Tish James is all in on Mamdani

Politico

3 days ago

With help from Amira McKee
Letitia James has embraced Zohran Mamdani while other New York Democratic leaders are proceeding with caution.
The state attorney general began boosting him in earnest just before the June 24 primary, most visibly at a Working Families Party rally where she compared him to Barack Obama on a stage packed with progressives and a massive 'Don't Rank Cuomo' sign.
James had championed City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for most of the race, but saw the writing on the wall and stood proudly with Mamdani, now the Democratic nominee for mayor.
'That was the moment when I thought, 'We're actually gonna win,'' Ana María Archila, the co-director of the state WFP, told Playbook.
James' enthusiastic support of Mamdani is in stark contrast to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats who haven't endorsed the 33-year-old democratic socialist who trounced Andrew Cuomo by 12 points.
James, compared to the other Dem leaders, is a staunch opponent of Cuomo. She was a key player in his ouster as governor four years ago amid sexual harassment allegations.
As mainstream Democrats navigate how to work with the heavy favorite to be New York City's next mayor, James has been a consistent presence at Mamdani's side. She introduced him the night of his primary win, when she rejected the 'bias of low expectations,' and waved to crowds alongside him at the city's Pride March.
'He kept focused on his message,' she said on primary day. 'He wasn't concerned about the money. It was all about the power of the message, the power of his words.'
James, a WFP darling, was elected to the City Council in 2003 solely on the third party line, but now appeals to a broad swath of Democrats. She recently led nearly 100 New York officials in a letter urging unrestricted humanitarian aid to Gaza while condemning the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.
The Brooklyn Democrat became a national name as an adversary to President Donald Trump during his first term and has vowed to keep challenging his policies in court.
'She can straddle so many worlds,' Archila said, adding of James' backing of Mamdani: 'She was the only one … of the largest figures in politics in New York who was not of the left who made that decision.'
State Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, endorsed Cuomo in the primary but backed Mamdani immediately after his June 24 win. She said James was elated by the switch.
'She's in a very strategic position,' Bichotte Hermelyn told Playbook, recalling that many had urged James to run for mayor herself. 'She just has earned widespread respect across the state, across the city, and it's because of her ability to listen and connect with diverse communities.'
James shared a stage with Mamdani again on Saturday at a euphoric statewide gathering in her native Brooklyn of WFP members to celebrate their successful mayoral candidates in Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, Buffalo and New York City.
'I stand with all of these mayors, but most importantly, it's going to be an honor and a privilege to stand with my brother, Zohran Mamdani,' she said to whoops from the crowd. — Emily Ngo
HAPPY MONDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
WHERE'S KATHY? In Albany and Niagara County meeting with Texas House Democrats and rallying with western New York community against federal cuts.
WHERE'S ERIC? Schedule unavailable as of 10 p.m. Sunday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'Please run against me. Please.' — GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in a sarcastic response to Democrat Alessandra Biaggi, a former state senator and congressional candidate, as the two briefly feuded on X. Biaggi hit back that she loves her current life and unlike Lawler doesn't need 'daily hits of external validation to find meaning.'
ABOVE THE FOLD
COWBOY POLITICS: Hochul today will host a contingent of Texas Democrats who fled the Lone Star State on Sunday — throwing a wrench in the gears of a plan to overhaul the state's House map.
Some of the Texas lawmakers who left the state, denying the Legislature a quorum to advance the map, will be spending time in Albany, the governor's office said.
'We won't sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system to give Donald Trump more unchecked power,' Hochul said. 'Texas Democrats are standing up for the future of our democracy, and I'm proud to stand with them in the fight against disenfranchisement.'
Hochul's redistricting maneuvers have made her a player in a red-state-blue-state fight over House maps nationwide. The governor is backing a proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow New York to redraw its House lines mid-decade if another state is also undertaking the redistricting process.
'I wish I could just call a special election and change it,' she said in a Friday night MSNBC interview. 'I'd do it in a heartbeat. But we have a constitutional amendment process that's required first. I'm willing to do that.'
Backing the amendment, whose introduction was first reported by POLITICO Pro, is symbolic since governors have no formal role in the (lengthy) amendment process.
Yet her embrace of it comes at an opportune time, after she pledged to aggressively respond to Republican map-drawing efforts — even though there's virtually nothing New York can do ahead of the 2026 elections.
Republican-led Texas last week moved to change its House lines, drawing five seats that Trump carried last year in an effort to bolster Republicans' chances to win in the new districts.
The move stands to solidify GOP power in the narrowly divided House. New York is home to several swing seats — including crucial districts on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.
Hochul was blamed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when Republicans made gains in New York's 2022 congressional elections. Since then, the Democratic governor has tried to flex her muscles in those swing districts. Now back at the top of the ticket as she runs for reelection next year, Hochul will face another political test with helping her party in down ballot races.
'I'm going to do what we did back in 2024 when we won five out of seven battleground congressional seats and put all Democrats in those seats,' she said in the MSNBC interview. 'So I'm looking at the next year already as to how we can support our party, our candidates, Hakeem Jeffries, and make sure that he is the speaker before all this insanity continues.'
State GOP spokesperson David Laska called Hochul the 'worst governor' in the country and added she's wasting her time with the effort.
'Kathy Hochul's New York leads the nation in outmigration as the most taxed, least business friendly, least free state in America — maybe those issues are more deserving of her attention than congressional lines on the other side of the country,' he said. — Nick Reisman
CITY HALL: THE LATEST
PREPARING FOR THE WORST: Mamdani was worried enough about being detained by the Trump administration upon returning from his recent family trip to Uganda that he took several precautions before departing.
The Democratic nominee for mayor detailed the process at a Working Families Party event Saturday as he and fellow progressives discussed Trump's mass deportation agenda.
'It saddened me that I had to meet with lawyers before I even took that trip, that I had to call the attorney general about the fact that I was going to leave the country. I had to fill out a privacy waiver because I didn't know if I would be detained,' Mamdani said. 'And I'm thankful that that was not the case.'
Mamdani was born in Uganda, moved to New York as a child and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He has faced calls from Republicans, including Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), for him to be stripped of citizenship and deported. Trump has also questioned the candidate's citizenship. And the Justice Department has intensified efforts to denaturalize citizens if they 'illegally procured' citizenship.
The privacy waiver authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to disclose Mamdani's personal information to another person, in this case an attorney, a campaign spokesperson said.
'What does it say that I wake up in the morning and I hear from the President of the United States of America that he wants to denaturalize, that he wants to deport people?' Mamdani asked of Trump's broader plan at the weekend WFP gathering.
The Queens lawmaker was in Uganda for a massive family celebration of his recent wedding.
Asked to respond to Mamdani feeling the need to take precautions when he left the country, a White House spokesperson focused on criticizing the candidate.
'Since Comrade Mamdani is so eager to discuss his lavish Uganda destination wedding, complete with armed guards, we'd love for him to explain why his extremely wealthy family had so much security while he is actively trying to defund the police, make New York less safe, and take security away from Americans,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
Mamdani has backed off his past calls to defund the police, saying now that he wants to maintain the NYPD's headcount and create a Department of Community Safety for mental health and homelessness responses. — Emily Ngo
More from the city:
— Curtis Sliwa wants to be mayor, and the Republican nominee is taking off his red beret to prove it. (New York Times)
— City homeowners might not be getting the free garbage cans the City Council promised as the legislators and mayor literally fight over trash. (New York Post)
— The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau looked into a rape allegation against a former top aide to Adams, according to court documents. (POLITICO)
NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY
WELCOME TO THE 2ND FLOOR: Hochul campaign spokesperson Jen Goodman is heading to the governor's office.
She will serve as Hochul's director of rapid response. The change comes as the governor is gearing up for a challenging year — including a potentially tough state budget on top of her re-election campaign for a second full term.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: A tech executive whose company supports startups building artificial intelligence safety tools is the latest industry player urging Hochul to sign AI guardrail legislation.
The RAISE Act, passed in mid-June, would place AI safety standards on 'frontier models,' or the largest and most cutting-edge systems. It was sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Alex Bores, both Democrats.
Geoff Ralston, a former president of Y Combinator whose father helped found the University at Buffalo's computer science department, wrote in a letter to Hochul that New York must act in the absence of congressional action to regulate AI.
'I believe deeply in the potential of AI to benefit society and in the urgent need to manage its risks,' said Ralston, who leads the Safe AI Fund.
Bradley Tusk and Rainfall Ventures are among the other venture capitalists who want RAISE — or Responsible AI Safety and Education — to become law. Several startups are advocating for it, too.
But some trade groups, most notably Tech:NYC — whose members include Meta and Google — oppose the legislation as written, saying too-broad restrictions would hinder innovation.
'We want to be doing all we can to incentivize the development of smart, responsible AI here in New York state, and I am fundamentally concerned that the passage of this bill would push us the other way,' Tech:NYC president Julie Samuels told Gothamist.
A Hochul spokesperson said only that the governor would review the bill. — Emily Ngo
More from Albany:
— Not all state lawmakers made the usual trek to Albany this legislative session. (Buffalo News)
— New York officials want to regulate kratom as the federal government eyes a crackdown. (Times Union)
— Hochul slammed Sen. Ted Cruz after he mocked her for wearing a headscarf at NYPD Officer Didarul Islam's funeral. (Daily Beast)
KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Battleground Republican Reps. Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota will be targeted beginning today by robocalls to voters highlighting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent remarks that Trump accounts could lead to privatization of Social Security.
Democrats also plan to hit Republicans in the midterms over votes in Washington impacting Medicaid, Social Security, food benefits and other safety net programs. GOP members say the cuts are meant to reduce waste and fraud.
The robocalls, paid for by the Battleground New York alliance of labor unions and progressive groups, will connect voters to the frontline Republicans' legislative offices.
'New York seniors can't be fooled,' the call says, according to a script. 'We know what 'privatize Social Security' means — it means selling us out to Wall Street fat cats, just like the politicians always do.'
The call also says Lawler and LaLota had promised not to cut Social Security.
Battleground New York was key to the Democrats flipping four House seats last year. Lawler and LaLota defeated high-profile challengers to win second terms then, but are again top targets.
'Long Islanders see through the Democrats' predictable playbook — using fearmongering on race, abortion, and Social Security,' LaLota, who represents eastern Long Island, responded. 'My constituents won't be fooled.'
Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican, will skip a bid for governor and run for reelection with at least seven Democrats seeking to unseat him.
'The claims in this robocall are categorically false, and a blatant attempt to deceive Hudson Valley seniors,' Lawler spokesperson Chris Russell responded, attacking Battleground New York as a radical organization. 'The truth is that Congressman Lawler has never and will never vote to privatize or cut Social Security, and voters will soundly reject these dishonest attacks once again.' — Emily Ngo
More from Congress:
— 'More like a blue trickle': Dems are hoping for a blue wave that might not happen. (POLITICO)
— The Senate is in recess with no deal to speed confirmations as an irate Trump tells Schumer to 'go to hell.' (Associated Press)
— Young progressive activists look to Mamdani, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez as the future of the Democratic Party — under one condition. (Fox News)
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
— A New York National Guard member was charged with selling prison inmates phones and drugs. (Times Union)
— Faulty electrical equipment caused an explosion in the subway system last year. (Gothamist)
— A 3.0 earthquake shook the metro region. (NY1)
SOCIAL DATA
MAKING MOVES: Gregory Kirsopp is now director of legislative affairs for the New York City Department of Correction. He was previously chief of staff to Assemblymember Michael Novakhov … Nate Yohannes has joined Zeta Global as president of the Zeta Data & AI Lab. He previously held roles at Meta, Microsoft and the U.S. Small Business Administration … Rakia Reynolds has joined Actum as a partner, after the consulting firm acquired her firm Skai Blue Media.
ENGAGED: Tyler Waywell, a white collar litigator at Hogan Lovells, on Wednesday proposed to Isabelle Kenyon, the founder and former CEO of Calibrate. He proposed on a bluff walk in Nantucket on their six-month anniversary. Pic … Another pic
WEDDING: Sarah Williamson, a correspondent and anchor for Newsmax, on July 17 married Tal Erel, a business transformation consultant at EY, at City Vineyard on Pier 26 in Tribeca. The couple met when Sarah was living in Israel and interviewed Tal before the 2020 Olympics, when he was on the Israeli baseball team that had qualified.Pics by Eric Green ...Another pic SPOTTED: Tom and Deneen Borelli, Christina Thompson, Monica and Daniel Baldwin, and Rita Cosby and Tomaczek Bednarek.
MEDIAWATCH: Rolling Stone executive editor Sean Woods and The Hollywood Reporter co-editor in chief Shirley Halperin have been named co-editors in chief of Rolling Stone.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries … former President Barack Obama … the Empire Center's Bill Hammond … Newsday's Rob Levin … AP's Seung Min Kim (4-0) … Bret Baier … Alex Mallin of ABC … CBS' Katie Watson … Brett Loper … Semafor's Jessica Yarvin … former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin … Emily Goldberg … Tom Qualtere … Brian Kateman …
… (WAS SUNDAY): Matthew Foldi … ABC's Ben Siegel and John Parkinson … Brian Morgenstern … City Journal's Brian Anderson … Dow Jones' Clarissa Matthews … Reuters' Brad Brooks … Jacob Weisberg of Pushkin Industries … Andrew Craft … (WAS SATURDAY): Matthew Rosenberg … Gigi Sohn … Fox News' Rich Edson … CBS' Caitlin Huey-Burns … NBC's Dylan Dreyer … The New Yorker's Lawrence Wright … Jack H. Jacobs (8-0) … (WAS FRIDAY): David Helfenbein
Missed Friday's New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.