At Ossé’s endorsement forum, DSA electeds – Mamdani included – were divided

Five of the Democratic Socialists of America’s State Socialists in Office – including New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani – found themselves split at a Wednesday night forum on whether to endorse City Council Member Chi Ossé’s Democratic primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in the 8th Congressional District.

The three-hour forum was held in a packed Manhattan church and streamed on Zoom. It was limited to members of DSA and closed to the press.

While Mamdani opposed backing Ossé, arguing DSA should focus on delivering the agenda  New Yorkers voted for in the mayoral election rather than waste resources on a longshot congressional bid, both state Sen. Jabari Brisport, who is one of Mamdani’s closest allies in Albany, and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher spoke in support of endorsing Ossé’s primary challenge, according to three people who were present at the forum. Assembly Members Phara Souffrant Forrest and Claire Valdez argued against an endorsement. State Sen. Julia Salazar did not speak at the forum, but two people who watched the forum virtually said Salazar indicated support for endorsing Ossé by sending “heart” reactions on Zoom during his speech and those made by his supporters.

“The choice is not whether to vote for Chi or Hakeem at the ballot box, the choice is how to spend the next year,” Mamdani said during the member deliberation portion of the forum, according to the Daily News. “Do we want to spend it defending caricatures of our movement, or do we want to spend it fulfilling the agenda at the heart of that very same movement? I believe that endorsing (Ossé) makes it more difficult to do the latter, more difficult to deliver on the life-changing policies that more than 1 million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago.”

Ossé spoke for about five minutes toward the start of the forum and then fielded questions for another 10 minutes or so, a person inside the room told City & State. Among other things, Ossé was asked why he declined to endorse DSA-backed candidate Eon Huntley last year when Huntley challenged Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman, a Jeffries ally. He was also asked whether he would run for Congress even if he did not receive DSA’s endorsement, and he made clear he would not.

The question of whether to endorse Ossé has divided NYC-DSA. Numerous essays have been written laying out detailed arguments for and against endorsing the council member, who only joined the socialist organization earlier this year. One of NYC-DSA’s two co-chairs, Gustavo Gordillo, has championed the endorsement, while the other co-chair, Grace Mausser, released a public statement opposing it. 

Following the forum, eligible DSA members – about 1,475 people – were sent links to online ballots to vote on whether to recommend DSA endorse Ossé’s congressional run, and have until Saturday at 10 p.m. to submit them, according to a person who received a ballot. 

If a majority of eligible DSA members vote to recommend the endorsement, then the endorsement will be considered later this month by each of NYC-DSA’s five branches. If branch members follow suit and the NYC-DSA Citywide Leadership Committee votes to ratify it, Ossé will officially become a DSA-backed congressional candidate.

Mamdani’s active and increasingly public involvement in DSA’s endorsement debate could help the mayor-elect dodge a major political headache, avoiding getting on Jeffries’ bad side. But it also carries serious risks. 

If DSA members do not vote to recommend the endorsement, that will essentially kill the Ossé’s nascent campaign – and validate Mamdani’s decision to appeal directly to DSA members not to back Ossé’s likely doomed congressional bid. 

But it would be a major embarrassment for Mamdani if DSA members do vote to endorse Ossé, as the mayor-elect has now spent significant political capital trying to prevent that. It could also put Mamdani in a nearly impossible position: He’d either have to break publicly with his political home or campaign against the House minority leader at the same time he’s trying to get his ambitious agenda through Albany.