Former President Barack Obama (D) praised Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who is the odds-on favorite to become the next mayor of New York City, for running an “impressive” campaign during a 30-minute phone call on Saturday, according to The New York Times.
The ex-president also offered to be a “sounding board” to Mamdani, if he wins the election on Nov. 4. The 34-year-old Mamdani and Obama “discussed preliminary plans to meet in person at some point in Washington, though no meeting date has been set,” NYT reported.
Obama, the report noted, did not officially endorse Mamdani, which continued his “general practice” of not endorsing municipal candidates. But the former commander-in-chief’s praise and offer to share advice in the future is notable, obviously, considering he is the most high-profile Dem to support Mamdani.
There have been plenty of others, though, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has joined Mamdani at his rallies, and ex-Vice President Kamala Harris said she backed Mamdani in September.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has also been campaigning alongside his fellow socialist, with the combo saying they are “not going to allow” Elon Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire.
“Mr. Mamdani thanked the former president for the call, the people said, and told him that he had drawn inspiration for his own recent speech on Islamophobia from Mr. Obama’s speech on race during his first presidential run,” NYT reported.
Mamdani is the frontrunner in the NYC mayoral race, but his lead over Andrew Cuomo (D) and Curtis Sliwa (R) is slipping, according to one new poll. The Atlas Intel survey found Mamdani has a 6.6 point lead over Cuomo, his smallest edge since July, with the support of 40.6% of voters.
That was significantly closer than a Fox News poll from Thursday, showing Mamdani had a 47% to 31% advantage over Cuomo. While early voting in NYC has been going on, the final day to vote is on Tuesday.
