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NEW YORK: New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani rallied supporters Sunday with heavyweight support from US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the race enters its final stretch, telling a raucous crowd that his campaign is a “movement of the masses.”
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, took the stage at a small stadium in Queens where he and two of the nation’s leading progressives pitched his candidacy as a force to take on billionaires and “oligarchs” who have thrown money and support behind his opponents.
“When you insist on building a coalition with room for every New Yorker, that is exactly what you create: a tremendous force,” Mamdani said. “This, my friends, was your movement, and it always will be.”
As the crowd chanted his name, Mamdani reiterated plans to hire thousands of new teachers, renegotiate city contracts, freeze rent increases for the city’s 1 million rent-regulated apartments, build more affordable housing and provide universal child care.
With early voting underway ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is in an increasingly caustic race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who campaigned Sunday in Queens.
Cuomo has sought to cast Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblymember, as a naive candidate whose agenda would damage the city. In a radio interview Sunday morning, Cuomo argued that he is the real Democrat in the race while saying Mamdani’s democratic socialism would result in an exodus of residents and businesses.
“The socialists want to take over the Democratic Party. That’s what Bernie Sanders is all about. That’s what AOC is all about,” Cuomo said, adding, “He wins, book airline tickets for Florida now.”
Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 following a barrage of sexual harassment allegations that he denies. Mamdani has often pressed Cuomo over the allegations, and on Sunday he told the crowd that it is time to leave behind the former governor’s “playbook of the past.” But he urged supporters not to take his lead in the polls for granted and to turn out to vote.
“We cannot allow complacency to infiltrate this movement,” Mamdani said.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have supported his campaign for months including before the Democratic primary in June. On Sunday they cast Mamdani as an antidote to what they called the creeping authoritarianism of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes Queens, said a victory for Mamdani will send a message nationally that a progressive message can prevail.
“It is not a coincidence that the very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally ... an authoritarian, criminal presidency fueled by corruption and bigotry, and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement,” she said.
Sanders said a Mayor Mamdani would represent “not the billionaire class” but working families.
“In the year 2025, when the people on top have never, ever had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working class people, to come together and defeat those oligarchs?” Sanders said. “You’re damn right we can.”
Under the slogan “New York Is Not For Sale,” the rally featured rousing speeches from religious and labor leaders along with state elected officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The event was emceed by Sarah Sherman of “Saturday Night Live.”
Mamdani recently received an endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate New York Democrat. Jeffries, in a statement, said he has disagreements with Mamdani but supports him as the nominee, adding that the party should unify against Republicans and Trump.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams abandoned his reelection campaign and endorsed Cuomo.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: Donald Trump said on Monday that he would not run for vice president in the 2028 American election, a move some supporters suggest would allow him to skirt term limits and stay in the White House.
The US Constitution limits presidents to two terms, and Trump began his second in January.
However, some of his advocates have suggested the Republican could skirt the rule by becoming vice president and then stepping back into a vacated top job.
Asked whether he would run for vice president in November 2028, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he “would be allowed to do that.”
But he added: “I wouldn’t do it... I think it’s too cute. It wouldn’t be right.”
Trump, who served his initial term from 2017 to 2021, often mentions that his supporters have called for him to govern beyond his current tenure, despite the constitutional restriction.
The 79-year-old tycoon has also recently displayed red hats emblazoned with the slogan “Trump 2028” on a desk in the Oval Office.
A popular theory among his supporters is that the current vice president, JD Vance, could run for president in 2028 on a ticket with Trump.
If Vance won, the theory goes, he would quickly resign and put Trump back in office.
Trump’s comments came after Steve Bannon, his former adviser and one of the key ideologues of the Make America Great Again movement, said “there is a plan” to keep him in the White House.
“He is going to get a third term... Trump is going to be president in ‘28. And people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist.
Asked about the 22nd Amendment — the constitutional article mandating term limits — Bannon said: “There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”