WASHINGTON — Top Republicans on Monday seized on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York, casting the self-described Democratic socialist as the new face of the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Jeffries’ endorsement a “seismic shift in politics.”
“We saw our clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding, and they are ending what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “After a months-long pressure campaign from the far left, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City.”
The fresh comments are an attempt by GOP leaders to tie all congressional Democrats to Mamdani, hoping to paint the party as too far-left heading into next November’s House and Senate elections. The popular Muslim American state assemblyman has energized the progressive base, but his calls to raise taxes on the wealthy and support for Palestinians have drawn fire from Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
“The House Democrats have chosen a side they were forced to by that far left that they’re so terrified of,” the speaker said Monday. “And they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrist and moderates in their party.”
Speaking alongside Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also hammered Jeffries’ support for Mamdani, saying it means that Democrats have moved “full bore into socialism.”
“Hakeem Jeffries is now all-in for the socialist agenda of Mamdami. He is the head of their party now,” Scalise said. “When he gets elected mayor of New York, he’s giving the marching orders to the rest of the Democrats, and they want to raise taxes on everybody.”
Throughout the news conference, the three top leaders all brought up the word “socialist” repeatedly. A Gallup poll last month showed that 66% of Democrats now have a favorable view of socialism, up from about 50% in 2010. But the same poll found that just 39% of Americans overall had a favorable view of socialism; that has stayed roughly flat over the past 15 years.
Some key Democrats, including Jeffries’ counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have not endorsed Mamdani, whose campaign has created headaches for party leaders.
For months, Jeffries and Schumer, both Democrats from Brooklyn, had refused to answer questions about whether they would endorse Mamdani, who upset former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in this summer’s Democratic primary and is now the favorite to win the general election. Cuomo is now running as an independent against Mamdani on Nov. 4, along with Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Just 34 years old, Mamdani has appealed to a new generation of voters and made affordability a centerpiece of his campaign. But Republicans have attacked him for vowing to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers.
He’s also drawn fire over his decision not to condemn the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” which some Jewish leaders labeled antisemitic. (Mamdani told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that mayors shouldn’t “police speech”; but later said he would “discourage” use of the phrase, the New York Times reported).
Jeffries wavered on Mamdani’s candidacy for months. The Democratic leader needs to flip just a handful of GOP-controlled seats to take back the House majority — and the speaker’s gavel. If he rejected Mamdani, it would alienate an energized progressive base and could depress turnout in the midterms. But hugging Mamdani too closely would put moderate Democrats, central to winning the majority, in jeopardy.
Nearly one year after their 2024 electoral drubbing, Democrats are still emerging from the political wilderness, looking to revitalize the party and searching for a candidate who can win back the White House in 2028.
On Friday, one day before early voting began, Jeffries issued a statement endorsing the entire Democratic slate of candidates in New York, including Mamdani.
“I deeply respect the will of the primary voters and the young people who have been inspired to participate in the electoral process. Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a Mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries said in a statement Friday.
The House Democratic leader added that Mamdani has promised to prioritize public safety for New Yorkers, “including the Jewish community that has confronted a startling rise in antisemitic incidents as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods that have battled deadly gun violence for years.”
The Republican push to tie Mamdani to the entire Democratic Party began almost immediately. “So-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries has officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party,” Mike Marinella, spokesman for the House GOP’s campaign arm, said after Jeffries’ endorsement. “Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison.”
Jeffries has pushed back on painting the party with that broad a brush. Asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday if House Democrats should “mimic’ Mamdani’s populist message on affordability, Jeffries pushed back and said Democrats had already been focusing on the “affordability crisis that Donald Trump and Republican policies have made worse in the United States of America.”
“No,” Jeffries said emphatically. “What we’re going to mimic is our own views as it relates to the need to make life more affordable here in America.”