Last year, Zohran Mamdani was a 33-year-old state assemblymember running second in his own party’s primary to disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo, who entered the 2025 New York City mayoral race as the frontrunner—backed by both the Democratic establishment and endorsed by President Donald Trump. Fourteen months ago, polling firms were running ranked-choice simulations showing Cuomo defeating Mamdani 56 to 44 in the Democratic primary.
Now, that assemblyman is the most powerful Democrat in America’s most powerful city, who, on Tuesday, went three for three in congressional endorsements.
All three of the Democratic Socialist’s endorsed congressional candidates won their primaries, including two who unseated sitting Democratic incumbents. Former city comptroller Brad Lander defeated Rep. Dan Goldman in NY-10; 32-year-old first-time candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, an investigator at a public defender’s office, ousted five-term incumbent and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat in NY-13; and the Mamdani-backed state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez beat out Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in NY-7, the latter of whom was endorsed by outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez. All three will almost certainly win in November in their deep-blue districts, placing three Mamdani allies in Congress come January.
