Supporters of Zohran Mamdani continue to pressure Democratic leaders, insisting that their candidate is entitled to the endorsement of party leadership.
But their sudden commitment to “vote blue no matter who” rewrites Mamdani’s own recent history. They would like to paper over his efforts to actively undermine Democrats in America’s most consequential moment.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) proclaimed last week that if “an individual doesn’t want to support the party’s nominee [now], it complicates their ability to ask voters to support any nominee [later].”
Precisely. This is the very same logic that disqualifies Mamdani from seeking these endorsements today.
Mamdani didn’t just fail to support Democratic presidential nominees Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden in last year’s existentially urgent campaign, he spoke out and organized against them. In March of 2024, Mamdani urged voters to withhold their vote from Biden.
“As proud Democrats and elected officials and New Yorkers,” Mamdani declared, “we endorse the Leave it Blank campaign.”
Last summer, as the world watched the Democrats make history by nominating the first Black woman on a major party ticket, Mamdani proudly platformed the Uncommitted Movement, which protested her convention.
This was not passive disagreement. It was an intentional and successful effort to sabotage the Democratic ticket in a general election — when the risks could not have been more clear, when every vote mattered, when Democrats were working tirelessly to defeat an authoritarian megalomaniac who had already incited a violent insurrection to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Mamdani helped reelect the person responsible for the most devastating setbacks for civil rights, civil liberties, social justice and democracy in American history.
The consequences are dire. We are losing so much, so fast. Our democracy is rapidly backsliding, with the judiciary being tested every day.
Marginalized communities — women, Black and brown Americans, immigrants, LGBTQ people, the working class and working poor — are under siege. America’s military is being deployed against American citizens on American streets.
Trump has aggressively politicized everything from the Federal Reserve to the history of slavery to public health.
With the stakes this high, Democrats must project clarity, cohesion and seriousness — especially heading into a high-risk 2026 midterm cycle.
Democratic and independent voters nationwide have shown a clear preference for moderate policies and tone, and a rejection of the left-wing caricatures that Republicans have successfully painted and turned into politically losing culture war issues.
Mamdani’s positions — on policing, the free market, immigration, Jewish safety and even the legitimacy of the Democratic Party — are wildly out of step with the broader national electorate.
Mamdani won a hyperlocal primary against a laughably weak field of opposition, in the bluest parts of the bluest city, driven by a narrow, ideologically uniform slice of the electorate.
Treating this outcome as a template for the national Democratic Party would be political malpractice — alienating the very constituencies Democrats need to win back the swing states and competitive districts.
Endorsing Mamdani would send the signal that this is the direction of the party, which risks blowback not just in the crucial 2026 midterms, but in high-stakes gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey this fall.
Our party championing Mamdani would be a massive gift to Trump, who will seize the opportunity every day to brand all Democrats as “radical anti-American leftists.”
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist comrades are openly plotting to primary sitting Democratic members of Congress, undermining the urgent fight to retake the House and check Trump’s unimaginable abuse of power.
Declining to endorse Mamdani doesn’t mean rejecting populist energy, or abandoning important progressive ideas like universal childcare, food security, investment in affordable housing or significantly hiking the minimum wage — especially in cities with the unconscionable wealth gap of New York.
I want all of these policies, in our city and our country — but I know we’ll never have them if we don’t hold the line to defend the Democratic Party from the extremes, handing another victory to MAGA next fall. We need stability, not spectacle — experience, not intifada.
We cannot allow our party’s fringe to define its future, as Republicans did in 2016. Are we going to be the party of principled and coherent leadership, or will we follow the Republican Party into a cult of personality — and drive America off the polarization cliff?
If Mamdani becomes the next mayor of New York, every Democrat, every New Yorker and every American should wish him success, and partner with him to advance safety, prosperity and opportunity across our city.
But for now, the Democratic Party owes Mamdani nothing — and owes its constituents a majority in Congress next fall.
Amanda Berman is founder and executive director of Zioness Action Fund.
