New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayor's election.
Hochul, a Democrat, backed Mamdani in a New York Times opinion essay published Sunday evening.
"In the past few months, I've had frank conversations with him," Hochul said in the essay. "We've had our disagreements. But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family."
Hochul said she made "it very clear that our police officers should have every resource to keep our streets and subways safe. I urged him to ensure that there is strong leadership at the helm of N.Y.P.D. — and he agreed."
The endorsement comes just days after Mamdani, a state assemblymember and the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, vowed in a Times interview to apologize for a statement he made on Twitter in 2020 calling the NYPD racist. Hochul said at a news conference last week that an apology was in order.
Mamdani's focus on the cost of living is welcome, Hochul said Sunday, and she also wants him to fight the rise in antisemitism, support businesses in the city and resist any possible attempts by the Trump administration to take over city streets with federal agents and the National Guard.
"Zohran Mamdani and I will both be fearless in confronting the president’s extreme agenda — with urgency, conviction, and the defiance that defines New York," she said.
In a statement Sunday night, Mamdani thanked Hochul.
"I look forward to fighting alongside her to continue her track record of putting money back in New Yorkers’ pockets and building a safer and stronger New York City where no one is forced to leave just so they can afford to raise a family," he said.
