New York Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed DSA candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani last night. She did so by writing an endorsement for the NY Times.
The question of who will be the next mayor is one I take extremely seriously and to which I have devoted a great deal of thought.
I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
In the past few months, I’ve had frank conversations with him. We’ve had our disagreements. But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family. I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.
I also shared with him my priorities, making it very clear that our police officers should have every resource to keep our streets and subways safe. I urged him to ensure that there is strong leadership at the helm of the N.Y.P.D. — and he agreed…
Mr. Mamdani and I don’t see eye to eye on everything, and I don’t expect us to. I will always reserve the right to disagree honestly and to argue passionately. But I also believe that New York State and New York City are at our best when we stand together against those who attempt to tear us apart.
You can parse each line of this and strip it of the usual spin. The real message reads something like this:
I’ve sat back and watched the polls as long as possible and it really looks like this guy is going to win.
I might as well endorse the winner. No use swimming against the tide.
I’m not really a fan but if he wants to wreck the city’s real estate market with rent freezes I won’t stop him.
I did tell him to back off the NYPD and he promised he would (this is my public marker in case he does something really stupid)…
He’s a socialist so I’ll probably throw him under the bus before long. You people chose him so don’t blame me when the city goes all to hell.
Gov. Hochul could be facing a future race against Republican Elise Stefanik. This endorsement could be a problem for her in the general election.
If Mr. Mamdani is elected, he could help protect her left flank, but also prove a liability in the general election, where she could face Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican and a strong supporter of President Trump.
Ms. Stefanik said in a statement that Ms. Hochul now must own “every radical position” Mr. Mamdani has supported, including his past support for defunding the police.
“As I always said, it was only a matter of time before the worst governor in America, Kathy Hochul, would bend the knee to the communist antisemite Zohran Mamdani,” she said.
In any case, Hochul’s decision to bend the knee will place additional pressure on Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries who have not yet endorsed him.
Today, President Trump reacted to the endorsement on Truth Social.
President Trump Responds to Hochul Endorsing the Little NYC Commie, Foreshadows What’s to come if He’s Elected‼️ pic.twitter.com/Idyq8pAdH8
— Maga Girl 🇺🇸 (@magagirl223) September 15, 2025
Meanwhile, the Washington Post published an editorial today basically saying that Mamdani is still a left-wing extremist.
As Zohran Mamdani looks increasingly like the next mayor of New York, he’s working hard to convince voters he’s not the radical that his own words make him out to be. Democratic partisans are starting to fall in line, but consider us unimpressed.
Mamdani apologized on Thursday, the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, for calling the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” on social media. He said he simply had been caught up in the post-George Floyd frenzy when he called for the department to be entirely dismantled.
Anyone wondering about the change of heart, five years after the fact, need only look at the polling. Mamdani has a sizable lead but struggles to get more than half of the electorate to support his campaign. His latest modulation is an attempt at defusing his weakness on crime so he can pivot toward his preferred theme of affordability…
He refuses to say whether he still supports decriminalizing prostitution, though he has clarified that he does not plan to stop enforcing all misdemeanors. Mamdani also reversed himself on getting rid of the admissions exam for elite city high schools — such as the one he attended.
This is probably going to be a disaster for the city unless Mamdani actually moderates a lot between now and his election. But some progressives insist on learning the hard way. We’ve seen this play out in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and even Los Angeles. You really can go too far left and that seems like what New York City is intent on doing.
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