There is a version of progressive politics in which the people who help you win are treated with the same principles you campaigned on. Zohran Mamdani tried a different version.
According to The Intercept, Mamdani reportedly promised Rep. Adriano Espaillat his endorsement after Espaillat backed him in last year’s mayoral general election. Espaillat had initially supported Andrew Cuomo in the primary, then switched his support to Mamdani after Mamdani won, and helped deliver institutional credibility to the general campaign. Mamdani won. He then endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Columbia University organizer, to challenge Espaillat in today’s primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District. The Intercept reports that Mamdani “endorsed Avila Chevalier, after he had reportedly promised Espaillat he would endorse him after the congressman backed the mayor in the general mayoral election.”
Espaillat is a five-term incumbent, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and a man who has represented upper Manhattan and the Bronx since 2017. He found out he was getting primaried by the mayor he helped elect the way people usually find out about political betrayals: after the decision had already been made.
Mamdani also angered Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who had endorsed him early in his mayoral primary and spent 30 years helping guide progressive ideas into New York’s mainstream, by endorsing her chosen successor’s opponent in another race. Velázquez is retiring. She handpicked someone. Mamdani picked someone else. Velázquez, who helped build the foundation that Mamdani is now running on, is endorsing his opponents today.
The progressive movement built its identity on accountability, on the idea that power must answer for what it does with relationships and promises. Mamdani received two incumbents’ support, used both to win, and then endorsed their primary challengers. The framework of accountability, it turns out, was always intended to point outward.
When the mayor who ran on political accountability uses the support of allies to win and then primaries those allies, who exactly is the accountability for?
Sources
The Intercept: Rep. Adriano Espaillat was slow to help Mahmoud Khalil. It could cost him his seat
HuffPost: Republicans Bring Shadow Network Of PACs Manipulating Dem Primaries To New York
