My thought about Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Party.

[thesquanderer]

62. Cuomo was establishment Democrat until he declared himself himself IND after losing the Dem primary.

Last edited Mon Sep 29, 2025, 11:07 PM - Edit history (1)

And it's one thing not to endorse the person who beat you (or at least not right away), but another thing entirely to actually run against him. Some states actually have laws against that. Whether you agree with those laws or not, this behavior is not good for the party, especially from someone who was not on the fringe of the party to begin with, but was practically the definition of party establishment, which Cuomo was. Even with the scandals that brought him down, he was still pretty much the poster boy for New York Democrat over his career, and presented himself as Dem right up until he lost to Mamdami.

Adams didn't have Cuomo's long and high profile career, but nonetheless, as mayor of NYC, he was NY Dem establishment until he, too, went independent after declining to run in the Dem primary after determining that he could not win it.

Interesting contrast referenced here, about how the biggest national establishment Dems Pelosi and Biden welcomed Adams 4 years ago, and now even establishment Dems from his own home state (Schumer and Jeffries) are keeping him at arm's length:

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/21/zohran-mamdani-new-york-democrats-wary

And since you wanted examples, besides those, the New York State Democratic Chair (Jay Jacobs) has refused to endorse him.