Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., congratulated Zohran Mamdani Wednesday on his apparent upset victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary.
Mamdani's stunning win in Tuesday's election seemingly served as a rebuke of the Democratic Party establishment and ended the political comeback of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been favored since he announced his candidacy in March. With 95% of ballots counted, Mamdani led with 43% of the vote, city officials said.
"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. In a subsequent post, Schumer added that he spoke with Mamdani in the morning and is "looking forward to getting together soon."
Jeffries also congratulated Mamdani on his "decisive primary victory," which the congressman attributed to "a strong campaign that relentlessly focused on the economy and bringing down the high cost of living in New York City."
"We spoke this morning and plan to meet in Central Brooklyn shortly," Jeffries said on X.
Politico reported that while Mamdani finished with a sizeable lead over Cuomo, city officials won't run the ranked choice tabulation until July 1, when mail-in ballots are expected to arrive.
In New York City's ranked choice voting system, which was used for Tuesday's mayoral Democratic primary, voters rank up to five candidates, from first preference to last, on the ballot. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, that person wins the race outright. If not, then the ranked choice system kicks in, which is done in rounds and tabulated by computer until a winner is declared.
Neither Schumer nor Jeffries immediately endorsed the 33-year-old democratic socialist who looks poised to be their party's likely nominee.
The Republican House and Senate campaign arms pounced on the Democrat leaders' congratulatory statements, quickly tying Jeffries and Schumer to Mamdani on social media Wednesday.
"Democrat 'Leader' Hakeem Jeffries declared himself brothers in arms with antisemitic socialist Zohran Mamdani," the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a post on X. "Every single Democrat now owns Mamdani's radical socialist agenda to defund police, abolish prisons & stop ICE from deporting criminals."
Less than 10 minutes later, the National Republican Senatorial Committee accused Schumer, who is Jewish, of applauding "a socialist who doesn't believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state and wants to 'globalize the intifada'" in its own post.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.