Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a key progressive member of the Chamber whose district covers the Bronx and queens stripes, supported the candidate for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, on Thursday by the primaries of the City Mayor’s Office, a day after the candidate crashed with the former Gov. and the other Democratic candidate and the other candidate.
“The assembly Mamdani has demonstrated a real capacity in the field of assembling a coalition of working class New Yorkers that is stronger to lead the pack. In the final stretch of the race, we need to be very real about it,” Ocasio-Cortez He told New York Times In an interview published Thursday.
The representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends the marking of energy and trade of the Chamber of Representatives of the Fy2025 budget in the Rayburn building, on May 13, 2025.
Tom Williams/Cq Roll Call through AP Images
“In 2018, AOC surprised the world and changed our policy for better with his historical victory. On June 24, we will do the same,” Mamdani told Times in a statement.
Mamdani, a state assembly and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been constantly moving forward in surveys and fundraising. It is running on a progressive platform that includes a rental freezing for stabilized apartments with rent, eliminating rates for buses in New York City and the city’s grocery opening stores. Mamdani display The last two being financed for higher taxes on companies and rich individuals; Some have warned that I would You need the support of the state government For those taxes.
The Democratic candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a primary debate of the Democratic Mayor, June 4, 2025, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura, pool through AP
His announcement came the day after a chaotic debate of two hours scored by candidates shouted on an increasingly exasperated list of moderators.
Nine Democrats who want to be the next mayor of New York City, faced how they would interact with President Donald Trump, public security, affordability and other issues.
Of those on stage, Cuomo leads the herd in the surveys, while Mamdani is slowly closing the gap in the second place. The rest of the candidates have fought to make their way.
Each candidate was asked how they would work with, or accuse, Trump if the mayor was elected. Cuomo promised that he is an adversary that Trump could not better.
“It can be beaten. But you have to know that you face an opponent who can really beat him. I am the last person at this stage that Trump wants to see as mayor, and that is why it should be the first option for the people of the city to have as mayor,” Cuomo said.
The Democratic candidate for mayor Andrew Cuomo speaks, in the primary debate of the Democratic Mayor’s Office of New York City in NBC Studios, on June 4, 2025, in New York.
Pool/Getty Images
Mamdani, answering the question, said: “I am the worst nightmare of Donald Trump, since a progressive Muslim immigrant who really fights for the things in which I believe, and the difference between Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not financed by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in DC … I have to collect the phone for more than 20,000 New York, which contributed to an average of $ 80 to $ 80 80 to which already donates of fonding in DC … put our campaign in second place. “
Cuomo did not respond directly to Mamdani’s attack in the debate stage.
Some billionaires who have previously supported Trump, such as the prominent coverage fund manager Bill Ackman, and the founder of Home Depot, Ken Langone, donated For an independent group, the Super Pac fixes the city, which admits Cuomo. The Cuomo campaign cannot coordinate with the group. In response to reports on the rich supporters of Cuomo, fix the city spokesman Liz Benjamin He said to New York Times that “donors have supported Fix The City because they know that Andrew Cuomo has the right experience and the right plans for New York City.”
Multiple controversies surrounding Cuomo, including accusations against him of sexual harassment, which he denies, arose during the debate.
Michael Blake, former state assembly, while answering a question about public security, raised the accusations of sexual harassment against Cuomo: “The people who do not feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers of Andrew Cuomo, that is the biggest threat to public security in New York City.”
Cuomo, later asked about the accusations, and if he did something differently investigations that alleged that his leadership fostered a toxic work environment, he told the moderators: “Let us make sure to have the facts. A report was made four years ago making certain accusations. I said at that time that it was political and that it was false.”
He added that five district prosecutors found “nothing” and was withdrawn from a case.
“I said at that time that if I offended someone, it was not intentional, but I apologize, and I say it today.”
