Kathy Hochul is not having a good time. The current governor of New York is attempting to maintain her power as much as possible, albeit through questionable strategies. This past Monday, Hochul penned an essay for The New York Times, announcing her endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. Mamdani did not return the favor for the governor's re-election bid, showing everyone in the Democrat Party he has the power they crave.
Many find hers a strange endorsement, and some political operatives have said that what Hochul is doing is a “calculated political risk.” Hochul’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, is vying for her position, and thus the two are estranged. “Delgado is gaining ground, and they want to neutralize him. There’s concern for him running to the left. She’s losing ground in the suburbs and upstate, and they have to consolidate the downstate vote.” As usual, the only thing that matters to Kathy Hochul is Kathy Hochul. She has done this throughout her political life, and her ambitions as a careerist politician and Erie County Clerk have been well-known to the people of Western New York, including myself, for years.
Despite the many alleged disagreements that Hochul has with Mamdani, she sees him as “a leader who shares [her] commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family. I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.” Almost all of what Hochul said about Mamdani sounds like a series of saccharine platitudes that can be applied to any candidate.
Another surprise in this turn of events is that Zohran Mamdani himself did not return the favor – he did not endorse Kathy Hochul in her bid to remain governor of New York. Speaking to a reporter, Mamdani made a somewhat confusing statement in which he says that he doesn’t want to be asked “about the thing beyond the thing” and that his “focus is on November, and that he is “excited to have the governor’s support in that fight for November as we make it clear that we can put the days of city hall and Albany being at war in the past…”
Mamdani’s haughty, pseudo-intellectual, and pseudo-philosophical statement of “thing beyond the thing,” implying that he is a logical and disciplined man who cannot possibly think about such things as future endorsements, is yet another dimension of his divisive personality.
Some posit that Mamdani is in control of the Democrat party, at least when it comes to electing a New York City mayor. Hochul is an old fool trying to appear cool to garner votes from the far left and presumably younger voters. But things aren’t that clear.
Mamdani has emerged as a candidate out of nowhere and checks off all the boxes of both Marxist ideology and identity politics. There was nothing “grassroots” about his rise, and judging from the policies he has supported, Mamdani is interested in one thing only: carrying on far-left, actually socialist policies in New York City that go beyond the "Democrat thing."
He clearly has monetary support, and to assume that he is in control of anything, let alone the Democrat party, seems naïve, especially since House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have not given their official endorsement of Mamdani—but they each remain poised to do so.
This is not to say that Mamdani is merely parroting his donors’ wishes. He is moving and staying within the lines of the pervasive leftist culture that is mainly present in a city like New York. Mamdani has also been steeped in this ideological tradition through his father’s academic work. Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani is a political theorist who focuses on colonialism and post-colonialism, as well as offering sharp critiques of nation-states. This is not to say that Mahmood Mamdani should not discuss such topics, but rather to illustrate the mindset that Zohran Mamdani was brought up to follow.
Lately, all roads lead to identity politics, and this is where Mamdani is firmly planted. He will continue to be divisive and, at the same time, argue for socialist policies, which are not only anti-American but, frankly, utterly incompatible with American principles.
As for Kathy Hochul, time will tell if her gamble to endorse Mamdani will have paid off, or whether she was foolish to jump into a party she was not invited to.
