Half a dozen congressional Democrats haven’t endorsed their party’s nominee for NYC mayor. It might not matter.

“I expect to have more to say about the mayor’s race shortly,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said last month (prior to the federal government shutdown). 

“They know each other well and they’re going to keep talking,” Angelo Roefaro, a spokesperson for U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said of mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani and the state’s senior senator.

Though all the attention and pressure has been on Schumer and Jeffries, they’re not the only members of Congress who have declined to make an endorsement in the general election for New York City mayor so far. A number of Democratic Congress members representing parts of New York City have yet to weigh in. 

Reps. Grace Meng, Dan Goldman, Ritchie Torres, Greg Meeks and Tom Suozzi are among those who have not made an official endorsement of any candidate in the general election. Meng didn’t endorse anyone in the primary. Goldman endorsed state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. Torres, Meeks and Suozzi endorsed Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate in the general election. 

Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa is endorsed by the city’s only Republican representative in Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis. Cuomo is not endorsed by any members of Congress in the general election.

Mamdani, for his part, may not be too pressed about gaining endorsements in the final stretch. He has the lion’s share of political and labor endorsements, and has a double-digit lead in the polls. A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment.

With three weeks to go before Election Day and a week until the start of early voting, Mamdani and his campaign may be better advised to focus on other priorities. “I would think that they’re not going to spend a lot of time anymore trying to get additional endorsements when they’re looking at the finish line,” said Democratic consultant Lupe Todd-Medina.

Still, three weeks leaves plenty of time for a last-minute endorsement. Recent statements by Torres, a moderate and pro-Israel Democrat, defending Mamdani have garnered attention. (Torres did not respond to a request for comment on whether he planned to endorse.)

In some cases, these members’ relative silence on the mayoral race has added fuel to talk of primary challenges from the left – including to Goldman and Jeffries – but it’s unlikely a last-minute endorsement of Mamdani would satiate progressives’ desire to primary more moderate members.

In June’s Democratic primary, Cuomo consolidated much of the institutional support (including that of labor unions and county parties that have now endorsed Mamdani), and lost to the progressive upstart anyways. 

“I think there’s a question about whether endorsements matter at all,” said Chris Coffey, CEO of Tusk Strategies.