Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared on Tuesday to attribute Gov. Kathy Hochul’s endorsement, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s expected backing, of Zohran Mamdani to a growing “socialist faction” within the Democratic Party.
Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent after losing the primary to the democratic socialist Mamdani, seemed keen on dismissing the value of both Hochul’s and Heastie’s support for the nominee as being part of a left-wing wave taking over the party.
“Within the Democratic Party, there is a faction that is a socialist faction, and there has been for years, and that socialist faction has been growing and getting stronger,” Cuomo told reporters during an unrelated Manhattan news conference on Tuesday. “And this is really, in this election, a contest between the Democratic Party and the socialist faction within the Democratic Party.”
Neither Hochul, who is a moderate, nor Heastie, a progressive, identifies as a socialist.
The New York Post and New York Times reported Heastie’s expected endorsement of Mamdani on Tuesday. Spokespeople for both Mamdani and Heastie did not immediately confirm the reports to amNewYork.
Cuomo further argued that while Hochul, Heastie, and other establishment Democrats who have endorsed Mamdani may not be socialists themselves, they are endorsing the party nominee out of fear of political retribution from the left.
“Might some politicians be afraid of the socialists in their backyard and/or in their district, and therefore want to be on the side of socialists? Yes,” Cuomo said. “That’s their political decision. But I’m a Democrat.”
The former governor also cited other centrist Democrats — including U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Queens/Long Island) — who have announced they would not be endorsing Mamdani.
“You also have Democrats saying the exact opposite, right?” Cuomo said. “You have Democrats saying, ‘I would never endorse him, he’s a socialist.”
Suozzi made the pronouncement in a Monday social media post as he is set to vie for reelection next year in his purple district, where supporting a democratic socialist could be a political liability in the 2026 midterms.
Both Hochul’s backing and Heastie’s likely support signal that top New York Democrats are finally coalescing around Mamdani after holding their powder over the summer. They follow other establishment figures, such as Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (Manhattan/Bronx), who got behind Mamdani in the weeks after the primary.
Yet U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries both appear to still be on the fence about supporting Mamdani, even though they have separately met with and spoken to him multiple times since June.
Even without the across-the-board establishment support that most Democratic nominees enjoy, Mamdani has maintained a commanding lead in the polls. The vote against him has been split amongst Cuomo, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, and GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Many of those same polls show that even if the field narrowed to a one-on-one race between Mamdani and Cuomo, the Democratic nominee is still ahead by a significant margin.
