WASHINGTON (TNND) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Democratic New York mayoral candidate and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani on Friday after months of pressure to back him from within the party.
Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn in Congress along with being the top House Democrat, has avoided endorsing Mamdani since he won the Democratic primary earlier this year. Jeffries has taken issues with some of Mamdani’s most progressive positions and had not given him an endorsement until Friday unlike other top Democrats in the state like Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
In a statement to the New York Times, Jeffries said the two had “areas of principled disagreement” but that Mamdani had won an election and said the Democratic Party needed to be united to face the “existential” threat posed by President Donald Trump.
“Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries said.
He added: “In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.”
New York’s two Democratic senators, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, also have not made an endorsement in the mayoral race.
Mamdani has earned national attention as some high-profile Democrats have endorsed his candidacy as an example of how to wage a successful progressive campaign, while Republicans have tried to paint him as the face of the Democratic Party veering toward socialism.
Jeffries has been pressed repeatedly about who he would support in the race and endorsing Mamdani. He has said he is focused on getting Democrats back to the House majority after next year’s midterms. Some of his moderate members have voiced concerns about being tied to Mamdani and see his candidacy as a potential liability to the national brand.
In polling in the final days of the race, Mamdani is widely favored to win over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who he defeated in the primary and is now running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Cuomo has framed his campaign as the only viable one that can defeat Mamdani and pushed for Sliwa to drop out to help consolidate the Republican and anti-Mamdani vote, which the GOP nominee has refused to do despite the city’s heavy Democratic tilt.
Cuomo got the endorsement of current Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, who has been an outspoken critic of Mamdani and many of his progressive policies to tackle the city’s affordability crisis. Adams has also gone after Mamdani for his criticisms in Israel, which he has said are antisemitic and claimed Mamdani’s election will lead the city to become flooded with crime.
“New York can’t be Europe, folks,” Adams said. “I don’t know what is wrong with people. You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism.”