The Decision: Jeffries toes the line, takes the plunge in long-awaited NYC mayoral endorsement
Even up until the last hour, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., played it coy about endorsing Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race."Early voting, as you know,...
By Fox News · Fox News
Even up until the last hour, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., played it coy about endorsing Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race. "Early voting, as you know, starts tomorrow," observed a reporter to Jeffries at 11:06 a.m. on Friday. "Are you ready to endorse Mamdani?" "Stay tuned," replied Jeffries. "What more do you need to hear at this point?" asked another scribe. 'STAY TUNED': JEFFRIES REPEATEDLY DODGES MAMDANI ENDORSEMENT AS SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINE LOOMS "Same answer," said Jeffries. "I have not refused to endorse. I have refused to articulate my position and I will momentarily, at some point in advance of early voting." Well, early voting began Saturday in New York. And true to his word, Jeffries articulated his position via a statement early Friday afternoon, throwing his political clout behind Mamdani. "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," said Jeffries. "The communities I represent in Brooklyn are being devastated by this extreme version of the Republican Party. In this environment, we have a clear obligation to push back against the national nightmare being visited on the American people by Republican extremism." Jeffries closed his endorsement with this key line: "I endorse the Democratic ticket." In some respects, that was the least newsworthy line in Jeffries statement. It might be preposterous to think that the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, from New York City, would not endorse the Democratic candidate for mayor of his hometown. It would have been a bigger story had Jeffries not endorsed Mamdani. We don’t definitively know what Jeffries may have mulled for so long. But we do understand the fissure inside the Democratic Party between centrist Democrats and the far left. This is why Republicans shout from the Empire State Building that Mamdani is a "socialist"…