Overview

• Rep. Yvette Clarke endorsed Zohran Mamdani over the weekend, joining Gov. Kathy Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, while state party chair Jay Jacobs said he will not endorse.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is in discussions about endorsing Mamdani, according to Rev. Al Sharpton and Jeffries’ own remarks, and Sen. Chuck Schumer said on CNN he will “continue talking to him.”
• A Marist survey shows Mamdani at 45% to Andrew Cuomo’s 24%, Curtis Sliwa’s 17% and Eric Adams’s 9%, with a head‑to‑head test putting Mamdani over Cuomo 49%–39%; another finding has Mamdani leading among Black voters, 47% to 26% for Cuomo.
• Real‑estate interests and billionaires have escalated spending to boost Cuomo and block Mamdani, with Michael Bloomberg’s $8.3 million over the summer and Ron Lauder’s recent $750,000 cited, as figures like Bill Ackman press for an anti‑Mamdani consolidation.
• Scrutiny of Mamdani’s past comments on Israel and policing persists, including criticism from Rabbi Marc Schneier, even as the Democrat courts voters with a rent freeze, free bus transit and universal childcare and ramps up a citywide canvass.