Mamdani and AOC endorse DSA legislative candidates – but not the same ones

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed a slate of five state legislative candidates on Saturday, just two days after he endorsed an insurgent challenger to Rep. Adriano Espaillat on the same night Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released her own slate of four state legislative endorsements.

Between the two of them, Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez have now endorsed almost all of the candidates backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America – but they have mostly not endorsed the same candidates. Instead, their slates appear to be complementary. Mamdani is backing DSA’s state legislative candidates running for open seats and congressional candidates whom it would be politically difficult for AOC to endorse, while AOC is backing DSA’s challengers to Assembly incumbents whom Mamdani isn’t willing to endorse.

Ocasio-Cortez’s team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mamdani’s declined to comment.

NYC-DSA has endorsed 10 candidates in New York City: congressional candidates Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, Assembly Member Diana Moreno and Assembly candidates Samantha Kattan, David Orkin, Christian Celeste Tate, Eon Huntley, Illapa Sairitupac and Conrad Blackburn.

Four of those candidates are challenging incumbent Assembly members: Orkin (who’s going after Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar in Queens), Celeste Tate (challenging Assembly Member Erik Dilan in north Brooklyn), Huntley (challenging Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman in Bedford-Stuyvesant) and Conrad Blackburn (challenging Assembly Member Jordan Wright in Harlem).

Four others are running for open state legislative seats: Moreno (who won a February special election for Mamdani’s old Assembly seat), Kawas (running for the seat held by state Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, who’s retiring), Kattan (running for the seat held by Valdez, who’s leaving to run for Congress) and Sairitupac (running for the seat held by Assembly Member Grace Lee, who’s leaving to run for state Senate).

Both Mamdani and AOC endorsed Moreno earlier this year before her special election, and on Saturday, Mamdani endorsed the other three NYC-DSA candidates running for open seats – but he didn’t endorse any of the four Assembly challengers. City & State previously predicted that the mayor was most likely to endorse candidates running for open seats.

A person familiar with his thinking told Hell Gate, which first reported his latest state legislative endorsements, that the mayor refrained from endorsing any Assembly challengers in order to avoid antagonizing Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who fought for some of Mamdani’s priorities during budget negotiations and doesn’t like it when his members face primary challenges.

Of course, AOC doesn’t have to worry about pissing off Heastie, and she endorsed three of NYC-DSA’s Assembly challengers: Orkin, Celeste Tate and Huntley. 

On the flip side, AOC has not endorsed either of NYC-DSA’s congressional candidates Valdez or Avila Chevalier, while Mamdani backed both of them. Valdez is running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez – against Velázquez’s preferred successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. And Avila Chevalier is trying to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the powerful chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

AOC may be reluctant to cross Velázquez, who has acted as a political mentor to her, or to back a primary challenge against a fellow member of New York’s Democratic congressional delegation, but Mamdani has no such qualms.

Collectively, Mamdani and AOC have backed nine out of the 10 New York City members of NYC-DSA’s slate. Only one slate member doesn’t have an endorsement from either of the socialist stars: Blackburn, who’s trying to unseat Wright, the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the son of Manhattan Democratic Party head Keith Wright.

Mamdani and AOC splitting up the NYC-DSA slate ensures that all the DSA candidates can put a famous face on their flyers (well, except for Blackburn) while minimizing the potential political backlash for Mamdani and AOC. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who doesn’t have to worry about upsetting state legislative leaders or the New York congressional delegation, has endorsed the full NYC-DSA slate, plus several other progressive candidates across the city and state.

Still, Mamdani’s decision not to endorse the entire slate has upset many of his socialist comrades. 

More than 500 NYC-DSA members – including the co-chair of national DSA and leaders of the socialist group’s electoral strategy – signed an open letter calling on Mamdani to endorse the full NYC-DSA slate. “If you endorse only a few DSA candidates, you will tell thousands of your supporters to sit on the sidelines as oligarchs organize to sabotage your mayoralty and block all attempts to tax the rich,” reads the letter, which was published before Mamdani made his endorsements. “You will tell New Yorkers that there is no mass organization capable of taking on the oligarchy, only individual politicians fighting lonely fights.”

Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez have also endorsed a number of non-DSA candidates this cycle. AOC has endorsed Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, who’s challenging state Sen. Jessica Ramos in Queens. (While Mamdani has again avoided endorsing against a legislative incumbent). And Mamdani has endorsed Brad Lander, who’s challenging Rep. Dan Goldman in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. (While AOC has again avoided endorsing against a congressional incumbent). Mamdani also backed Lindsey Boylan’s unsuccessful bid for an open City Council seat in Manhattan earlier this year. And both Mamdani and AOC are supporting Brian Romero, who’s running to succeed González-Rojas in western Queens, and Eli Northrup, who’s running for an open Assembly seat on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.