Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York made a big political bet last fall when she decided to endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor and use her stature with business leaders to help elevate a democratic socialist to City Hall.
Now, Mr. Mamdani is preparing to return the favor. The New York City mayor is expected to endorse the governor for re-election ahead of the Democratic Party’s nominating convention on Friday, according to three people briefed on the plans.
The people familiar with Mr. Mamdani’s plans, who were not authorized to discuss them publicly, said they expected the mayor to speak out about his support for Ms. Hochul as soon as Thursday in an op-ed.
The endorsement, while widely expected, could nevertheless lend a needed jolt of progressive energy to Ms. Hochul’s campaign and further cement the once-unlikely partnership between the state’s two most powerful figures as the mayor seeks to enact an ambitious agenda in Albany.
Mr. Mamdani’s backing would also deal a sharp blow to the prospects of Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is running to Ms. Hochul’s left and who has partly modeled his campaign on Mr. Mamdani’s populist economic platform and rhetoric.
Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul’s campaign, declined to comment on Wednesday. Andrew Epstein, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mayor and the governor have been on quite a journey over the last year.
As a state legislator, Mr. Mamdani was a consistent thorn in Ms. Hochul’s side. He called comments she made about the war in Gaza “disgusting” and once said her political maneuvering was why “people don’t trust politicians.”
But after he won last year’s Democratic primary for mayor, they began a series of conversations that blossomed into a full partnership. Ms. Hochul formally endorsed Mr. Mamdani in September, lending his campaign against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo credibility at a key moment.
It helped bring other reluctant Democrats along and calm an uprising from the city’s business class. But there were risks, too, for Ms. Hochul, who heard blowback from business leaders and some Jewish groups who opposed Mr. Mamdani and believed she was helping elevate a socialist critic of Israel who could target their interests.
The potential upside for both politicians is now substantial.
A Siena University poll released this week found that Mr. Mamdani was the most popular elected Democratic official statewide, with even higher approval ratings among two groups Ms. Hochul has struggled to excite in the past: city voters and progressives.
The mayor’s credibility with those groups and his large social media platform could allow him to push voters in the governor’s direction, and make it more difficult for Mr. Delgado to make the case that she is standing in the left’s way.
Still, for the governor, tightening her association with Mr. Mamdani could pose a risk in the fall’s general election. Bruce Blakeman, Ms. Hochul’s likely Republican opponent, has signaled he will gladly seek to tie the governor to Mr. Mamdani’s democratic socialist policy positions, some of which are politically polarizing in the suburbs.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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