Mamdani's Black voter gap

Politico

6 hours ago

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With help from Cris Seda Chabrier
Zohran Mamdani's democratic socialist policies are a hit with affluent white voters. But the surging mayoral candidate trails Andrew Cuomo among New Yorkers he says his plans will help the most.
The upstart candidate is lagging the former governor with Black and Latino voters in all the polls.
With the Democratic primary a week away, political leaders from those core constituencies are dialing up their support of Cuomo as Mamdani's core base — younger, farther to the left, whiter — flock to early voting booths to crown the 33-year-old lawmaker the next executive.
The dynamic is a microcosm of a nationwide divide in the Democratic Party. In 2024, younger lefty voters expressed open hostility toward Kamala Harris over her stance on the Israel-Hamas war. And in the two previous election cycles, voters of that ilk broke for Bernie Sanders while those over 45 — most crucially Black voters in the South — went strongly for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
For Mamdani, the obstacles facing him played out in absentia over the weekend in Manhattan.
Friday night in Harlem, Cuomo rallied alongside Rep. Adriano Espaillat. The next day, he appeared with Rep. Gregory Meeks and Al Sharpton.
Sharpton praised Cuomo and criticized Mamdani for cross-endorsing City Comptroller Brad Lander and not City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is Black.
'They say that Mamdani and Lander endorsed each other, so against the Black woman,' Sharpton said. 'Something about that politics ain't progressive to me.' (As POLITICO reported, Mamdani's team has in fact sought a cross-endorsement with Adams.)
That political split exemplifies the pitfalls awaiting Mamdani as he has climbs in the polls and activates the excited left wing of his party: Older Black and Latino voters — particularly middle-class Black homeowners — have long been key to any winning coalition in a New York City Democratic primary. And they tend not to be card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member.
'African-American voters have historically been more moderate to conservative than a lot of people really account for,' said Basil Smikle Jr., who once led the New York State Democratic Party. 'It's a vote tied to more mainstream politics and politicians, and you will see a higher turnout among those voters compared to younger ones.'
Read more from POLITICO's Joe Anuta on voter demographics — and how Mamdani's trying to reach voters of color and expand the electorate.
IT'S TUESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
WHERE'S KATHY? Delivers Remarks at a ribbon cutting for a GrowNYC regional food hub in the Bronx and announcing health care investments in Central Brooklyn at SUNY Downstate.
WHERE'S ERIC? Public schedule unavailable as of 10 p.m. Monday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'Only socialists and Brooklyn hipsters would believe such nonsense.' — Assemblymember Michael Fitzpatrick of Suffolk County on climate change, speaking on the Assembly floor, via the Times Union's Dan Clark.
ABOVE THE FOLD
RELITIGATING 'DEFUND': The 2020 defund movement is reappearing in the under-the-radar race for New York City comptroller.
The leading candidates, each in the City Council at the time the national push was peaking, technically voted to defund the police in 2020. And one of them — Mark Levine, now the Manhattan borough president — even called for deeper cuts to the NYPD than the $1 billion the council imposed at the time, and has distanced himself from that choice in a recent round of debates.
At the time, Levine posted on X that the council's cuts 'were not as deep as I — and many of you — had hoped.'
And at the first candidate debate last month, he avoided mentioning that call entirely, instead saying that he didn't think the demands for 'far steeper cuts' to policing were 'prudent.' Some activists at the time — amid national protests following the death of George Floyd — wanted to slash the NYPD budget by about $3 billion.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had said that year's budget cut $1 billion from the NYPD, though the cuts never totaled that much on paper and some reductions were never enacted.
Comptroller candidate Justin Brannan confronted Levine over this issue during the second debate on June 10, asking why his opponent didn't own up to his past rhetoric.
'You also voted the same way I did, in favor of the budget,' Levine added.
Brannan wasn't happy, appealing to the moderators that Levine didn't answer, but the debate moved on.
Sentiments have changed, and the 2020 defund movement is now a political liability in a citywide race.
Levine is appealing to more moderate Democrats in the comptroller primary, while Brannan is running to his left with the support of the Working Families Party, so the debate challenge was meant to hurt Levine's standing with his base.
The battle in the council in 2020 centered around whether to vote against the budget in an effort to extract deeper cuts or approve it, Levine said. 'I voted in favor of the budget because it was a moment of crisis. We needed to keep the city going,' during the second debate.
While Levine was arguing the cuts didn't go far enough in 2020, Brannan was telling activists that they actually did total $1 billion. 'I made a commitment to the $1B cut and to follow the lead of my BIPOC colleagues in the Black, Latino & Asian Caucus and I don't break my promises,' he said in a text message posted to X. — Jeff Coltin
CITY HALL: THE LATEST
HEY, BIG SPENDER: City Council Member Keith Powers' girlfriend is one of his biggest financial supporters. Layla Amjadi donated $25,000 to a super PAC that's boosting Powers' candidacy for Manhattan borough president.
Amjadi also gave the legal maximum $1,600 donation to Power's BP campaign. Super PACs have no contribution limits, but cannot coordinate with campaigns and candidates they support.
One of the factors New York City Campaign Finance Board regulators consider when determining whether there is coordination is if the super PAC has been 'financed, maintained or controlled' by the candidate's spouse, domestic partner or family members. Another factor is whether the campaign and the super PAC have both been in communication with the same third party.
A board spokesperson declined to comment.
Regulators have approved of similar situations with far more money on the line. Mayoral candidate Shaun Donovan's father donated $6.8 million to a super PAC backing his son's 2021 mayoral run, and the board didn't find evidence of coordination.
Amjadi, a senior director of product at Google, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. John Collins, chair of the pro-Powers super PAC Safe New York City, declined to comment.
The super PAC has reported raising $75,000 and spending $63,000 on mailers boosting Powers in his campaign against state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal for the open seat.
'If the Hoylman-Sigal campaign wants to spend the final week of the race engaging in baseless attacks, that's their choice,' Powers spokesperson JT Ennis said when asked about Amjadi's contribution. 'Our campaign remains laser focused on the issues that actually matter to voters: public safety and affordable housing.' — Jeff Coltin
More from the city:
— Cuomo has been hit with an ethics complaint for failing to disclose his more than $2.6 million worth of stock options in an nuclear technology company. (New York Post)
— Brannan bragged that he was endorsed by more than 70 faith leaders last week — but a bunch of his supposed supporters said they never even heard of him. (New York Post)
— Former Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon was pushed out of his post as an assistant deputy mayor last month. (Daily News)
NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY
WHAT'S IN A NAME: State lawmakers today will propose naming an Albany-area bridge after World War I hero Henry Johnson, a Black soldier who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in 2015.
In normal political times, the proposal would probably be uncontroversial. In the Trump 2.0 era, the measure is fraught with politics. A commission in 2023 re-named Fort Polk in Louisiana for Johnson, but the Trump administration moved this year to reverse the name to Fort Polk.
The southern fort's initial name change two years ago belonged to a broader effort to replace the names of Confederate soldiers at military installations. Fort Polk was originally named for Leonidas Polk, a Confederate general.
When President Donald Trump announced this month Johnson's name would be removed for World War II Gen. James Polk, Albany Democrats eager to fight the Republican president leapt to respond.
'It's just another gut punch from this administration,' said state Sen. Pat Fahy, one of the sponsors of the bridge-naming bill.
Democrats nationally and in New York have struggled to counteract Trump through legislation. During his first term, state lawmakers moved to provide Congressional Democrats access to his state tax returns.
Resistance-style legislation in response to Trump during the second administration has been rarer in Albany.
The bill to name the bridge after Johnson will be unveiled this week, but won't be considered until next January when state lawmakers start a new legislative session.
'This will show that while the president may not value his heroic contributions, the Capital Region does,' Fahy said. — Nick Reisman
More from Albany:
— State lawmakers won't act on a bill to create sweeping sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants. (City & State)
— Measures to regulate artificial intelligence in New York may run afoul of federal efforts to block state action. (Gothamist)
— A bill to slow the expansion of natural gas hookups is heading to Hochul's desk. (POLITICO Pro)
KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION
TALKING CORRUPTION: Rep. Dan Goldman is burnishing his reputation as an anti-corruption crusader with a speech this morning at New York Law School billed as 'Democracy on the Brink: Corruption and the Public Trust.'
'It's going to be a bipartisan indictment of the culture of corruption,' a spokesperson promised. But even though Goldman endorsed state Sen. Zellnor Myrie for mayor, he does not anticipate mentioning Cuomo — whose alleged corruption opponents have relentlessly attacked
A former federal prosecutor, Goldman won election in 2022 running on his experience as lead counsel for House Democrats' first impeachment of President Donald Trump — and a helpful endorsement from The New York Times. — Jeff Coltin
More from Congress:
— New York Republicans blasted the U.S. Senate proposal to keep the $10,000 SALT cap. (Times Union)
— U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand blasted the federal tax-and-spend package as a 'big beautiful betrayal.' (Buffalo News)
— Congressional Democrats warn budget cuts will leave New York unprepared for another Sept. 11-style attack. (NY1)
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
— The U.S. Supreme Court ordered New York to reconsider religious exemptions for abortion coverage. (Gothamist)
— There may be a gap in New York's sex offender registry system. (Spectrum News)
— Trump wants to expand ICE deportations in New York. (Bloomberg)
SOCIAL DATA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: New Deal Strategies' Camile Rivera … former state Sen. John Sampson … Brian Fargnoli of NYC DOHMH … Matt Canter of Global Strategy Group … Matt Miller … CNBC's Christina Wilkie … Paul Steinhauser … Jessica Boulanger … Kerri Chyka … Rebecca Zisser … (WAS MONDAY): Alison Gopnik ... Daniel C. Kurtzer
Missed Monday's New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.