, Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist who has been highly critical of Mr. Mamdani, joked that he “was just talking to President Harris about that.”
“Vice President Harris was supposed to win that race,” he said of the 2024 presidential election. “It’s a long time till November. Anything can happen.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and their allies are scrambling to slow the Mamdani momentum and sharpen their focus on the state assemblyman’s inexperience and how his socialist-inspired vision would be catastrophic for New Yorkers.
Mr. Mamdani’s platform includes free bus service, free day care and government-run grocery stores in the city.
Fresh off announcing he is staying in the race as an independent, Mr. Cuomo is vowing to take a more aggressive and visible approach to the campaign after being criticized for playing it too safe and being largely absent during his failed primary campaign.
He has lost the necktie, opened the collar and raced around the city, shooting social media videos, holding retail campaign stops and making a slew of appearances on television networks in the hopes of regaining his once potent political mojo and putting a dent in Mr. Mamdani’s armor.
“He articulates the problem, what is bothering them, but his solutions are vapid,” Mr. Cuomo said this week. “There is no there, there. It is not as simple as saying everything is free.”
In an interview with NY1, Mr. Cuomo was more pointed.
“I think the assemblyman would do damage to New York,” he said. “I have been having this battle with the socialists for years. This is now new.”
Some Democrats question whether Mr. Cuomo missed his chance after losing to Mr. Mamdani by nearly 13 percentage points in the Democratic primary, despite more than $30 million spent on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Mr. Adams has a worse approval rating than Mr. Cuomo. The image problem stems largely from a federal indictment last year on corruption charges and the Trump Justice Department’s decision this year not to pursue the charges.
The other candidates are Republican Curtis Sliwa, who lost to Mr. Adams by 43 points in the 2021 mayoral race, and Jim Walden, a long-shot independent.
Mr. Mamdani has strengthened his support since the primary.
District Council 37, the city’s largest public sector union representing 150,000 New Yorkers, endorsed Mr. Mamdani. The United Federation of Teachers, the city’s largest teachers union, also announced it would support his campaign.
The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the service workers union 32BJ SEIU, both of which backed Mr. Cuomo in the primary race, also have swung their support behind Mr. Mamdani.
Democrats Jerrold Nadler and Adriano Espaillat, who represent New York City in Congress, also joined the movement after the primary.
Mr. Mamdani already had endorsements from Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose stunning 2018 primary win over the No. 4 House Democrat has helped inspire left-wing candidates such as Mr. Mamdani and shown how parts of New York City have become a political breeding ground for the party’s left wing.
When asked whether Mr. Mamdani had won over anybody, Mr. Nadler said, “Yes,” but he did not elaborate.
Ms. Valezquez said Mr. Mamdani has a level of authenticity that “money cannot buy” and took a swipe at Mr. Cuomo.
“You cannot say that there is an affordability crisis in New York and then have a super PAC that is funded by developers,” she said.
She was referring to the Fix the City super PAC, which spent more than $25 million on Mr. Cuomo’s behalf in the primary. It was partly funded by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Despite the praise, Mr. Mamdani still has a lot of work to do. This week, he traveled to Capitol Hill to persuade more lawmakers to support his cause.
The list of holdouts among top-tier New York politicians includes: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Queens staple who backed Mr. Cuomo in the primary, and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries are expected to meet with Mr. Mamdani on Friday. Left-wing groups are pressuring the party’s political brass to fall in line behind Mr. Mamdani.
“As billionaires rush to line up behind already defeated Andrew Cuomo to challenge Mamdani AGAIN, it’s more important than ever that Mamdani get the outright support of Democratic leaders,” said a blast email from Our Revolution, the far-left activist group that grew out of Sen. Bernard Sanders’ presidential campaigns. “So, together let’s overwhelm Jeffries with our call to endorse Mamdani NOW.”
At a meeting in New York this week, Mr. Mamdani struggled to ease the concerns of business leaders who fear his tax-and-spend agenda could stifle the city’s economy.
Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York City, said business leaders walked away thinking Mr. Mamdani was both “the most impressive candidate they have seen in generations” and “clearly totally inexperienced.”
“On policy issues, he is sourcing from sources they don’t believe in, in terms of the fiscal realities, the tax impacts, etc.,” Ms. Wylde said on CNBC.
Touching on another political vulnerability, Ms. Wylde said Mr. Mamdani assured business leaders that he would no longer use the phrase “globalize the intifada” and would discourage others from doing so. During his primary campaign, he refused to condemn the slogan, which some Jewish voters condemn as antisemitic. Mr. Mamdani’s critics have also highlighted his reluctance to say whether Israel should be a nation state.
Dan Turrentine, a New York-based Democratic Party strategist, said the episode exposes Mr. Mamdani’s political underbelly.
“You know he has a problem because he is rushing to meet the business community, and, apparently, he is going to give a big speech later in the week to try to assuage Jewish New Yorkers that he understands the need to protect them,” Mr. Turrentine said on “The Morning Meeting” online show.
This week, the anti-Mamdani forces seized on a HarrisX poll showing the race is tight.
The survey of 585 registered New York voters found that Mr. Mamdani leads the pack at 26%, followed by Mr. Cuomo at 23%, Mr. Sliwa at 22% and Mr. Adams at 13%.
The remaining respondents were undecided.
In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, Mr. Mamdani holds a 43% to 36% lead over Mr. Adams but trails Mr. Cuomo by 35% to 50%.
“These numbers show a volatile race still taking shape,” Dritan Nesho, CEO of HarrisX, said in the poll analysis. “While the progressive base is fueling Mamdani’s rise, Cuomo’s broad name recognition and moderate appeal make him a formidable general election challenger.”
Critics were quick to point out that the same pollster’s final pre-primary survey showed Mr. Cuomo with a 38% to 19% lead over Mr. Mamdani, who went on to defeat Mr. Cuomo by nearly 13 percentage points.
The findings also provided more fodder for Mr. Mamdani’s rivals to rally behind a single candidate before the November election.
Mr. Walden, a long-shot independent candidate, first broached the idea, and Mr. Cuomo hijacked it after losing the primary.
Mr. Adams and Mr. Sliwa aren’t buying in.
Mr. Adams insists Mr. Cuomo cannot be trusted to follow through on his pledge and that he had his shot when he failed miserably in the primary.
Mr. Sliwa says Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo have political baggage.
“Mamdani, who nobody knew six months ago, not even his neighbors, is now an international figure because the mayor failed to do his job,” Mr. Sliwa said Thursday on Fox 5 New York.
Turning to Mr. Cuomo, he said, “In the streets, the word about Andrew Cuomo is slapping fannies and killing grannies.”
He was alluding to the allegations of sexual misconduct that led to the governor’s resignation and the controversy over nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 emergency.
“Enough of this nonsense, play musical chairs on the Titanic,” he said. “I am going to go back to the streets and subways and campaign to be your mayor.”
