Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer are nonetheless holding Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani at arm’s size as they give attention to the 2026 midterm elections amid the hope Democrats can retake Congress and cease President Trump’s right-wing agenda in its tracks.
Because the November mayoral election edges nearer, the Democratic congressional leaders seem like in no hurry to embrace the progressive Mamdani, whose pro-Palestinian stance and plans to fund his affordability agenda by boosting taxes have made him a lightning rod for criticism from nationwide Republicans and various average Democrats.
“They are probably weighing the potential blowback from swing districts nationally from the perceptions of progressive politics,” mentioned Basil Smikle, a Columbia College professor and Democratic strategist.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, dealing with a re-election marketing campaign of her personal, has likewise stored her distance from Mamdani.
Zohran Mamdani, left, and Rev. Al Sharpton are pictured after a “March on Wall Street” to name for financial justice on August 28, 2025, in New York Metropolis. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
A supply near Jeffries conceded that he’s laser-focused on flipping the Home, which might act as “the firewall against Trump” if Democrats win and set up him as Home Speaker. However they disputed the concept that any attainable Jeffries endorsement of Mamdani would increase Republicans in suburban or heartland swing districts the place the midterms will probably be received or misplaced.
“They’re always going to have a bogeyman. If it’s not Zohran it’s (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). If it’s not AOC it’s Nancy Pelosi,” the supply mentioned. “At the end of the day, people in Omaha, Nebraska, or Des Moines, Iowa, are worried about their own families and their hometowns, not who’s going to be mayor of New York.”
Most just lately. Jeffries declined to look in public with collectively after holding a second “constructive” assembly with Mamdani because the youthful Queens assemblyman’s emphatic Democratic mayoral main win, this one behind closed doorways at a Black church in Brooklyn final Tuesday.
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks throughout a press convention on the U.S. Capitol on July 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Picture by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos)
Rep. Yvette Clarke, an ally of Jeffries from Flatbush, additionally attended the assembly together with a number of Black clergy. She was simply as tight-lipped a few potential endorsement.
Each Jeffries, the Home minority chief, and Mamdani’s marketing campaign insist there is no such thing as a rift between the 2 males and say that the conferences are designed to construct frequent floor.
Mamdani trounced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Jeffries’ personal Brooklyn district on his strategy to a powerful main win. His dynamic type has energized Democratic voters and received the enthusiastic backing of liberal get together stalwarts like ex-Mayor Invoice De Blasio and metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander. However Mamdani underperformed citywide amongst older Black voters, a key Democratic constituency.
Eye on midterms
Jeffries himself has framed his involvement within the mayoral race as a course of that’s unfolding similtaneously he barnstorms the nation in search of an edge within the high-stakes battle with Republicans over redistricting and the midterms.
Democrats solely have to flip a few half-dozen seats to retake the Home, though Trump’s push to redraw districts in Texas and different crimson states might make that job harder. Democrats might reply in California and different blue states.
The Brooklyn lawmaker just lately instructed that he isn’t contemplating another candidate for mayor, like Cuomo or incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, each of whom are operating as independents.
“What I can say is: He’s the only one I’m scheduled to meet with,” Jeffries mentioned on a latest episode of the Bulwark podcast.
Schumer has taken the same tack with Mamdani because the main, praising him in statements however avoiding any public appearances collectively or making a proper endorsement.
A spokesman for the Senate minority chief as soon as mentioned the boys hoped to fulfill in Brooklyn through the August recess. Final week, the spokesman mentioned a face-to-face assembly might happen “soon” after Labor Day.
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer D-N.Y., speaks to reporters following weekly coverage luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Could 13, 2025. (AP Picture/Jose Luis Magana)
Schumer and Mamdani have spoken over the cellphone a number of instances over the summer time, the spokesman mentioned, suggesting the 2 leaders are on good phrases regardless of variations on some points and the shortage of an endorsement and public embrace.
A supply aware of Schumer’s considering mentioned the Senate chief has skilled almost all his vitality on recruiting stable candidates for swing state races within the midterms, together with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
“The thing Chuck is really judged by is who he recruits and can they win,” the supply mentioned.
Democrats would want to flip 4 Republican-held seats to retake the Senate and return Schumer to the bulk chief’s publish, a really daunting job that will contain grabbing swing seats in North Carolina and Maine and scoring upsets on crimson turf like Iowa, Texas or Ohio.
The nationwide Democratic leaders, who reside just some subway stops aside in Brooklyn, could also be treading cautiously to keep away from giving potential marketing campaign ammunition to Republicans, political analysts say.
Trump has denounced Mamdani as a “communist” and worse, whereas different GOP lawmakers have sought to hyperlink Democratic rivals to Mamdani’s leftist coverage positions.
Some suburban average Democrats, like Lengthy Island’s Rep. Tom Suozzi and Rep. Laura Gillen, have signaled they received’t again Mamdani despite the fact that he’s the get together’s customary bearer for Gracie Mansion and leads in polls.
“To Jeffries, keeping the party brand ‘moderate’ enough in the suburbs to, say, defeat (Rep. Mike Lawler) or make sure Suozzi holds on, is probably taking priority,” mentioned J. Miles Coleman, a College of Virginia political analyst.
