Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York made took a risky 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 returning the favor as Ms. Hochul prepares for her own re-election fight.
The New York City mayor endorsed the governor for another term on Thursday, calling their once unlikely partnership “a model” for how Democrats from opposing wings of the party can work together in the face of President Trump and rising living costs.
The endorsement, while widely anticipated, could nevertheless lend a needed jolt of progressive energy to Ms. Hochul’s campaign and underscored the strength of her political position heading into the Democratic Party’s nominating convention in Syracuse on Friday.
Mr. Mamdani’s backing also dealt a sharp blow to the prospects of Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is running to Ms. Hochul’s left in June’s Democratic primary and who has modeled his campaign on the mayor’s populist economic platform. (Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is expected to be the Republican opponent in November.)
In an essay published by The Nation, Mr. Mamdani acknowledged the two Democrats had clear policy differences, but he said Ms. Hochul had shown she was interested in governing in a transformative way.
“The governor and I do not agree on everything. We have real differences, particularly when it comes to taxation of the wealthiest, at a moment defined by profound income inequality,” Mr. Mamdani wrote.
“But for too long, our politics has been defined by a familiar cycle: big promises, bitter fights, and little tangible progress,” Mr. Mamdani added, saying that he had come to trust Ms. Hochul and already seen the fruits of their collaboration.
He pointed to Ms. Hochul’s record standing up to Mr. Trump, but also to her agreement to provide billions of dollars in state funds to begin implementing universal, government-funded child care, perhaps his most ambitious campaign promise.
Both sides had expected Mr. Mamdani to reciprocate and endorse Ms. Hochul since last summer, when she first endorsed him. But the mayor and the governor met Sunday night at Gracie Mansion to finalize the terms.
“I’m grateful for his partnership in finally bringing universal child care to New York,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement. “And I know that he’ll stand strong alongside me as we fight against Donald Trump’s attacks on this state.”
Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Hochul have been on quite a journey over the last year.
As a state legislator, he was a consistent thorn in her 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.
There has been tension since then. Mr. Mamdani, for example, has irritated people around the governor by continuing to push for a multibillion-dollar tax increase in Albany this year, despite Ms. Hochul’s objections and her child care commitment.
Still, there is far more for both politicians to gain from working together than from having the kind of adversarial relationships often chosen by their predecessors.
Mr. Mamdani would be unlikely to be able to advance the child care proposal, or myriad other city priorities, without the governor’s support.
“The success of our movement will be defined by the success of our government,” he wrote on Thursday.
Ms. Hochul, for her part, stands to benefit from Mr. Mamdani’s sky-high popularity. 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.
Mr. Delgado, a 48-year-old former congressman, is making a play for both. He has accused Ms. Hochul of being too moderate and too captive to the state’s moneyed interests. He has sought to tap into the same economic discontent that helped put the new mayor in office, and despite his own moderate roots, has actively courted the support of Mr. Mamdani’s fellow democratic socialists.
Mr. Mamdani’s credibility with progressives 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.
On the other hand, tightening her association with Mr. Mamdani could pose a risk for Ms. Hochul in the fall’s general election.
Mr. 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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