House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries insisted Monday that he didn’t coordinate with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on the New York City Democratic Socialists of America’s decision not to endorse his primary challenger.
“No. We’re focused on making sure that the mayor-elect is successful in terms of delivering upon both his affordability agenda as well as his public safety agenda,” Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) said, when asked if he struck a possible deal with Mamdani, a DSA member.
The Queens assemblyman just last week urged his fellow NYC DSA comrades in a closed-door meeting not to back Brooklyn City Councilman Chi Ossé, who was seeking the group’s endorsement for his campaign against the top House Democrat.
A key group within the DSA’s local chapter later narrowly voted against endorsing Ossé’s Dem primary challenge.
A source told The Post that Mamdani’s camp had tried to get ahead of potential blowback from the minority leader by leaking a story about the mayor-elect attempting to dissuade Ossé from mounting the uphill primary challenge.
A representative for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment.
Jeffries, meanwhile, was in his Eighth Congressional District Monday jumping on Mamdani’s key campaign issue of affordability with a press conference in Bedford-Stuyvesant about food insecurity.
But he said he hadn’t discussed with Mamdani the incoming mayor’s signature campaign promise to open city-run grocery stores, one in each borough, in an attempt to provide more affordable food and other goods to New Yorkers in need.
“I look forward to having a conversation with him – we speak frequently – but look forward to having a conversation with him about that particular policy proposal,” he said, while specifically commending Mamdani’s focus on the overall affordability issue.
The moderate congressman — who waited until just days before the Nov. 4 election to offer a lukewarm endorsement for Mamdani as mayor — also didn’t directly answer when asked if he had any reservations about the proposed program.
“I think that generally, Mayor-elect Mamdani has been strongly focused on the issue of affordability, but as he transitions from where he is not into the mayorship, it’s going to be important to figure out how at the city, state and federal level we can all align to make sure that we’re delivering on the policy things that he’s proposed,” he said.
Ossé has said that his primary campaign would attempt to win over voters by comparing federal military spending to defend Israel against investments in the district, The Post previously reported.
Without mentioning Ossé by name, Bed-Stuy Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman told Jeffries at the event “nobody could do your job,” emphasizing the number of federal funds that have flowed to the district.
“It is hard going to work every day to have to fight for people to have a moral code, the decency to just have resources – for people to have food on the table, a good job and healthcare to take care of their family,” she said.
Jeffries continued to praise Mamdani’s decision to retain Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to lead the NYPD in his incoming administration.
“I think that’s a great thing for the communities that I represent, a great thing for the city, and a great thing for his administration to get off to a fast start on public safety,” he said.
