Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries congratulated Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani on his apparent Tuesday night victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary, vowing to meet the young democratic socialist — but stopping short of offering him their endorsements.
Tuesday night’s sweeping upset saw the toppling of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been favored to win the primary, as the Democratic Party grapples with messy messaging and calls for leadership changes in a Trump era.
“I have known @ZohranKMamdani since we worked together to provide debt relief for thousands of beleaguered taxi drivers & fought to stop a fracked gas plant in Astoria. He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, & opportunity,” Schumer wrote on X on Wednesday, adding that he had spoken to Mamdani in the morning and hoped to meet with him in person soon.
Jeffries, too, congratulated Mamdani on a “strong campaign that relentlessly focused on the economy and bringing down the high cost of living in New York City,” and promised to meet with him “shortly” after speaking earlier in the day.
Both Schumer and Jeffries are New York City natives. Mamdani finished comfortably ahead of Cuomo, but city officials are not expected to run the ranked choice tabulation until early July.
Neither Democratic leader immediately offered an endorsement to the 33-year-old democratic socialist whose likely win marked a seismic shift for their party. Instead, both men highlighted Mamdani’s successful campaign strategy centering around the economy and affordability in the city, as Democratic hopefuls plot their messaging campaigns ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Earlier in the day, Jeffries avoided addressing the ideological gap between Mamdani and battleground members of the Democratic Party while discussing the primary on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” instead pivoting to criticize President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
