ALBANY – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will throw his support behind Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s re-election bid ahead of the party’s nominating convention Friday, multiple sources confirmed to The Post Wednesday.
The Democratic socialist had dragged his feet in publicly saying whether he would endorse the moderate governor after she backed his bid for mayor last year.
It’s a bombshell show of support for Hochul, an establishment Democrat, from the progressive wing of the party’s most visible standard bearer in recent years.
Mayor Mamdani is expected to endorse Hochul sometime this week, sources confirmed to The Post. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.comMamdani is expected to make his endorsement sometime this week, before Hochul is set to receive the party’s nod at the official nominating convention in Syracuse, sources said.
The little-known lefty state lawmaker shocked political elites when he bested ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June Democratic primary for mayor.
Hochul endorsed him ahead of the November general election.
Mamdani’s planned return endorsement, first reported by Politico, represents a major step forward in the mayor’s political odd couple romance with Hochul.
Hizzoner will need the state to sign off on many of his lefty policy priorities. He has called on the state to hike income taxes to fill a massive multi-billion-dollar budget gap in the city’s budget, something that was angering Hochul’s team as of last week, The Post previously reported.
Republicans have blasted Hochul for her endorsement of Mamdani in what is expected to be a regular theme of this year’s election in New York and beyond.
“After Hochul’s choice of Adrienne Adams—a pro-criminal, anti-business, tax-and-spend lieutenant governor pick—nothing would surprise me,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s likely GOP challenger, wrote in a statement Wednesday.
The move is also a snub to Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is trying to consolidate the support of progressives as he mounts a primary challenge to his estranged former running mate.
“I’m focused on the needs of the people of New York, who are struggling with out of control healthcare premiums, high utility bills, and rising rents. Oh, and tax the rich,” Delgado wrote in a statement.
