NYC Council Member Chi Ossé’s potential run against House Minority Hakeem Jeffries is just the first challenge New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will have to consider.
NEW YORK — A young lefty upstart is running against an experienced leader of the Democratic Party — but this time, Zohran Mamdani is stuck in the middle.
City Council Member Chi Ossé, a democratic socialist, created a campaign committee Monday for a primary challenge against moderate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries next year — a high-stakes test of the political forces Mamdani now has to balance.
“It’s a real pain in the ass for them,” Democratic consultant Chris Coffey said, referring to Mamdani and his team. “They really don’t want to be talking about Hakeem at a time when they need to reassure people — and get money from D.C. and Albany.”
For Mamdani, the moment goes well beyond one race. The potential primary represents an early stress test of his priorities — whether he’ll lend his star power to insurgents molded in his image, side with the establishment he once derided or remain neutral. No matter how he reacts, there will be consequences: Supporting insurgent candidates stands to harm fragile relationships with mainstream Democrats, failing to do so runs the risk of alienating his base, and staying on the sidelines could jeopardize his standing with both.
Mamdani, a state Assembly backbencher who ran a longshot campaign for mayor, now has influence and responsibilities that require him to wield that power carefully.
In the lead up to next year’s Democratic primaries, it stands to be a dilemma he’ll frequently face: His allies in the Democratic Socialists of America are backing several challenges to incumbents across the city. And progressive candidates across the state and throughout the country are sure to ask for the new mayor’s seal of approval.
In New York, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is running to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul and has already earned support from a progressive grassroots group, New York Communities for Change, which endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral campaign on day one. Another Mamdani ally, the New York Working Families Party, hasn’t ruled out backing Delgado.
When it comes to Ossé, Mamdani has spoken to the Brooklyn lawmaker more than once to talk him out of running and has distanced himself from the effort, according to two people familiar with the conversations granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
“I ran to deliver on an affordability agenda, and that agenda continues to be my focus,” Mamdani said Tuesday, when asked why he wasn’t jumping to support Ossé.
The 27-year-old council member was a vocal supporter of Mamdani in the final weeks of the primary and was given a prominent speaking spot at a big October rally for Mamdani’s campaign. But after Ossé floated a primary run, Mamdani’s team pulled his invite to an election night victory party to keep their distance. The New York Post and The New York Times previously reported on tensions between the camps.
Asked Tuesday if an ally challenging a powerful incumbent like Jeffries could harm his goals, Mamdani offered a cryptic response.
“The agenda is what has to come first, and from there we’ll make all of our decisions,” Mamdani said.
A left-leaning national PAC that endorsed Mamdani is also joining the effort to stop Ossé.
“Every progressive, especially in New York, should be doing everything they can to help Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani be successful in passing and implementing his affordability agenda,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Especially at this moment, just after Mamdani’s big victory and House Democrats holding firm during the shutdown fight, it is not the right moment to launch a primary challenge to Hakeem Jeffries.”
Ossé hasn’t publicly committed to challenging Jeffries, saying he’s just exploring a run.
“The Democratic Party’s leadership is not only failing to effectively fight back against Donald Trump, they have also failed to deliver a vision that we can all believe in. These failures are some of the many reasons why I am currently exploring a potential run for New York’s 8th Congressional District,” Ossé said in a statement Monday.
Last week, Ossé emphasized his support for Mamdani when asked about a run.
“I want to make sure that I help him do the best job that he can do in supporting our shared constituents,” the Brooklyn Democrat said Wednesday to reporters outside City Hall.
Ossé is scheduled to speak at a DSA endorsement forum Wednesday. Getting the coveted nod, which comes with an army of devoted volunteers, would put him in a better position to run.
But such an endorsement isn’t guaranteed. Some members of the DSA are skeptical about Ossé’s commitment to the organization since he only joined a few months ago, according to a member granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. There’s also a broader internal debate within the DSA about delegating resources to elections versus organizing to help Mamdani’s policy agenda.
But with Republicans controlling the White House, the Senate and the House, Democrats winning back the lower chamber would be a big deal for Mamdani’s agenda said Jon Paul Lupo, a Democratic consultant. Tensions from primaries could be forgotten, but only if Jeffries still becomes speaker.
“The much more important thing in 2026 is do Democrats control the House. That will have a massive impact on what Democrats can do and what the next two years of his mayoralty will look like,” Lupo said.
Mamdani isn’t the only one on the left hesitant to back Ossé.
Council Member Alexa Avilés, also a democratic socialist, was noncommittal when POLITICO asked Wednesday if it was a good idea for Ossé to run.
“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “I’m dealing with my own insanity.”
Avilés is planning a Democratic primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman, a moderate Democrat aligned with Jeffries. She’s secured the DSA endorsement, but is facing pressure from some on the left to get out of the race and support outgoing City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s eyeing the seat after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.
The mayor-elect has declined to publicly declare support for either of those two allies. But he has told Avilés privately he would campaign for Lander if he ran, The New York Times reported.
Given that Avilés is a DSA member endorsed by the organization, that conversation alone offers a clearer window into Mamdani’s new calculus as mayor-elect.
“Could you imagine a situation four years ago where he endorsed Lander over Avilés? There would be an online campaign to expel him from DSA,” said one Democratic strategist who was granted anonymity because they’re applying for a job within the administration.
Still, the dynamics of endorsing against Goldman aren’t as complicated as the Jeffries race. While Jeffries holds a position of power in Washington and publicly endorsed Mamdani ahead of the general election — after months of hesitation and negotiation — Goldman is relatively junior and did not support the mayor-elect.
The governor’s race, too, may not be a difficult choice for Mamdani. Hochul has been in consistent communication with him, and he needs her support to achieve ambitious campaign promises like free buses and universal child care.
As an Assembly member, Mamdani might have endorsed Delgado, who has been running to Hochul’s left and, like Mamdani, pressuring her to “tax the rich.” Delgado hasn’t explicitly asked Mamdani for an endorsement, his spokesperson Steven Illeka said, but they spoke after his primary win, and again after Election Day. And the lieutenant governor isn’t shy about trying to follow in Mamdani’s footsteps in the June 2026 Democratic primary.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani tapped into a real frustration with the status quo and a clear demand to finally make New York affordable again — including asking the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share,” Delgado said in a statement. “Governor Hochul has made it plain she doesn’t share that urgency.”
Given Hochul’s power in the state and her evolving relationship with Mamdani, the governor’s team is not worried about the mayor-elect defecting, though, said a person familiar with her thinking who was granted anonymity to recount private conversions. The question is more about how and when an endorsement will come, rather than if it will come.
But there will be speed bumps along the way. Mamdani already earned a round of headlines by declining to endorse Hochul for reelection on stage at the first general election debate.
And there are several other primary challenges on the horizon that will test Mamdani’s priorities. Former mayoral candidate Michael Blake, who cross-endorsed Mamdani ahead of the ranked-choice mayoral primary, is trying to unseat Rep. Ritchie Torres, who supported Mamdani’s main opponent, Andrew Cuomo, in the primary.
In state legislative races, DSA elected officials are typically expected to back all the candidates the organization endorses. Mamdani did so in 2024, but he’ll have larger considerations in the upcoming year, such as keeping the peace with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who zealously protects his incumbents.
Within DSA, Mamdani’s voice is more influential than ever. When the city’s socialists were debating who to back for an open Assembly seat in Queens, a Mamdani adviser told them the mayor-elect was supportive of candidate Aber Kawas, the Daily News reported — a sign-off that helped her secure the endorsement.
All of it puts Mamdani in a “complicated” position, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
“He wants to remain true to the movement that he just emerged from, which is an insurgent movement that has an appetite for shaking up the political class, the political order,” that person said. But at the same time he needs to partner with political leaders he hasn’t previously been aligned with. And that won’t work if he’s “endorsing every rando who’s running against them.”
Ossé’s potential run, meanwhile, could have massive national implications. If Democrats take back the majority next year in the House, Jeffries is in line to be speaker.
A successful challenge from the 27-year-old Ossé is by no means a sure bet, but it’s also not outside the realm of possibility. Like Mamdani, he’s a social media savvy young candidate, and he’s got policy wins under his belt like a bill that banned most broker fees on rentals. Jeffries’ central Brooklyn district backed Mamdani 56-44 over Cuomo in the final round of ranked-choice voting in the Democratic primary.
But Jeffries isn’t scandal scarred like Cuomo. A private poll conducted in September and reported by City & State found the minority leader is popular in his district and had a 50-point lead over Ossé. While Mamdani built support as more city voters learned about him, half of the Democrats polled already knew Ossé.
So Jeffries’ campaign isn’t engaging yet.
“Leader Jeffries is focused on addressing the crushing Republican healthcare crisis, combating Donald Trump’s scheme to gerrymander congressional maps and leading the effort to take back the House of Representatives in 2026,” Jeffries’ spokesperson Justin Chermol said in a statement.
Some of Mamdani’s Assembly colleagues would be happy to see him stay away from electoral politics — including Assembly Member Brian Cunningham, who Hochul is considering as a running mate in 2026.
“My best advice is to focus specifically on delivering the promises of his campaign,” Cunningham said. “And kind of leaving the politics alone in this very delicate moment.”
This story has been updated to clarify Jon Paul Lupo’s remarks about Democrats winning back the House.