Kathy Hochul Is a Good Problem for Zohran Mamdani to Have
Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement of Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn’t sit well with some on the Left. But Mamdani can’t succeed without delivering for working-class New Yorkers and can’t deliver without navigating difficult terrain with centrists like her.
Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement of Kathy Hochul came as a surprise to some allies on the Left, given that the governor has repeatedly stated her opposition to taxing the rich. (Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
On Thursday morning, democratic socialist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed centrist governor Kathy Hochul for re-reelection, explaining his decision to the Left with an op-ed in the Nation. The move reflected the mayor’s close relationship with the centrist governor, a partnership that Mamdani argues is crucial to delivering on the affordability agenda he ran and won on by a wide margin in November.
The timing of Mamdani’s endorsement of Hochul came as a surprise to some allies on the Left, given that the governor has repeatedly stated her opposition to taxing the rich, which Mamdani sees as central to enacting his agenda and weathering the coming federal cuts to health care and food assistance.
Also, in the fourth week of the city’s largest-ever nurses strike, Hochul extended an executive order making it easier for hospitals to hire scabs, as my colleague Alex Press wrote for Jacobin, prompting nurses and their supporters to march to and picket at the governor’s New York office last Monday. And there’s no shortage of other issues for the Left to criticize her on, from dragging her feet on climate policy to doing too little to protect immigrants from Donald Trump.
Left critics of the mayor’s decision included New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), the group that Mamdani belongs to and which can take significant credit for his election, saying in an official statement Friday:
Governor Hochul has demonstrated time and again that she will only prioritize the needs of working-class New Yorkers when she is forced. The announcement of a childcare expansion earlier this year was the result of a movement of millions electing democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. But with fascism here, and ultra-wealthy hospital CEOs refusing fair pay and benefits for nurses amid a historic strike, New York cannot afford to let the Governor continue to protect billionaire donors at the expense of SNAP, Medicaid, truly universal childcare, and the enactment of the mayor’s affordability agenda.
The statement doesn’t explicitly criticize Mamdani. But coming immediately after his Hochul endorsement, it reads like an implied criticism — or at least reflects an urgent desire for the socialist organization to differentiate itself from the socialist mayor on this point.
Another critic of the move is Charlie Heller, cofounder and communications director for the DREAM campaign, the PAC that helped Mamdani win the primary by convincing many New Yorkers not to rank Andrew Cuomo in the election’s ranked choice voting system and is now pushing to tax the rich. (The acronym stood for different things depending on which candidates were in the mayoral race at different times; most recently, it was “Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor”). Says Heller, referring to evidence that several of Hochul’s donors had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, “How can anyone believe Hochul will fund the affordability agenda when she’s protecting the bank accounts of these billionaire pedophiles?”
The episode reflects the dilemma of socialist governance in a capitalist society: once elected, our leaders must work with those already in power, the politicians owned by the capitalist class. The latter need constant popular pressure to deliver modest improvements in working-class living standards and public goods, and will refuse to deliver anything of the kind without extracting compromises from the socialists. The more power socialists win, without controlling all branches of government and meaningfully curbing capitalist power, the more frequent such tension will be. Popular pressure to make improvements in working-class life is essential, but so is the work on the inside; inevitably, the two will sometimes be at odds.
The Hochul endorsement fulfills some leftists’ perpetual desire to feel betrayed and denounce whoever is in office. But it’s important to see the endorsement more clearly for what it is: a concession to a centrist governor who Mamdani needs to enact his agenda that is embedded in huge victories; a potential harbinger of more concessions that will also be embedded in more victories for the mayor and the city’s working class — a sign of how much power the Left has won suddenly, embedded in a rebuke that we haven’t yet won enough.
Why Mamdani Endorsed the Governor
Many on the Left have assumed that Mamdani, by endorsing Hochul before she has agreed to tax the rich, has given up powerful leverage over her, harming his own affordability agenda. But I spoke to people close to the mayor who say that this misunderstands the dynamic between the mayor and the governor.
This endorsement, and its timing ahead of Saturday’s state Democratic Convention, has been in the works for a long time, growing out of talks between the two last summer and fall. Those talks and the friendly relationship that grew out of them resulted in Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani. That endorsement helped him win the election.
The talks also resulted in Hochul’s support for Mamdani’s universal childcare program — which, especially given that it was announced only eight days into his mayoralty, made him look like an almost miraculously successful municipal executive. Recall that universal childcare was regarded by many as the least realistic plank of his platform, the most expensive and bureaucratically complicated; it was startling to see him already delivering on exactly that promise in his first month in office.
From this perspective, Mamdani’s agreement to endorse Hochul has already helped the mayor advance his agenda. Mamdani is not in office to critique Hochul, or for that matter Trump, with whom he is also navigating a somewhat friendly relationship. He has said several times that he will measure his success on how much of his promised agenda he has been able to deliver to New Yorkers, and he is conducting his relationships with other politicians laser-focused on that goal.
Mamdani has clearly decided, based on the deep dependence of New York City on state government, that his affordability agenda demands that Hochul be a partner, not an antagonist. Not to mention that having agreed to endorse her long ago and reaped important concessions from it, he could hardly renege without jeopardizing a relationship that is likely to continue to bear fruit.
What’s more, it’s probably going to be a broadly popular decision. In addition to the massive win for working-class New Yorkers that universal childcare represents, most New Yorkers are also happy to see a collaborative relationship between the mayor and governor, a rare thing in recent New York politics. Mayor Bill de Blasio famously struggled to enact his progressive agenda with a Governor Andrew Cuomo who at times would not even take his calls.
What looks to some like selling out is also inseparable from some of the New York City left’s biggest wins in years. This is what effectively wielding state power looks like; there’s no such thing as enacting transformational policies from a politician like Hochul without giving something in return.
Hochul’s Left Opponent
If the mayor were merely supporting Hochul against yet another reactionary Long Island Republican — her opponent in the general election, Bruce Blakeman, is a true Trumpian horror — the objections from the Left would probably focus mainly on timing: that he should have waited for her to move closer to his position on the nurses’ strike and on taxing the rich, rather than the endorsement itself. But the governor has a primary opponent to her left: her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who has been endorsed by several major socialist leaders: State Senator Jabari Brisport, Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, and Assembly candidates Eon Huntley and Christian Celeste Tate.
Asked about the mayor’s endorsement of Hochul, Brisport said, “It’s so important that we elect a governor that’s willing to tax the rich and stand up for everyday New Yorkers. So I’m still supporting Antonio Delgado.”
Interviewed about his campaign, Delgado said, “What drives me fundamentally is rampant inequality.” The growing concentration of wealth in the hands of the already wealthy has created a Democratic Party that has “grown very distant from any sort of familiarity with the people.”
The day before Mamdani announced his endorsement of Governor Hochul, Delgado announced his running mate: India Walton, a democratic socialist who won Buffalo’s Democratic mayoral primary in 2021, only to lose when the incumbent ran as a write-in candidate.
Few think Delgado can beat Hochul. Delgado, who in his interview with Jacobin did not call himself a socialist but rather an “economic populist,” has little name recognition and few major grassroots organizations supporting him. On Saturday, the Working Families Party declined to endorse either Hochul or her challenger.
It’s unlikely that NYC-DSA will endorse him, given that he has no history with the organization and doesn’t identify as a socialist. Not even Brisport thinks they should, despite his support for Delgado’s gubernatorial bid. “I think it’s good that NYC-DSA is clean that way,” he said. “You have to be a member. You have to be a socialist.”
Hochul maintains a commanding, even crushing lead over Delgado, as well as her Republican opponent. She’s doing a lot better than in 2022, when she came perilously close to losing to right-winger Lee Zeldin, now head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency; her improved standing reflects the strong stances she has taken against Trump and the public approval of her embrace of Mamdani and his popular policies like childcare.
Brisport, for his part, was more bullish on the lieutenant governor, pointing out that it’s only February and Delgado will be the first statewide candidate to attract enough small-dollar donations to win matching funds under the state’s 2022 campaign finance law, legislation that was a huge help to Mamdani in his victory last year.
But the discussion here is not only about whether Delgado can win but also about the strategic value of losing campaigns. Some feel that Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’s disastrous 2022 bid for governor signaled to incumbent governor Hochul that the Left was weak and resulted in her making fewer political concessions to our side.
On the other hand, Brisport pointed out Delgado’s support for taxing the rich, immigrants’ rights, single-payer health care, and renewable energy. Even if he doesn’t win, Brisport and Delgado both argue, the lieutenant governor’s challenge could help the Left pressure Hochul on such issues.
Cynthia Nixon, for example, also did not win when she ran for governor in 2018, but her lively campaign is widely credited with pushing then-governor Cuomo to raise the minimum wage, legalize marijuana, and other reforms that vastly improved the lives of New Yorkers.
NYC-DSA cochair Gustavo Gordillo pointed out that the governor had not agreed to tax the rich and that, “historically, primary challenges have been a big part of our strategy.” Gordillo was noncommittal on the lieutenant governor, however, noting that to make a difference, even a losing challenge should pose a meaningful threat to the incumbent.
Socialists aren’t fans of centrist corporate Democrats like Hochul. Delgado is a left-leaning candidate saying all the right things. Normally this is just the sort of campaign, losing or not, the Left would get behind. But in this new political terrain, in which the Left has elected one of its own as mayor and thus has a whole range of other political factors and actions to take into account, things aren’t so clear.
Socialists Unified on Taxing the Rich
Regardless, socialists agree on the goal: taxing the rich, to win as much of Mamdani’s affordability agenda as possible and protect New Yorkers from the Trump regime’s austerity.
Heller sees Hochul as potentially imperiling the Democrats’ one winning national message. After Mamdani’s success in last June’s primary, other Democrats like Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey also successfully ran on “affordability.” If Mamdani can deliver, Democrats may be able to keep finding ways to replicate that success against Republicans, who offer no solutions to this problem.
But if federal cuts decimate New York, and Hochul refuses to find new revenue to enact Mamdani’s affordability agenda, Heller argues, the Republicans will seize upon its failure to debunk the whole argument that the government can help make your life easier. Mainstream Democrats like Hochul should be concerned about that, if they don’t want Trump or someone similar to be in power forever.
Says Heller, the failure of Mandani’s affordability agenda would “deflate the power of this winning message. It’s unclear if [Hochul] even understands the stakes here.”
The disagreement over the Hochul endorsement is one of strategy, then, more than principle. In that vein, the public statements by Brisport, NYC-DSA, and others on Mamdani’s endorsement of the governor have been measured. Even Delgado’s running mate, Walton, told Gothamist that she trusted that the mayor had sound reasons to endorse Hochul.
“I trust Zohran’s leadership,” she said. “I know this is a strategic move on his part.”
For now, the Left still seems unified on advancing the mayor’s agenda and taxing the rich. Brisport said that those fighting to pressure the governor on taxing the rich felt temporarily deflated by the mayor’s announcement, which he calls “unfortunate,” but he says, “people are regrouping to keep fighting.”
This month, Mamdani will be traveling to Albany to make the case — and on February 25, NYC-DSA, Our Time (the group that formed after Mamdani’s election to focus on organizing pressure on the state to fund his affordability agenda), labor unions, and other groups will descend on the capital to make that same case. Mamdani’s endorsement of Governor Hochul, Heller says, “doesn’t mean we need to tax the rich any less.”
Indeed, even in Mamdani’s public statements about endorsing Hochul, he has repeatedly underscored the need to tax the rich. It is, in fact, NYC-DSA’s lead campaign as well as that of Our Time. Socialists in New York have long succeeded with an inside/outside strategy, gaining state power while also organizing grassroots pressure. The Mamdani administration is a triumph of that strategy, and as such, brings the Left into uncharted territory. Much more is possible when the Left holds power, but the dilemmas will multiply. It’s crucial that we continue to navigate them with grace.
Endorsing Hochul won’t be Mamdani’s last compromise, nor will the historic wins he got in exchange — winning the mayoralty, winning universal childcare — be his last big victories. The Left must brace ourselves for the ongoing quandaries of winning. Those are real problems, but also the best problems we’ve had in decades.