Espaillat Endorses Mamdani for Mayor, After Backing Cuomo and Adams

[Celerity]

Representative Adriano Espaillat, the most powerful Latino leader in New York City, will back Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/nyregion/espaillat-endorse-mamdani.html

https://archive.ph/qmmMj



Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner in the New York City mayor’s race, will be endorsed on Thursday by Representative Adriano Espaillat, the city’s most powerful Latino leader and one of the most influential among voters. His support follows endorsements for Mr. Mamdani from other prominent New York Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and major unions as he seeks to broaden his coalition ahead of the general election in November.

Mr. Espaillat said in a statement that Mr. Mamdani brought “clarity, discipline and a deep commitment to tackling the stubborn issues facing New York City,” including affordability. “He has a strong vision of how to make New York serve those working to realize the American dream,” he said. “I’m proud to endorse him because New Yorkers deserve a mayor who will wake up every day and fight for them.”

Landing the backing of Mr. Espaillat, who is the first Dominican American member of Congress and who represents northern Manhattan and the Bronx, is significant for symbolic and practical reasons. He is the latest member of the New York congressional delegation to back Mr. Mamdani, joining Representatives Nydia Velázquez and Jerrold Nadler and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Others, most notably Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, have not endorsed anyone in the race.

Mr. Espaillat also enjoys a deserved reputation as someone who can command voters to the polls in his district. Representative Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who represents a neighboring district, called him a “turnout machine.” The endorsement is also a sign that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s supporters are continuing to abandon him. Mr. Espaillat had endorsed Mr. Cuomo ahead of the Democratic primary in June. Mr. Cuomo also lost Keith L.T. Wright, the Manhattan Democratic chairman, and Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, an assemblywoman who leads the Brooklyn Democrats.

snip

[Grins]

1. He had endorsed Cuomo and Adams???

BOTH of them - especially Adams - disgusting weasels. Adams should be in prison.

If Espaillat thinks those guys were quality choices, he should be relegated to the has-been heap of politics.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. The Adams endorsement was in 2021

The NYT article links to https://archive.ph/aFVjc , from May 2021 (4 weeks before the mayoral primary).

Yeah, supporting Cuomo this time shows bad judgement. But he's now doing what a Democrat should do, and supporting the primary winner.

[Passages]

2. Politics is damn ugly, especially in NYC.

Torres take note.

[Arazi]

3. As he should since Mamdani is the DULY ELECTED DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE

Ffs, this shouldn’t be so hard to get the party to back their own candidate!

[Celerity]

5. Unfortunately I think there are going to be multiple sitting Democratic US House and/or US Senate members plus

prominent NY state elected Dems (and ex elected ones like the very problematic (he had to withdraw his bid for running for a full term as NY Governor in 2010 because of corruption charges and investigations) former NY Governor Paterson, etc) who come out and actively support Mamdani's defeat in the general election. Gillen and Suozzi in the US House have already done so, and Gillibrand in the US Senate has attacked Mamdani (falsely smeared him as a supporter of global jihad, which she had to try and walk back) as well. AIPAC is going to throw millions into defeating him as well, I wager.

It is going to cause quite the cognitive dissonance here on DU, as that anti-Democratic Primary winner stance is against bedrock DU TOS. There already have been a multiple DU anti-Mamdani (AFTER his Democratic primary win) that went right up to the line, with some crossing over it.

Link to tweet

and Suozzi, writing in the (Rupert Murdoch-owned) Wall Street Journal Op-Ed pages, compared him, in a fashion, to Trump:

For Democrats, Mamdani Is a Wake-Up Call—and a Bad Example

He shows how the party is falling short, but he has the wrong solutions.

By Tom Suozzi

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/for-democrats-mamdani-is-a-wake-up-call-and-a-bad-example-7e43189c

https://archive.ph/1axTp

Zohran Mamdani, the socialist who just won New York’s Democratic mayoral primary, is a charismatic, smart and effective campaigner with whom I disagree. His campaign tapped into the same economic discontent that powered Donald Trump’s rise, and his victory should serve as a loud wake-up call for the Democratic Party.

snip

Mr. Mamdani tapped into the same economic discontent—the same zeitgeist—that powered Mr. Trump’s rise. Democrats must recognize that the future starts with a message of economic security for American families.

snip

Too often, the public perceives Democratic leadership as having drifted into elite coastal circles. We’ve grown too reactive to divisive culture wars and lost touch with working families. The far right and the far left have exploited that weakened bond. According to a recent CNN/SSRS poll, only 35% of registered voters say the Democratic Party represents the middle class. Twenty-nine percent say neither party represents the middle class. This marks a dramatic collapse from 1989, when Democrats held a 23-point advantage on the question of which party best represented middle-class interests. By the time of Mr. Trump’s first victory, that lead had shrunk to 17 points. In 2022, it narrowed to 4 points. In 2025, it’s gone completely.

Part of Mr. Mamdani’s appeal is his plain language. Both he and Mr. Trump are tuned in to voices beyond the Beltway buzz. We need not mirror them, but understand what their victories revealed: a deep frustration with politics as usual and a longing for leaders who address kitchen-table concerns. Reclaiming that focus isn’t just smart politics for Democrats, it’s a return to our roots. Mr. Mamdani didn’t win because of socialism—he won because too many voters think the rest of the Democratic Party no longer stands for them. That’s the warning from New York, and Democrats ignore it at their peril.

[leftstreet]

6. DURec