Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced his prediction for the 2028 Democratic front-runners Thursday evening: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani is ineligible to be president or vice president of the United States, as he was born in Kampala, Uganda. But Cruz insinuated that the constitutional barrier would not matter to the Democrats.
“I think, right now, the two front-runners for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2028 are AOC and Mamdani. Now, he’s not even eligible. But what do they care? Law doesn’t mean anything to them. That’s where their party is,” Cruz said in an interview with Fox News’s Larry Kudlow on Thursday.
New York City voters elected Mamdani as their next mayor on Tuesday after he ran a campaign focused on affordability issues and socialist, New York-centric promises of free buses and child care, frozen rent across the city, and city-run grocery stores. Though Mamdani challenged Trump to “turn up the volume” during his victory speech Tuesday, Mamdani has not given any indication that he plans to seek higher office.
Cruz argued that the “radical Left has taken over” the Democratic Party after several establishment Democrats endorsed Mamdani’s campaign for mayor.
“You look at Mamdani, where you had Kathy Hochul endorse him. You had Hakeem Jeffries endorse him. I mean, all of the supposedly mainstream Democrats are rushing to get behind him. That’s where all the energy is. That’s where the passion is,” Cruz said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) threw an endorsement Mamdani’s way just before early voting began in late October, but dismissed the mayor-elect as the future of the party just days before Election Day. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never endorsed Mamdani.
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On his first day as mayor-elect, Mamdani sat down with Ocasio-Cortez, one of his biggest national-name campaign supporters, for lunch at a Jackson Heights bistro.
“A busy first day as your Mayor-elect: early morning interviews, transition announcements and meetings. More to say on all of it tomorrow. But a highlight was lunch with my Congresswoman @AOC at Laliguras Bistro in Jackson Heights,” Mamdani wrote on X on Wednesday.