Zohran Mamdani is closing the gap with Andrew Cuomo.
By Theodore Hamm, Drop Site
In the summer of 2024, Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of an antisemitism advocacy group called Never Again, NOW! At the time, cynics wondered aloud whether Cuomo was sincerely dedicated to the cause or using the group to fuel a coming political campaign.
One year later, Cuomo, with the heavy backing of pro-Israel donors, has managed to turn June’s New York City mayoral primary into a referendum on support for Israel. A fed up Scott Stringer, a moderate Jewish Democrat trailing in the race, lamented that Cuomo’s group was simply “a vehicle for his mayor’s race—and everybody knows it.”
As the June 24 election nears, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, currently in second place with a new internal poll showing him narrowing the gap with Cuomo, has faced a relentless barrage of questions regarding his outspoken support for Palestinian rights.
The far-right New York Post recently accused Mamdani, a Muslim, of Holocaust denial, smearing him as antisemitic. “Mamdani passes on condemning the Holocaust,” read a similar subject line of an email that appeared in many inboxes earlier this month. It was the lead item in Politico’s New York Playbook, an influential daily newsletter, but the story provided a dubious explanation of the alarming suggestion that Mamdani was pro-Holocaust.
Mamdani, who represents Astoria (Queens) in the state assembly, had not voted for a recent pro-Israel resolution—and earlier this year, he “passed on signing a separate resolution” in support of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mamdani’s pro-Israel critics, Politico reported, saw these positions as “evidence of a trend.”
Mamdani clarified that he indeed voted for the Holocaust resolution. The Post nonetheless ran a second story, accusing Mamdani of “doubling down” on his “bizarre refusal” to condemn the Holocaust. The paper’s far-right editorial board declared that the socialist’s supposed “shameless Jew-hate” meant that no one should vote for Mamdani.
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