Who else might Mamdani endorse?

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shook up the political scene Thursday night when he endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier, the little-known challenger to Rep. Adriano Espaillat who’s backed by Justice Democrats and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the mayor’s political home. And there are more big endorsements coming, ahead of the June 23 Democratic primary.

The mayor had previously endorsed DSA-backed Assembly Member Claire Valdez, who’s running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez against Velázquez’s preferred successor, and Brad Lander, who’s challenging Rep. Dan Goldman. And after endorsing Avila Chevalier, Mamdani said he won’t be wading in to any more congressional races. (Sorry to Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg, who’s been campaigning on the fact that he endorsed Mamdani before the primary.)

People close to Mamdani and NYC-DSA told City & State that the mayor plans to endorse a number of state legislative candidates as soon as this weekend, and we can make some educated guesses about which candidates he’ll endorse.

(Editor’s note: Mamdani announced a slate of five endorsements on Saturday morning, after this story was initially published. As first shared with Hell Gate, he is backing Samantha Kattan, Aber Kawas, Illapa Sairitupac, Eli Northrup and Brian Romero.)

Let’s start with NYC-DSA’s slate of candidates. In New York City, the socialist group has endorsed eight Assembly and state Senate candidates. Mamdani has already endorsed Assembly Member Diana Moreno, who won the special election to succeed him in the Assembly back in February. What about the other seven candidates?

Three NYC-DSA candidates are running for open seats: Samantha Kattan (for Valdez’s western Queens seat), Aber Kawas (for retiring state Sen. Mike Gianaris’ western Queens seat) and Ilapa Sairitupac (for Assembly Member Grace Lee’s lower Manhattan seat). It’s pretty safe to assume the mayor will back all of them.

The other four NYC-DSA candidates are challenging incumbents – and that’s where it gets awkward, since endorsing against incumbents could strain his relationships with legislative leaders like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. It’s not a coincidence that Mamdani didn’t make any moves before the state budget was passed.

The most likely challenger for Mamdani to endorse is David Orkin, who’s trying to unseat Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, who was a close ally of former Mayor Eric Adams. It’s rumored that Mamdani helped recruit Orkin to run for Rajkumar’s Queens seat, and Rajkumar isn’t especially close with Albany leadership, making this a pretty safe endorsement for the mayor. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Orkin on Thursday night, providing even more political cover for Mamdani. 

AOC also endorsed DSA-backed candidates Christian Celeste Tate and Eon Huntley. Celeste Tate is challenging Assembly Member Erik Dilan, who previously fended off a DSA challenger in 2022 but whose father, erstwhile state Sen. Martin Dilan, was unseated by DSA’s Julia Salazar back in 2018. Huntley is challenging Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman for the second time, after losing to her by less than 7 points in 2024. Zinerman’s Bedford-Stuysevant district is in the heart of Black Brooklyn, and she has powerful friends like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and state Attorney General Letitia James, which may make Mamdani think twice before backing Huntley. But Mamdani endorsed Huntley the last time he ran against Zinerman, so he might feel obligated to do so again.

The DSA-backed challenger that could be the most politically complicated for Mamdani to endorse would be Conrad Blackburn, who’s challenging Assembly Member Jordan Wright in Harlem. Wright is the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and his father Keith Wright is the head of the Manhattan Democratic Party. The Wrights backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary but switched their allegiance to Mamdani after he became the Democratic nominee. The mayor has already shown he’s willing to endorse against establishment politicians who endorsed him in the general election – just ask Espaillat – but Mamdani might not be inclined to cross a politically powerful family like the Wrights if Blackburn is unlikely to win.

That said, it’s unlikely that Mamdani would endorse everyone on the NYC-DSA slate except for Blackburn. More than 500 DSA members have signed an open letter calling on Mamdani to endorse the full NYC-DSA slate, and Black DSA members have specifically called on the mayor to support Black socialist candidates who are challenging more moderate Black incumbents.

Mamdani could also endorse a handful of candidates who are not part of the NYC-DSA slate – like Eli Northrup, Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, Brian Romero, Shamsul Haque and former Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou.

Northrup is running for an open Assembly seat on the Upper West Side. JGR is looking to unseat state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who infamously backed Cuomo over Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary – and there’s no love lost between the mayor and Ramos. Romero, who previously worked as JGR’s chief of staff, is now looking to succeed her in the Assembly. All three of those candidates – Northrup, JGR and Romero – have already been endorsed by AOC. But one potential strike against Romero is that he insisted on running for the seat even though Mamdani and DSA favored a different candidate.

Haque, a former New York City Police Department detective, was a prominent surrogate for Mamdani during the mayoral campaign and is now running for an open Assembly seat in Queens. His main opposition is Patrick Martinez, who’s backed by the Queens Democratic Party. Niou is an ex-lawmaker with a good but not especially close relationship with the mayor who’s running for an open state Senate seat in Lower Manhattan with the support of the New York Working Families Party. Mamdani is more closely aligned with Niou than he is with her main rival, Assembly Member Grace Lee, but Lee is favored to win and the mayor may opt to just stay out of the race.

All of these impending endorsements are all quite frustrating for Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who’s seemingly made a point of endorsing against DSA candidates this year, ever since Valdez and Mamdani bucked her succession plans.

Velázquez told City & State she has endorsed “people that I know, people that are rooted in community,” pointing to Jasmin Sanchez, who’s running against Sairitupac in lower Manhattan. “She has been organizing and working on housing issues and protecting public housing forever.”

And what does she think about Mamdani’s plans to endorse a slate of legislative candidates?

“Look, who am I to tell him not to do it?” she said. “He will face the outcome of those (races). It's not guaranteed, it's not a given. And going forward you need your allies and the coalition that put you there. He didn't win because of the socialists. He won because he was able to put together a coalition.”