NYC NOW - A Leftist Mayoral Frontrunner, a Centrist Governor, and a Democratic Party at a Crossroads

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor, raising questions about how Democrats will navigate divides between centrists and progressives. The endorsement also puts pressure on Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to weigh in. WNYC’s Jon Campbell explains what it reveals about the party and what it could mean heading into November.

New York City mayoral candidate Zeran Mumdani has strong support among Democratic voters. But what about the party establishment? Last week, Mamdani won the backing of one of the most prominent dams in New York State, Governor Kathy Hockel. I know that took a minute, right? But what took her so long? And why should voters even care? From WNYC, this is NYC now.

I'm Jene Pierre. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. Governor Kathy Hokel is among the first major establishment Democrats to endorse Mumdani, whose progressive views have put him at odds with some elements of the party. As the general election looms, the governor's move puts renewed pressure on other high-profile Democrats, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. To unpack what this all means for the city and the Democratic Party, I'm joined by WMYC's John Campbell.

And John, I just used the term establishment Democrat to discuss. describe Governor Hockel. Can you quickly explain what that means and how that sets her apart from other Dems in the state? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the governor is part of what we call the Democratic establishment. And what we mean by that are the people within the party who have traditionally been the base of that party and form the leadership of that party. The leaders tend to be more center, center left, which includes Governor Hockel, plus like what you just said, Keem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer. Those are the people that really make up the establishment.

Then when we talk about establishment Democrats versus progressive Democrats, the progressives tend to be more on the left flank of the parties. Got it, got it. Thanks for breaking that down. Now, talk about the importance of the relationship between a mayor and governor, because I know historically there's been friction in decades past bordering on animosity, of course. Yeah, absolutely. And it's all due to the way.

the government is structured in New York. I mean, New York City needs the state's permission to do just all sorts of stuff, everything from putting up speed cameras and school zones to funding the subways and all sorts of funding issues in New York State. So there's all sorts of things where a mayor needs to go to the governor and the state legislature to essentially get permission. And that has really led to all sorts of friction between mayors and governors and governors over the years. I mean, the biggest example was pretty recently, and that would be Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio. I mean, Jene, they fought over everything from, you know, closing down subways during weather emergencies to even whether to euthanize a deer that was

on the loose in Harlem. That was a thing, yeah, that was a thing that actually happened. But, you know, Hockel, Governor Hockel, has tried to have a better working relationship with the mayor's office, particularly Mayor Adams, who has been the mayor for almost the entirety of her term at this point. And that's in part why there was a lot of interest in what Governor Hokel was going to do here with Zeran Mamdani and the mayor's race. I mean, she's going to have to work with whomever the next mayor is. And there was some question about whether she would endorse Zeran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee. He did win a Democratic primary after all. or if maybe she would not endorse at all because, you know, Mayor Adams is way down in the polls,

has had, you know, issues about his ties to Donald Trump, whose administration helped disappear some criminal charges against the mayor. And then the other major candidate, I should say, is Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who she had a pretty difficult relationship when he was governor and she was the lieutenant governor. but, you know, she ultimately did decide to pull the trigger and endorse Zeralamam Dani. So let's talk about that relationship between Hockel and Mumdani. Where are they aligned and where do they disagree? Well, Hockel is very much a centrist Democrat. Mom Dani is very much from the left side of the party. He's an unapologetic, democratic socialist.

And so Hockel made clear in her endorsement of Mammani that there's still things that they don't agree on. That said, when a reporter person, pressed her to say one specific thing where you do agree with Zeram, Mom, Donnie. Here's what she had to say. Child care. We already had a conversation about the fact that I announced my desire to get to universal child care back in my state of state address. You know, he's aligned with that. And it sounds like they're in total agreement right there, though, John, right?

Yeah, it kind of sounds that way, right? But listen to this very next line that Governor Hokel said. But you also look at the fact that if you do. it in its entirety in one year. For New York City alone, it is a $7 billion price take. I have to double that for the rest of the state. So even on an issue where they theoretically agree this push for universal child care, they're still not quite there on the details about how fast they want to ramp it up. So the governor says they're committed to hashing it out over the next year when the state legislature is back in Albany. But that assumes that Zeramam Dhani wins.

in November. Stick around. There's more to come. John, back up for a second, because I'm wondering, why should voters care about endorsements in the first place? Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, endorsements tend to get a lot of coverage from people like you and I, journalists, and people in the political bubble, you know, it's all they can talk about sometimes.

But do voters really care? Should they care? I mean, sometimes, yes, I mean, in the case of a big national figure, like an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has a lot of, you know, very enthusiastic progressive supporters who kind of look to her for a stamp of approval. In those cases, sure. But I think an endorsement like Governor Hockel probably doesn't move the needle nearly as much, but there's really big implications here for Zeramam Dani and for Governor Hockel. I mean, on the Mom Dali side, the governor's endorsement is really a signal to centrist and moderates and the democratic establishment. There's that term again, that it's okay to support Zeramam Dani, even if his views on socialism and any number of things that are to the left of your own. And then there's the business community.

The governor has a pretty good relationship with the business community in New York City, which has some factions that have been kind of freaking out over. Zeran Mamdani and the potential that he could be mayor. But for Hockel, she's obviously banking that this is going to be a positive for her own reelection chances. I mean, like we said, she's up for re-election next year. She's hoping to court some of those Mom Dani supporters, those very enthusiastic supporters that knock on doors to her side and away from maybe a more progressive primary challenger, like her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who is already challenging her from her left. You just wrote a piece last week about Republicans being eager to use Mundani as a political foil.

Is that what some of the other Democratic leaders are worried about? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we just talked about that potential reward for Governor Hokel, but there's a lot of risk with this endorsement, too, not just for her, but with any establishment Democrat. There's that term again. And the two names that we're really watching most closely are Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who you mentioned earlier. They are Brooklyn Democrats who live a few blocks from each other. But they are these national figures who lead their parties respective conferences in the Senate and the House. And they want to see as many Democrats across the nation elected as they can.

So they have to use this calculation of, okay, if we endorse Zeramam Dani, then Republicans in any state in the country are going to say, hey, look, this socialist Democrat is who is the face of your party? And look, Chuck Schumer endorsed him. Hakeem Jephyme Jeffries endorsed him. This is who you're electing if you're electing the Democratic Party. And while Zeramam Dhani is popular among New York City Democrats, or at least polls show us that he is in the lead among the New York City electorate, you know, that doesn't play as well in other areas of the state. And certainly some more Republican areas of the country or purple areas of the country. So there's a lot at play here for those national democratic leaders to kind of figure out, okay, this is New York's

Democratic nominee for the New York City mayoralty. You know, do we have an obligation to endorse him? Should we endorse him? Do we believe in what he's saying here? And the national side of things, which is, is this going to hurt our ability to take over the House, take over the Senate in the years to come here? That's what they're weighing right now. Neither of them have made an endorsement in the New York City mayor's race to this point. We know Hockel has managed to keep up a working relationship with President Donald Trump. Just a couple weeks ago, she pleaded with him on a over a phone call not to bring National Guard troops to New York City. So, you know, considering the president's strong reaction to her endorsement of Mumdani, how do you see the governor navigating that

dynamic? Yeah, you're right. I mean, in addition to the National Guard issue, they've met in person a few times, and they've negotiated on things like Penn Station and, you know, an offshore wind project off the coast of Long Island and then, you know, natural gas pipelines that Trump wanted. And, you know, Hockel, though, in public, has been pretty strong against the president's agenda, against the one big beautiful bill act. And this week, she said that Trump's efforts to, quote, put his thumb on the scale in the mayor's race was really the thing that sealed the deal for her endorsement of Zeromomom Dani. I mean, remember, Trump advisors have been trying to convince Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Slewa to drop out. to drop out of the race to kind of clear the field for Andrew Cuomo, which, you know, the theory being if Andrew Cuomo has a one-on-one race against Momdani, he can consolidate the anti-Momondani

vote and maybe make a race of this thing. And once Hockel actually made her endorsement, announced it in the New York Times, the president suggested he could actually try to withhold federal money from New York City should Zeram-Mam-Dani win. I mean, that could be transportation funding, that could be health care funding. There's all sorts of levers he could pull on the federal funding front. And Governor Hokel had a really strong reaction to that. That's what I'm talking about. Okay, I mean, think about what is implied in that threat, that if one person is elected mayor and not a different person, that he's going to threaten to withhold federal dollars, despite how much we send as New Yorkers into the federal

conference. He'll withhold it from us. The governor said part of the reason she endorsed, Is this is a wrong, Mom, Donnie, is she thinks he'll stand up to Trump. And she's concerned that the other candidates may be compromised. When you put all this together, what does this tell us about the state of the Democratic Party in New York right now? Well, it certainly shows there's still a split between those centrist, moderate Democrats and the, you know, left progressive Democrats. But Governor Hockel's endorsement is maybe one step toward unifying ahead of the November election. You know, we do know that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have been talking to Mom Dani and perhaps not the other candidates. Jeffries in particular has kind of sort of hinted that an endorsement might be on the way.

He said, you know, stay tuned. And that would have, as we said, national implications. So there's still this very clear split, but, you know, Hockel's endorsement is one step closer to maybe mending that rift and showing that there is some level of unification, even though the governor has made plain to say that there are still issues that she does not agree with Zeramam Dhanion. And, you know, she's talked about how she's talked with him about things like Israel and the need to reach up. to Jewish voters, things of that nature. So it remains to be seen a little bit, but it looks like there's some mending, some unification happening within the party. And Governor Hokel's endorsement is a step toward that.

And maybe other endorsements will follow and come rolling on in. We'll see. Yeah, well, that's certainly what we're going to be looking out for. Yeah. That's WMYC's John Campbell. Thanks a lot, John. Thank you, Jeney. And thank you for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

I'm Jenae Pierre. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll be back on Monday.