Espaillat Endorses Mamdani for Mayor, After Backing Cuomo and Adams

[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.