NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: SNAP Recipients Sue Trump Administration, House Democratic Leader Supports Mamdani for Mayor, President Trump Endorses Ciattarelli in the NJ Governor’s Race, and the Manhattan DA’s Race Flies Below the Radar

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

New Yorkers receiving food stamps are suing the Trump administration over changes to the program, known as SNAP. Plus, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says affordability is a key reason why he’s endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. Meanwhile, President Trump is backing Rep. Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey’s governor’s race, calling him the right candidate to lower energy costs in the state. And finally, voters in Manhattan will be asked to select their pick for the borough's next district attorney on Election Day.

SNAP recipients in New York sue the Trump administration. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries supports Mumdani for mayor. Meanwhile, President Trump endorses Jack Shidorelli in the New Jersey governor's race. And the race for Manhattan District Attorney flies below the radar. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. New Yorkers receiving food stamps are suing the Trump administration over changes to the program known as SNAC. The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully fast-tracking work requirements that will ultimately kick thousands of recipients off the monthly benefit.

New York has long been exempt from work rules, but the federal government rescinded those exemptions months earlier than expected. Now, SNAP users will have to prove their working starting next month in order to keep getting help with food. Lawyers in the case say that won't give recipients or the city enough time to adjust to the changes or find employment. Those who don't meet the new rules could lose their benefits as soon as March. House Democratic leader Hakim Jeffries says affordability is a key reason why he's endorsing Zeramamamemani from mayor of New York City. Jeffries faced pressure for months to weigh in on the race. I support the Democratic nominee, as I indicated, and we're in alignment in terms of the issue related to affordability and the need to address it decisively for the city of New York.

Mamdani has centered his campaign on housing, transit, and cost of living issues, helping him win the Democratic primary. He now faces Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa in the general election next Tuesday, with early voting underway until November 2nd. Speaking of endorsements, President Trump is backing Republican Jack Shidorelli in New Jersey's governor's race, calling him the right candidate to lower energy costs in the state. But the endorsement also highlights a potential tension. Shidorelli supports expanding solar energy, while Trump has rolled back federal solar subsidies. The Justice Department says it will monitor Passaic County during the November 4th election. Trump narrowly won the county last year. Meanwhile, former President Obama has endorsed Shidorelli's Democratic opponent, Mikey Cheryl.

Stick around. More on the race for New Jersey governor after the break. We're about a week. week away from Election Day. In New Jersey, all eyes are on the tight race for governor. Republican Jack Shidorelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill are making their final pushes to get out the vote. But what about the people behind the campaigns? Volunteers play a big role in these political races. Mikey Sherrill's campaign is backed by several women who first joined up with her back in 2017 during Cheryl's first run for Congress. And these women had never been involved in a political campaign before. That's WNYC's New Jersey's.

reporter, Mike Hayes. He says the motivating factor for most of their involvement was Donald Trump. Mike met with Diane Tolkowski from Moors Town, New Jersey. I was devastated when Trump got elected in 2016. I was appalled by it. And I kept looking for something to do to help make a difference. Diane looked at the candidates in her area, and she found Mikey Sherrill's name. She walked into a campaign office, and since then, she says she never left. But Mike reminds me that Mikey Sherrill was one of a host of female candidates that first came into office during the midterm elections of Trump's first term as president. And in Cheryl's case, she didn't just win that congressional election. She flipped a seat that had been Republican for 30 years, and she flipped it by more than 30 points.

And this time around, Cheryl's team sees its volunteers as a key part of their strategy to win the governor's race. However, Mike says her campaign got off to a slow start against Republican. Jack Chittarelli. I heard Chittarelli brag at a campaign event a couple weeks ago that he's all 600 diners in the state shaking hands with New Jerseyans. But political experts say Cheryl has picked up the pace, particularly at a grassroots level. And her campaign told me they've knocked on close to 600,000 doors. They've made 2 million phone calls, sent close to 4 million text messages during this campaign. Mike says he's been seeing phone banking and canvassing efforts from the Shidorelli side as well. But his campaign didn't share any numbers. He says

Shidorelli seems more focused on getting himself in front of folks at events like meet and greets and town halls. Overall, though, Mike says Shidorelli is following the Chris Christie playbook of aggressive retail politics. And one interesting part of this retail politics strategy from Chittarelli is how frequently you see him going to urban centers and Democratic strongholds. He's been in places like Linden up in Union County, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost four to one. So he's really giving off a sense

that he can pull a lot of votes from these places that Cheryl and Democrats would hope to have a big advantage and run up the numbers. That's WMYC's Mike Hayes in New Jersey. As you've been hearing, the New York City election is next week as well. And while the race to be the city's next mayor has been getting a lot of attention,

another race has been flung. lying relatively below the radar. Voters in Manhattan will be asked to select their pick for the borough's next district attorney. And all three candidates have each been at the center of public controversies that have made them political lightning rods. WNYC's Samantha Max is here to tell me more. So Sam, what's at stake in this race? Well, this is a big job. The Manhattan District Attorney oversees the prosecution of state criminal cases. That includes everything from stoplifting to assault, illegal gun possession, and even murder. Whoever is leading the office could really influence whether New Yorkers and visitors feel safe here. Yeah. The incumbent is District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He has held several different roles over the years.

Former Federal Prosecutor worked in the Attorney General's Office. He has faced a lot of criticism from law enforcement and tough on crime conservatives. They don't like his approach to prosecution, which is more. progressive, but he's also gotten praise from many New Yorkers for how he has led the office. What does he accomplish in office? He has taken this approach of not just enforcing, but also trying to support communities. He has invested in nonprofits that aim to prevent youth violence. He has funded programs to provide services for people with serious mental illness. And then there are some of these marquee achievements, he got a conviction against President Donald Trump. That was a

historic moment. And then another thing that often comes up is this memo that he sent to his staff on his first day in office. This instructed prosecutors not to bring charges in certain types of cases like marijuana misdemeanors, trespassing, prostitution. He was saying, unless there's some sort of bigger, more serious crime attached. Let's not focus on these cases. Let's focus on violent crime. And he has since had to kind of walk back that instruction a little bit. Bragg says that if he were elected for a second term, he would continue to focus on violent crimes, sex crimes, and also crimes against tenants and workers. So let's talk about the other candidates who are running against Alvin Bragg. Who's the Republican in the race? The Republican is Maude Marin. She is a former

public defender used to work at the Legal Aid Society, representing low-income criminal defendants and also leading trainings for that organization. Marin told me that she's running for DA because she's worried about safety and she doesn't think that Bragg is doing a good enough job to keep New Yorkers safe. Something that she really has harped on is this memo saying that Bragg's guidance not to prosecute certain types of crimes is steeped in what she called a quote, activist narrative. But I should note that she has also faced her own allegations of political activism getting in the way of her work. Marin has faced criticism for comments she's made about race, gender identity, the war in Gaza. She used to serve on her local school board for a while, and she sponsored a resolution that many accused of being anti-trans, asking the school board to review its gender guidelines for school sports.

At one point, she was actually kicked off the school board for comments that she had made, but then a federal court reinstated her. Marin says that SDA, she would prosecute all crimes based on the law, not pick and choose certain categories like she says that Bragg is doing. Okay, so Bragg's on the ballot, Marin's on the ballot. There's also a third party challenger. Who's that? Yes, that is Diana Florence, who also ran against Bragg in the last election. She worked at the Manhattan DA's office for a long time, about 25 years. And before she left the office, the role that she had was leading this construction fraud task force,

where she was prosecuting companies accused of not doing a good enough job of protecting their workers from getting injured or even killed on the job, or if they were stealing employees' wages, things like that. Florence resigned from the DA's office several years ago amid allegations that she didn't turn over key evidence in a case. case, she told me that was, quote, an unfortunate incident where a mistake was made and that she took responsibility. Like Marin Florence disagrees with Bragg's approach to law enforcement, she told me a DA's office should not have these blanket policies telling prosecutors not to bring certain types of charges and instead assess each case on an individual level. That's WMYC's Samantha Max.

Now before we go, a quick heads up. It's Bat Week, and New York State wants you to celebrate by staying away from the winged mammals. The Department of Environmental Conservation says the best thing residents can do for bats is refrained from visiting caves and mines in the fall and winter months. They want to reduce human disturbance to endangered and threatened bats. So steer clear. Bat Week runs through October 31st. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC.

I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.