Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is endorsing Zohran Mamdani as her prime choose for New York Metropolis mayor, giving the socialist upstart candidate a serious enhance because the 2025 race for Metropolis Corridor kicks into excessive gear.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has since being elected to Congress in 2018 grow to be one of many Democratic Occasion’s most outstanding progressive leaders, mentioned in an interview revealed Thursday she’s backing Mamdani due to the grassroots help he has generated in pushing a coverage platform centered round affordability.
“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 advised the New York Occasions. “In the final stretch of the race, we need to get very real about that.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
The Ocasio-Cortez endorsement was extremely coveted within the June 24 mayoral main, as she’s thought of the town’s chief left-wing chief and usually ranks because the Democratic Occasion’s hottest member. Her stature as a nationwide determine has solely elevated since President Trump returned to the White Home, as she and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have launched into a nationwide tour of anti-Trump rallies that every have a tendency to attract 1000’s of attendees.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Mario Tama/Getty Pictures)
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani, a Queens Meeting member, is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. They’re additionally each millennials — Ocasio-Cortez is 35 and Mamdani is 33 — and their western Queens-based districts overlap.
“In Washington, the Congresswoman has been a tireless advocate for working people as she has led the fight against Donald Trump. That’s exactly the kind of leadership we will deliver to New York,” Mamdani mentioned in a press release accepting her endorsement.
It wasn’t instantly clear if Ocasio-Cortez plans to affix Mamdani on the marketing campaign path or seem in advertisements with him.
Her choose of Mamdani marks a disappointment for Lander, a longtime ally who was endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez for his 2021 comptroller run.
On condition that the June 24 main is ranked alternative, Ocasio-Cortez mentioned she’s urging New Yorkers to again a slate of candidates on their ballots.
However she put Lander third on that slate, giving the No. 2 spot to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. She additionally put ex-Comptroller Scott Stringer within the No. 4 slot and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie in No. 5.
Zohran Mamdani waves to the group throughout his first marketing campaign rally at Brooklyn Metal on Might 4 2025. (MADISON SWART/Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Requested for remark, a spokeswoman for Lander, who has principally polled because the No. 3 candidate within the race, pointed to a tweet he put out saying he’s “proud” to have her help.
The Mamdani nod from Ocasio-Cortez comes as he has emerged because the progressive standard-bearer within the Democratic mayoral main, pushing a platform that features guarantees to freeze the lease for the town’s stabilized tenants, drastically broaden totally sponsored baby care and make public buses free.
He has constantly polled because the No. 2 candidate within the race behind front-runner Andrew Cuomo, a centrist Democrat. Some latest polls are indicating Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani is narrowing, and Ocasio-Cortez mentioned within the interview she hopes her endorsement will assist beat again Cuomo, blasting him as a profession politician who “belongs to the hedge funds,” a reference to his ultra-wealthy donor base.
On the similar time, Mamdani has confronted scrutiny in some corners of the town’s citizens over his lack of government expertise (his solely elected job is serving within the State Meeting since 2021) in addition to his outspoken criticism of Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged Mamdani’s youth and hard-left stances on sure points may pose an impediment in searching for help from some communities, saying “trust can’t be built quickly.”
However she additionally mentioned she “made my expectations of the assemblymember quite clear” in conversations with him earlier than the endorsement.
“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,” she mentioned. “It is not something that I take lightly.”
Initially Revealed: June 5, 2025 at 10:01 AM EDT
