Even on Election Day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refused to waver from his long-standing evasiveness on the New York City mayoral race.
On Tuesday, Schumer, one of the country’s top-ranked Democratic officials and a Brooklyn voter, offered his latest dodge over whether he cast a ballot for his party’s nominee, Zohran Mamdani. Â
“I voted, and I look forward to working with the next mayor to help New York City,” Schumer told reporters at the Capitol a few hours before polls were set to close.
Unwilling to embrace the self-described socialist, Schumer has for months clung to a vague position on Mamdani, even as home state Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) offered their support to the mayoral front-runner. Polls show Mamdani will likely triumph over independent Andrew Cuomo, the state’s former Democratic governor, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, founder of the anticrime organization Guardian Angels.
Schumer repeatedly and consistently dodged questions during Mamdani’s candidacy, indicative of the broader split that the far-left mayoral hopeful presented to the Democratic Party by energizing the progressive base while alienating more centrist Democrats.
Schumer has said he has a “good relationship” with Mamdani, but has declined to divulge opinions about the candidate’s platform, which includes more free city services and rent stabilization in one of the country’s costliest cities.
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Mamdani has been critical of Israel in its handling of the war in Gaza, presenting another friction point with Schumer, the country’s highest-ranked Jewish elected official. Their age difference, with Mamdani being 34 and Schumer being 74, also represents the shifting generational dynamics of the party, which at times have created additional tensions among Democratic leaders and candidates more broadly.
Schumer’s break from traditional political norms of embracing a hometown Democratic nominee appeared to make little difference to Mamdani, whose campaign told the New York Times, “With the support of the governor and leaders of both the assembly and state senate, he’s confident he’ll deliver on his incredibly popular affordability agenda.”