New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump aren’t on the ballot, but their impact on the Democratic and Republican parties will be tested Tuesday as New York, Maryland, Utah, and South Carolina hold primary elections and runoffs.
Trump, seeming to hedge his bets, offered an 11th-hour endorsement on the eve of the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial runoff and is now backing both contenders in the battle to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
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Meanwhile, Mamdani is testing the limits of political power, taking on the party establishment a year after sending political shock waves through the country with his New York City Democratic primary victory on his way to election as mayor of the nation’s most populous city.
The 34-year-old socialist mayor is backing a slate of candidates in the primary, including three left-wing congressional hopefuls taking on the Democratic Party’s old guard.
At the top of the list is political organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Mamdani-backed primary challenger to Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in New York’s 13th U.S. House District, which encompasses the northern third of Manhattan and a sliver of the Bronx.
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Chevalier, 32, says a win Tuesday could be the “domino” that topples to build a “socialist power” nationwide.
Espaillat is a 71-year-old who has spent a decade in Congress and has the backing of a host of party leaders, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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The mayor is also supporting former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who challenged Mamdani last year in the crowded primary field but has emerged as one of his biggest backers.
Lander is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th Congressional District, which includes Lower Manhattan and some of Brooklyn. Among Goldman’s backers is Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker.
And in New York’s 7th, which includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, Mamdani’s endorsed state Assembly Member Claire Valdes is battling Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who is backed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
Along with Valdez and Avila Chevalier, the mayor is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Voters are looking for Democratic candidates with moral clarity on Israel,” Valdez has said, and the three congressional primary races have been partly defined by anti-Israel sentiment, with Mamdani recently calling AIPAC, a leading pro-Israel lobbying group, “monsters.”
“This is the team. This is our year. It’s up to all of us to get them over the finish line,” Mamdani emphasized in a social media post ahead of a rally last week with the three candidates and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
It’s a risky gamble for the mayor that could see Mamdani crowned a kingmaker or undermine his political powers.
The socialist has been the far left’s darling for a year and a half.
But six months into his tenure as New York City mayor, he can also count former critics within the Democratic Party, including Hochul, among his allies.
And he’s even been praised by Trump.
Trump had called Mamdani a “communist lunatic” multiple times last year, but in a meeting in the Oval Office that drew considerable national attention in November, the president praised Mamdani as a “very rational person” who would do a “really good job.”
Mamdani is supporting candidates, some of whom are running for state legislative offices, who are largely promoting the mayor’s platform of emphasizing affordability in a city with one of the nation’s highest costs of living.
Mamdana’s support of the trio of congressional candidates, coupled with the Thursday rally with Sanders, provides Republicans, who have long labeled the mayor as a radical, more ammunition to use him as a cudgel as they seek to maintain their razor-thin House majority in this year’s midterm elections.
Trump weighed in on social media Friday to say he was supporting longtime state Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the fight for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina.
Trump’s endorsement of Wilson seemed to be a hedge bet, given that Trump was already supporting Evette, who is also backed by McMaster, a longtime top ally of the president.
The contest to replace retiring Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik in upstate New York also has the potential of the president’s endorsement at stake.
Trump is supporting businessman and former boxer Anthony Constantino, who is running for office for the first time. He’s up against retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman Robert Smullen, who has the backing of the state party.
Five Democrats are also vying for the primary in New York’s 17th Congressional District, in New York City’s northern suburbs and exurbs. The winner will face GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in a key general election race that is one of a couple dozen that will determine whether Republicans maintain their razor-thin House majority.
Utah voters will choose congressional candidates on a new map that created a Democratic-leaning district in Salt Lake City, upsetting the reelection plans of the state’s all-Republican delegation.
And in Maryland, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has a longshot primary challenger as he seeks re-election amid speculation that he has an eye on a possible 2028 presidential run.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
