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Even up till the final hour, Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., performed it coy about endorsing Zohran Mamdani within the New York Metropolis mayor’s race.
“Early voting, as , begins tomorrow,” noticed a reporter to Jeffries at 11:06 a.m. on Friday. “Are you able to endorse Mamdani?”
“Keep tuned,” replied Jeffries.
“What extra do it’s essential to hear at this level?” requested one other scribe.
‘STAY TUNED’: JEFFRIES REPEATEDLY DODGES MAMDANI ENDORSEMENT AS SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINE LOOMS
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has endorsed leftist Zohran Mamdani for his metropolis’s mayorship. (Angelina Katsanis-Pool/Getty Photos; Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
“Similar reply,” mentioned Jeffries. “I’ve not refused to endorse. I’ve refused to articulate my place and I’ll momentarily, sooner or later upfront of early voting.”
Effectively, early voting started Saturday in New York. And true to his phrase, Jeffries articulated his place by way of a press release early Friday afternoon, throwing his political clout behind Mamdani.
“Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly targeted on addressing the affordability disaster and explicitly dedicated to being a Mayor for all New Yorkers, together with those that don’t assist his candidacy,” mentioned Jeffries. “The communities I characterize in Brooklyn are being devastated by this excessive model of the Republican Get together. On this atmosphere, we’ve a transparent obligation to push again towards the nationwide nightmare being visited on the American individuals by Republican extremism.”
Jeffries closed his endorsement with this key line: “I endorse the Democratic ticket.”
In some respects, that was the least newsworthy line in Jeffries assertion. It could be preposterous to assume that the highest Democrat within the Home of Representatives, from New York Metropolis, wouldn’t endorse the Democratic candidate for mayor of his hometown.
It might have been an even bigger story had Jeffries not endorsed Mamdani.
We don’t definitively know what Jeffries might have mulled for thus lengthy. However we do perceive the fissure contained in the Democratic Get together between centrist Democrats and the far left. This is the reason Republicans shout from the Empire State Constructing that Mamdani is a “socialist” or perhaps a “communist.” Republicans not-so-secretly love the actual fact Mamdani is the Democratic nominee. And so they embrace the truth that Mamdani makes some Democrats squirm because the occasion tries to succeed in reasonable voters – and concurrently grapples with the leftist views of the nominee.
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“What we’re witnessing is actually the tip of the Democratic Get together as we have recognized it,” opined Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “Hakeem Jeffries lastly relented. He gave in and he gave his endorsement to the socialist operating to be mayor of New York Metropolis. The Home Democrats, they’ve proven the world what they actually consider. There isn’t any longer a spot for [centrists] and moderates of their occasion.”
Republicans additionally declare that the rationale Democrats “shut down the federal government” is as a result of Jeffries and Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., heard footsteps from the left and feared a major problem. In Schumer’s case: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
“They determined to avoid wasting their very own pores and skin that they needed to endorse the Marxist Mamdani,” speculated Johnson. “In an unprecedented transfer, they’ve additionally determined they needed to shut down the federal government in an unprecedented transfer.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was fast to pounce on Jeffries after he “relented” and endorsed “socialist” Mamdani. (Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
When pressed on MSNBC over the weekend why it took him so lengthy to endorse Mamdani, Jeffries replied that he wasn’t “somebody that I knew previous to him receiving the Democratic nomination.”
Jeffries added that he needed “to sit down down and have some conversations” with Mamdani.
However the endorsement query has been a tortured avenue for Jeffries ever since Mamdani captured the Democratic nomination for mayor on June 25.
On the day Mamdani gained the first, Jeffries provided his “congratulations to Zohran Mamdani on a decisive major victory.”
However Jeffries didn’t endorse.
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“We spoke this morning and plan to fulfill in central Brooklyn shortly,” mentioned Jeffries.
4 days later, ABC’s Jonathan Karl requested Jeffries if he had endorsed Mamdani but.
The reply was no.
Republicans, concurrently, have been blaming Democratic management for the continuing shutdown as each Jeffries and Schumer are confronted with potential major challenges from the left. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
“He out-worked, he out-communicated, and he out-organized the opposition. And that’s clearly why he was profitable,” mentioned Jeffries.
“So, what’s holding you again from endorsing him proper now?” requested Karl.
“Effectively, we don’t actually know one another properly. Our districts don’t overlap. I’ve by no means had a substantive dialog with him,” answered Jeffries.
And that’s the way it went, all summer time lengthy – and into the autumn. Reporters often peppered Jeffries with questions on a possible endorsement or what the holdup was. And Jeffries was all the time circumspect.
The truth is, resistance to endorse fueled hypothesis that Jeffries harbored reservations about Mamdani. That’s nothing to say of doable complications Mamdani may create for the occasion because it tries to courtroom swing voters.
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“What does he must do to safe your endorsement?” requested CNN’s Dana Bash on August 24.
“(Rep.) Yvette Clarke, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and myself are scheduled to sit down down with him within the subsequent few days. I stay up for that dialog,” mentioned Jeffries.
“What do you wish to hear from him? What’s lacking? I imply, it is fairly uncommon for a high-ranking Democrat like your self to withhold the endorsement of your occasion’s nominee for candidate for New York Metropolis mayor,” countered Bash.
“I do not assume we’ve withheld an endorsement. We’re partaking in a dialog about the way forward for New York Metropolis,” mentioned Jeffries.
Jeffries claims he is “raised a number of of the problems with” Mamdani in non-public along with publicly airing his issues. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Photos)
Bash questioned if Jeffries wasn’t endorsing Mamdani as a result of “he hasn’t denounced utilizing the time period or supporting the time period ‘globalize the intifada?’”
“I’ve raised a number of of the problems with him privately, in addition to publicly spoken about a number of the issues that I’ve had,” mentioned Jeffries.
So, there have been actually “issues.”
“What do you say to your younger constituents, energized younger constituents that assist put Mamdani within the place that he is in and now they’re calling so that you can characterize their needs and endorse him?” requested a reporter of Jeffries on the Capitol on October 6.
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“I feel I’ve answered these questions repeatedly, and I will have extra to say earlier than early voting,” mentioned Jeffries.
There have been extra questions for Jeffries about Mamdani on October 9.
“We’re in the course of a authorities shutdown,” sidestepped Jeffries when requested about doable plans to endorse. “I’d have extra to say concerning the mayor’s race upfront of early voting in NYC which begins on the finish of this month.”
So Jeffries has now endorsed Mamdani. And that ought to reply all questions, proper?
Uncertain.
New York Metropolis Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks within the Bronx, New York Metropolis, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Fox Information Digital/Deirdre Heavey)
Republicans pounced on Jeffries’ resolution to endorse. Average Democrats and lots of pro-Israel voters moaned. Sure. Jeffries might have wanted to attain a consolation degree with Mamdani and clear up questions the Minority Chief had in his personal thoughts. However in the long run, Jeffries might not have had any alternative however to endorse. A failure to endorse may have splintered the occasion. Jeffries doubtless needed to consider which was the larger hazard: not endorsing and outraging the left or endorsing and dropping these within the center.
All the pieces in politics is a calculus. Jeffries made his calculus – on behalf of himself, New York Metropolis and his occasion.
Sure, Republicans will excoriate Jeffries for this resolution. However they might attempt to join Jeffries to Mamdani anyway. Honest or not.
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It’s uncertain that Jeffries endorsement would win or lose the mayoral race for Mamdani anyway.
However a refusal to endorse would spotlight the fracture contained in the Democratic Get together. And that would have fueled extra questions than Jeffries ever fielded about whether or not he would endorse or not.
