Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander, the leading progressive candidates running for mayor in this month’s Democratic primary, are cross-endorsing each other, urging their respective supporters to rank the other candidate second on their ballots.
In a joint statement Friday, the Mamdani and Lander campaigns said they’re making the move because it has “become increasingly clear” they are the two left-wing candidates in the race who can “defeat disgraced Andrew Cuomo,” the ex-governor who’s polling as the favorite to win the primary.
“As Brad and I exposed the ex-governor’s record of corruption and scandal on last night’s debate stage, New Yorkers could see Cuomo for what he really is: a relic of the broken politics of the past,” Mamdani said in a statement, referring to Thursday’s second and final Democratic mayoral primary debate.
“His campaign has always been a house of cards, and with Brad and I cross endorsing on the eve of early voting, we will topple it together.”
Cross-endorsements have become increasingly common in New York, given the ranked-choice voting system the city adopted for the first time during the 2021 local elections. Under that system, a candidate who trails after the first round of vote tabulations could eventually prevail if they are ranked on ballots featuring other candidates as the number one choice.
There was no immediate response from the Cuomo campaign.
“I’m proud to cross-endorse Zohran because of his strong commitment to a more affordable New York, and to stop the corrupt, morally bankrupt, unacceptable Andrew Cuomo from becoming mayor of a city he doesn’t even like,” Lander added in his own statement.
A Lander campaign official told the Daily News he and Mamdani decided to cross-endorse after speaking following Thursday night’s debate.
The official said the decision was made by the candidates alone and not influenced by progressive powerbrokers like the Working Families Party or New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The official explained a key factor behind the move was a recent poll projecting Mamdani and Lander just 3% apart from each other — within the margin of error — in a ranked-choice voting simulation of the primary.
Their announcement came just as New Yorkers gear up to head to the polls for the first day of early voting Saturday. New Yorkers will then be able to cast early ballots every day through June 22 before polls open for the final round of voting on the June 24 primary day.
Mamdani and Lander had since previously urged their supporters to rank the other candidate somewhere on their ballots after they were both endorsed by the Working Families Party as part of an anti-Cuomo slate.
The direct cross-endorsement further indicates the progressive duo believe they have a better shot at beating Cuomo if they team up against him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist running on a populist platform that includes promises to freeze rent on stabilized tenants and drastically expand fully subsidized child care, has consistently polled as the runner-up to Cuomo and one recent survey even showed him overtaking the ex-gov for the first time.
Lander has typically ranked in the No. 3 or 4 spot in most polls. On Thursday, he netted the endorsement of an opinion panel convened by the New York Times editorial board, and he has said he expects that to give him a boost.
