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'Mamdani-Mentum': AOC Endorses Democratic Socialist for NYC Mayor
"Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack," Ocasio-Cortez said.
Jun 05, 2025
Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday threw her weight behind democratic socialist state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in the final weeks of New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, which will take place on June 24.
Mamdani has gained ground in the race with his bold proposals such as taxing the rich to fund free buses, a rent freeze, and city-run grocery stores; his engaging social media presence; and his success at fundraising and mobilizing volunteers. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) toldThe New York Times in an interview that she thought Mamdani was the best choice to unite progressive voters to defeat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, she said, "belongs to the hedge funds."
"Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack," Ocasio-Cortez told the Times. "In the final stretch of the race, we need to get very real about that."
"It's almost like fighting for the working class unapologetically is a likable trait, and proposing bold new ideas is better than maintaining the status quo."
Mandani, who is currently polling second behind Cuomo, welcomed the news.
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a once-in-a-generation leader who has led the fight for working people in Congress," Mamdani wrote on social media Thursday morning. "In 2018, she shocked the world and transformed our politics. On June 24, with @AOC's support and this movement behind us, we will do the same."
Mamdani, a 33-year-old who represents Queens, now polls at 23% to Cuomo's 35% in the first round of the New York City Democratic primary's ranked-choice voting system. A simulation of a 10th round of voting showed Mamdani finally losing to Cuomo by only eight points, at 46% to Cuomo's 54%.
While Cuomo has greater name recognition, he has several scandals to his name. In 2021, he resigned as state governor following a report documenting his harassment of several women, claims he has denied. But constituents had called for his resignation even before over a cover-up of the amount of deaths caused by Covid-19 in state nursing homes.
AOC advised progressive voters to make strategic choices in order to defeat Cuomo, recommending that they rank Mamdani first, followed by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, former comptroller Scott Stringer, and New York Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-20). The progressive Working Families Party and the United Auto Workers (UAW) region 9A have also both urged voters to rank Mamdani in the No. 1 slot.
"Even if the entire left coalesced around any one candidate, an ideological coalition is still insufficient for us to win," Ocasio-Cortez told the Times. "We have to have a true working-class coalition."
The Democratic congresswoman's endorsement came the day after the first televised mayoral debate, and three days after Mamdani won the backing of UAW president Shawn Fain.
Several other progressive organizations and leaders celebrated AOC's endorsement.
"Mamdani-mentum. We love to see it," the youth-led Sunrise Movement, which has also endorsed Mamdani, wrote on social media.
Progressive Michigan State Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-26) wrote: "Zohran Mamdani can win this thing! It's almost like fighting for the working class unapologetically is a likable trait, and proposing bold new ideas is better than maintaining the status quo."
New York Communities for Change posted simply, "Let's goooo!!!"
Julian Gerson, the political director for Mamdani's campaign, promised, "On June 24, we're making history."
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We Will Fight Tyranny and Defend the Common Good From Trump—Starting Now
How will we conduct this resistance? By organizing our communities. By fighting through the courts. By arguing our cause through the media. We won't stop until the battles are won.
Nov 06, 2024
I won’t try to hide it. I’m heartbroken. Heartbroken and scared, to tell you the truth. I’m sure many of you are, too.
Donald Trump has decisively won the presidency, the Senate, and possibly the House of Representatives and the popular vote, too.
I still have faith in America. But right now, that’s little comfort to the people who are most at risk.
Millions of people must now live in fear of being swept up by Trump’s cruel mass deportation plan – documented immigrants, as he has threatened before, as well as undocumented, and millions of American citizens with undocumented parents or spouses.
Women and girls must now fear that they’ll be forced to give birth or be denied life-saving care during an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage.
America has become less safe for trans people – including trans kids – who were already at risk of violence and discrimination.
Anyone who has already faced prejudice and marginalization is now in greater danger than before.
Also in danger are people who have stood up to Trump, who has promised to seek revenge against his political opponents.
Countless people are now endangered on a scale and intensity almost unheard of in modern America.
Our first responsibility is to protect all those who are in harm’s way.
We will do that by resisting Trump’s attempts to suppress women’s freedoms. We will fight for the rights of women and girls to determine when and whether they have children. No one will force a woman to give birth.
We will block Trump’s cruel efforts at mass deportation. We will fight to give sanctuary to productive, law-abiding members of our communities, including young people who arrived here as babies or children.
We will not allow mass arrests and mass detention of anyone in America. We will not permit families to be separated. We will not allow the military to be used to intimidate and subjugate anyone in this country.
We will protect trans people and everyone else who is scapegoated because of how they look or what they believe. No one should have to be ashamed of who they are.
We will stop Trump’s efforts to retaliate against his perceived enemies. A free nation protects political dissent. A democracy needs people willing to stand up to tyranny.
How will we conduct this resistance?
By organizing our communities. By fighting through the courts. By arguing our cause through the media.
We will ask other Americans to join us – left and right, progressive and conservative, white people and people of color. It will be the largest and most powerful resistance since the American revolution.
But it will be peaceful. We will not succumb to violence, which would only give Trump and his regime an excuse to use organized violence against us.
We will keep alive the flames of freedom and the common good, and we will preserve our democracy. We will fight for the same things Americans have fought for since the founding of our nation – rights enshrined in the constitution and Bill of Rights.
The preamble to the Constitution of the United States opens with the phrase “We the people”, conveying a sense of shared interest and a desire “to promote the general welfare”, as the preamble goes on to say.
We the people will fight for the general welfare.
We the people will resist tyranny. We will preserve the common good. We will protect our democracy.
This will not be easy, but if the American experiment in self-government is to continue, it is essential.
I know you’re scared and stressed. So am I.
If you are grieving or frightened, you are not alone. Tens of millions of Americans feel the way you do.
All I can say to reassure you is that time and again, Americans have opted for the common good. Time and again, we have come to each other’s aid. We have resisted cruelty.
We supported one another during the Great Depression. We were victorious over Hitler’s fascism and Soviet communism. We survived Joe McCarthy’s witch-hunts, Richard Nixon’s crimes, Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam war, the horrors of 9/11, and George W Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We will resist Donald Trump’s tyranny.
Although peaceful and non-violent, the resistance will nonetheless be committed and determined.
It will encompass every community in America. It will endure as long as necessary.
We will never give up on America.
The resistance starts now.
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What Do We Mean by Transformative Change?
We should seek to drive changes so deeply that our country eventually emerges with a new system of political economy, one that routinely delivers good results for people, place, and planet.
Jun 22, 2024
Progressives and many others agree on one thing: Across a broad front of national life, the American economy and our politics are not delivering good results. The documented truth is that the conditions of life and living in our country are deplorable for most people, with almost all measures of public well-being behind other upper income countries.
That has been the case for decades, actually, and is one of the things that accounts for the widespread political disaffection in American today. When combined with extraordinary wealth concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority, the unsurprising result is public anger and resentment.
A host of reforms are advocated to improve key aspects of national life—in education, healthcare, child welfare, finance and banking, environmental and climate protection, taxes, social justice, advancement of women, and more. Getting such reforms adopted would make a huge difference. But more and more people are sensing that something deeper must be done, that what we should think of as our political economy—the combination of our economy and the politics that support it—is badly flawed and incapable of meeting today’s big challenges.
What we should be moving toward is the law of the next system, beyond today’s capitalism and yesterday’s socialism.
This realization has led to the now-frequent call for transformative change. There is a hunger for deep change but uncertainty about what that means. I want to spell out here what I think transformative change could and should look like. Overall, we should seek to drive transformative changes so deeply that our country eventually emerges with a new system of political economy, one that routinely delivers good results for people, place, and planet.
I know that this idea of a new political economy is too big to swallow whole. It can best be approached, I think, through a series of interacting, mutually reinforcing transitions—transformations that attack and undermine the key motivational structures of the current system, while replacing these old structures with new arrangements needed for a flourishing of human and natural communities.
I believe the following transitions hold the key to moving to this new political economy. We can think of each as a progression from today to tomorrow. In each of these areas, there are currently laws and policies that shape today’s realities. Collectively, we can think of these laws as the law of today’s corporatist, consumerist capitalism. What we should be moving toward is the law of the next system, beyond today’s capitalism and yesterday’s socialism.
Economic Growth: From growth fetish to post-growth society, from mere GDP growth to growth in social and environmental well-being and growth focused squarely on democratically determined priorities.
Indicators: From GDP (“grossly distorted picture”) to accurate measures of social and environmental health and quality of life.
The Corporation: From one dominant ownership and profit-driven model to new business models embracing economic democracy and goals other than profit, from shareholder primacy to stakeholder primacy.
The Market: From neoliberal market worship to powerful market governance in the public interest, from dishonest prices that neglect external costs to honest ones, from unfair wages that neglect productivity to fair ones, from commodification to reclaiming the commons.
Money and Finance: From money created through bank debt to money created by government, from investments seeking high financial returns to those seeking high social and environmental returns, from Wall Street to Main Street.
Social Conditions: From economic insecurity to a guaranteed income; from vast inequalities to equitable distribution and fundamental fairness; from racial, religious, gender, and other invidious discrimination to firm protection of rights and personal security.
Consumerism: From consumerism and affluenza to sufficiency and mindful consumption, from more to enough, from materialism to finding meaning and value in non-material things.
Communities: from runaway enterprises and throwaway communities to vital local economies, from social rootlessness to rootedness and community solidarity.
Dominant Cultural Values: From having to being, from getting to giving, from richer to better, from isolated to connected, from me to us, from apart from nature to part of nature, from near-term to long-term.
Politics: From weak democracy to strong, from creeping corporatocracy and plutocracy to true popular sovereignty and empowerment of marginalized groups, from threatened civic and personal rights to secure ones.
Foreign Policy and the Military: From American exceptionalism to America as a normal nation, from hard power to soft, from military prowess to real national and international security.
The good news is that we already know a great deal about the policy and other changes needed to move strongly in each of these directions, even value change. There are books full proposals and, importantly, advocacy groups working for many of them.
Also, we are seeing the proliferation of innovative models along the lines sketched here, particularly at the local level: sustainable communities, transition towns, solidarity and local living economies, sustainable and regenerative agriculture, participatory budgeting, locally owned and managed energy utilities, local currencies, and community development and investment institutions. Campaigns proliferate: Black Lives Matter! Move Your Money! Take Back Your Time! Own Your Own Utility! Live Lightly That Others May Live!
We are also seeing the spread of innovative business models that prioritize community and environment over profit and growth—including social enterprises, for-benefit business, worker-owned and other cooperatives, and local credit unions—as well as numerous campaigns for fair wages, worker rights, pro-family policies, climate action, and minority justice. Together with new community-oriented and Earth-friendly lifestyles, these initiatives provide inspirational models of how things might work in a new political economy devoted to sustaining human and natural communities. Practical utopians at work and play, bringing the future into the present!
Out there, between despair and hopium, are the grounds for struggle.
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