Former VP Harris endorses Mamdani for NYC Mayor as some Democrats stay silent

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is endorsing Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race. The move comes as other top Democrats have shied away from Mamdani, despite his landslide win in the Democratic primary in June.

“Look as far as I’m concerned he’s the Democratic nominee and he should be supported,” Harris said during an appearance Monday on MSNBC, but she also appeared to downplay his national significance. “He’s not the only star,” Harris said.

Harris’s backing is notable as many Democratic Party leaders have so far declined to back Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialist Party who has been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, which began after Hamas’s deadly terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Speaking this month with the New York Times, Mamdani said he would order the NYPD to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on international war crime charges if the Israeli leader entered New York City.

“This is something that I intend to fulfill,” Mr. Mamdani told the Times. This month, an international UN commission concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, an accusation Israeli officials reject.

Some Democratic leaders have also distanced themselves from Mamdani because of his progressive stance on economic policies, including a call for a rent freeze, free childcare, and higher taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

“Socialism does not work and his proposed plans would make New York a less competitive city and state,’ said Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democratic congressman from Long Island who announced he won’t back Mamdani.

New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in an editorial in the New York Times earlier this month, describing him as “a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.”

Mamdani has also won strong backing from progressive leaders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

But two of the country’s most powerful Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both from New York, have so far declined to back Mamdani’s bid to lead the nation’s largest city.

The chair of New York’s state Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, also released a statement earlier this month saying he would refuse to back Mamdani because of their sharply differing views on Israel and other policy issues.

“I reject the platform of the so-called ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ and do not believe that it represents the principles, values or policies of the Democratic Party,” Jacobs wrote.

Polls show Mamdani holds a commanding lead in the mayor’s race against a packed field that includes current Mayor Eric Adams, former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

A Sept. 9 survey by the Siena Research Institute found Mamdani at 46 percent in a four-way race, with Cuomo in second place at 24 percent, Sliwa at 15 percent and Adams with 9 percent.

Some Democrats who back Mamdani have been fiercely critical of party leaders who’ve stayed on the sidelines. After Jacobs announced that he wouldn’t endorse his party’s candidate, state Senator Mike Gianaris called the decision “disgraceful.”

“The chair of the Democratic Party refusing to support the candidate clearly selected by the voters of the Democratic Party,” Gianaris wrote on the social media platform X. “If he won’t perform that most basic responsibility of a party leader, what exactly is he doing over there?”