Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign says it is set to announce a key endorsement Monday: state Sen. John Liu, one of New York City’s most prominent Asian American politicians. The move delivers a significant boost in the waning weeks of the Democratic primary for mayor.
Polls show the ranked-choice race tightening into a two-man race between Mamdani, a progressive assemblymember, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Both are vying for Asian American voters, who could be a swing bloc in the primary.
In an interview, Mamdani described Liu as a friend and inspiration.
“He has been fighting for progressive public policy and for bringing outer borough immigrant communities into the heart of our city’s politics,” he said.
News of the endorsement was shared exclusively with Gothamist by Mamdani’s campaign. Mamdani’s campaign said the two are expected to announce the endorsement at a press conference outside City Hall.
Liu is considered a political trailblazer. He became the first Asian-American elected to citywide office as comptroller in 2010. His backing could play a crucial role in helping Mamdani, a democratic socialist, broaden his appeal.
“Having someone who is a former citywide elected official, who still has gravitas and respect amongst the democratic institutional class, helps give Zohran a lot of credibility,” said Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist who is not working on any of the mayoral campaigns.
Mamdani, whose parents have roots in India, has done heavy outreach among South Asians. Liu, who is Taiwanese American, could help Mamdani gain a foothold in Chinese communities.
Cuomo has already secured the endorsement of Susan Zhuang, a councilmember from Brooklyn. In an op-ed in the Brooklyn Eagle, Zhuang made the case for the former governor’s political experience and track record responding to Asian American concerns.
“New Yorkers are facing urgent challenges: rising hate crimes, worsening affordability, under-resourced schools and a frayed sense of public safety,” Zhuang wrote. “We cannot afford a mayor who is learning on the job. We need someone who knows how to govern, how to manage complex systems and how to center communities that are too often forgotten.”
Liu chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee and was a chief advocate of the law limiting class sizes in public schools. He’s also a fierce defender of the admissions test to the city’s prestigious specialized public high schools.
Critics have said the test is a tool of segregation. Last year, just 4.5% of offers went to Black students and 7.6% went to Hispanic students. Maintaining the test is considered a top priority in Asian American communities.
Both Liu and Mamdani are alums of one of the specialized schools, the Bronx High School of Science.
Mamdani told Gothamist he has no plans to change the admissions test if elected mayor.
There are signs that the contest for Asian American voters could be competitive. The latest Emerson poll shows Cuomo drawing 27% of the support from Asian voters in the first round versus Mamdani with 19%. But by the 10th and final round of ranked choice tabulations, both Cuomo and Mamdani are split evenly among those voters.
Cuomo has centered his mayoral campaign on public safety, insisting that his experience as governor makes him the best candidate to restore order to a city he says is in chaos. Mamdani’s campaign has focused on addressing the city’s affordability crisis.
The mayoral race will be a test of how those competing messages land with Asian American voters. Asian neighborhoods were among those that leaned rightward during the presidential election last year, part of a growing drift away from the Democratic party.
Mamdani is convinced his campaign can reverse that trend. In the days after the election, he interviewed voters in two districts that had voted for President Donald Trump and asked them what it would take for Democrats to win back their votes.
“And they said a relentless focus on an economic agenda,” he said. “And I asked them, ‘What do you think about freezing the rent, making buses fast and free, delivering universal child care?’ And they said I would vote for that person.”
Early voting starts June 14. Primary Day is June 24.
