On Sunday, September 14, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for the 2025 New York City race. Mamdani announced his candidacy for the mayoral election in October of 2024 and has since had an extremely successful campaign, primarily focusing on making the city more affordable. In an interview with the New York Times, Hochul stated, “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.”
Ms. Hochul is one of the nation’s few Democratic leaders to have endorsed Mamdani. Other big-name endorsers have included Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom have outwardly expressed their support for Mamdani, but the list ends soon after that. Arguably, Hochul’s support is an attempt to unify Democrats by rallying around the party’s nominee for New York City mayor. Hochul has also notably expressed disdain towards Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani’s primary opposition and Hochul’s former boss, who has recently been President Trump’s top choice of mayoral candidate. "In light of the abhorrent and destructive policies coming out of Washington every day, I needed to know the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender one inch to President Trump," Hochul said.
Nonetheless, endorsements are normally reciprocal. Mamdani has been publicly dodging the endorsement of Hochul for her 2026 gubernatorial campaign. He claims that he will be putting his priorities into running his own campaign for the November election. “My focus is on November, and I’m excited to have the governor’s support in that fight,” Mamdani said.
Without Mamdani’s endorsement, Hochul risks alienating his base of young and activism-driven voters, whose energy she may need in a tough reelection fight. For Republicans and critics, the mismatch has handed them an easy narrative: Hochul extended an olive branch and was left empty-handed. Upstate New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, one of Hochul’s major opponents, mockingly posted on X “Even Mamdani refuses to support Kathy Hochul less than 24 hours after she endorsed him!” For Hochul’s allies, however, the endorsement can still be framed as a demonstration of leadership, showing she is more interested in winning elections than in feuds between Democratic factions. The version of the story that sticks will depend on how Mamdani plays his next moves. If he eventually decides to endorse Hochul, the damage to her reputation, and therefore campaign, could dissipate. If he holds firm, Hochul may have created a headline for her opponents to use against her in her upcoming race.