Of all the democratic socialists who piled into a Manhattan church on Wednesday evening, none had the cachet of the man handed a microphone toward the meeting’s close.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani offered some pleasantries — “Hello friends, Zohran, he/him, Queens D.S.A.” — before launching into his mission: torpedoing the candidacy of a left-leaning ally, Councilman Chi Ossé, who is attempting to unseat Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat.
The remarkable scene was both a reflection of the tricky political calculuses Mr. Mamdani confronts as he prepares to take office next year and the egalitarian nature of a group that served as the grass-roots organizing machine of his political success.
Endorsements are non-binding. Voters will vote for whomever they see fit. Lest we forget that Mamdani wasn’t exactly reeling in the endorsements for his own campaign.
I’d like to see AIPAC Shakur cycled out.
Mamdani clutched it, the DSA voted 52% in favor of keeping Hakeem Jeffries and against endorsing Chi Osse.
DSA literally establishment Democrats now.
It’s a vote over resources and the the fact that Chi is an opportunist.
DSA does not have infinite time and money and volunteers. They need to pick and choose what they support and where they spend their energy. Chi only re-joined because he saw them win with Mamdani, after having joined and quit 2 years ago, with rumours about him talking shit about DSA.
Mamdani should not be endorsing Jeffries, he should be doing what Jeffries did and be talking about “having conversations”. But that doesn’t mean DSA needs to back Osse.
Chi is a DSA member. If the DSA let him join then they should have screened him. Also Chi has a pretty good track record.
Funny how joining the DSA is “opportunistic” now. As if Chi is a literal top AIPAC recipient with a track record of selling our and corruption.
No wait that would be Jeffries.
Mamdani shutting up would be one thing but he actively works for Jeffries against the DSA and Chi Osse.
To all the commenters here that are piling up on Mamdani without actually doing the minimum amount of research. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that he would advise Ossé not to run and try to convince others not to support him? Instead of reacting with your guts and defeatism, use your head. That’s what I did because it was tickling me.
This source was shared in another comment: https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/11/chi-osse-congress/409723/
In an online vote, roughly 52% of eligible members of NYC-DSA’s Electoral Working Group voted against endorsing Ossé’s congressional campaign. In total, 1,205 DSA members voted, with 626 voting against the endorsement and only 555 voting in favor, with 24 abstaining.
Clearly Ossé’s bid for Jeffreys sit is not that widely supported. Those are NYC-DSA members voting!
Mamdani argued that DSA should focus on achieving the affordability agenda that he and DSA had successfully campaigned on during the mayoral race, instead of focusing on launching a likely doomed primary campaign against the most powerful Democrat in the House.
OK, that makes sense to me.
But some within DSA questioned Ossé’s commitment to socialist organization – which he only recently joined – and were reluctant to back him when he seemed to have no realistic path to victory
I don’t follow NY politics closely so that’s an interesting bit of info.
The whole article is well worth reading rather than commenting on the headline of a newspaper that never quite liked Mamdani to start with.
What I get out of this, Jeffreys needs to go but Ossé is not quite the candidate to unseat him and the focus should be on delivering results for NY rather than running expensive doomed campaigns. That’s a far cry from the defeatism of seeing a treasonous Mamdani. It’s either simple thinking or an agenda to split support before he’s even in the Mayor sit.
The main factions of NYC-DSA, Socialist Majority and Groundwork, are more moderate and electoral focused, they will do whatever Mamdani says. Chatter among left caucuses is much more divided. We aren’t getting upset about the decision to not endorse Osse, but the non endorsement is not a defacto endorsement for Jeffries.
Looking at the huge bump in energy from the Mamdani campaign, running another candidate in a high-profile race would likely provide another bump. And defeating Jeffries with a more progressive candidate would be good.
However its hard to gauge what his commitment to DSA principles are. He left the org 5 years ago and is coming back now like we have always been chill. Chi has inflamed some controversy last few years with some of his positions. There’s def a lot of room for development of Chi as a cadre candidate but that development hasn’t happened as he rejoined very recently
Here is the SMC article justifying the non-endorsement, for more context. https://www.socialistmajority.com/theagitator/chi-osse-endorsement
I think there is some realpolitik-ing going on behind the scenes. But the DSA left have not come out with a strong criticism of Mamdani’s appeal, that I’m aware of, and there are prominent left caucuses that will make hay wherever there is grass. Seems like internally DSA isn’t real divided though there are def some lingering questions around the non-endorsement that aren’t concrete.
NYT has been publishing back to back hit pieces on DSA, which is another factor to keep in mind also
Thanks for this detailed context
Article reads like a NY Times hit piece aimed at dividing leftists and DSA members. DSA members held a meeting, discussed endorsements of candidates for upcoming political races, and now will vote on whether to endorse. Now, if they vote to endorse Osse and then Mamdani declines to get on board with that, then there would be a story. This is just some NYTs bullshit which is what it does best.
Geneva has a massive hate-boner for Mamdani. If there’s a negative post about him, you can usually bet it’s posted by Geneva.
No the article is accurate. Mamdani is dividing himself out of the left and into the DNC establishment.
