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<\/p>\n Zohran Mamdani has shocked the political establishment by turning the New York City mayoral race into a nail-biter. How has a thirty-three-year-old Muslim socialist gotten this close to heading the world\u2019s most economically and politically important city? Some pundits have pointed<\/a> to Zohran\u2019s charisma and brilliant use of social media. Others have stressed the strength of his volunteer canvassing army<\/a> as well as the popularity of his policies<\/a> to lower living costs. All those things are true.<\/p>\n But one piece of the puzzle has so far been overlooked: Zohran has received just enough labor support to prevent this race from becoming an Andrew Cuomo cakewalk.<\/p>\n Thousands of rank-and-file supporters have successfully pushed some of the city\u2019s biggest unions to endorse Zohran or at least not endorse Cuomo. Though not all union leaders have been brave enough to buck the political establishment, New York City\u2019s young leftist upstart has generated enough labor support to come within electoral striking distance. The union vote could be decisive in a tight, low-turnout primary election. And union power<\/i> will be pivotal for overcoming the billionaire-backed onslaught that is sure to come if Zohran wins the June 24 primary.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n One sad thing about labor politics in contemporary America is that it\u2019s taken for granted that union leaders will almost always back the establishment Democratic who is most likely to win, since endorsing the front-runner gives unions a \u201cseat at table\u201d from which they can then lobby for the interests of their members.<\/p>\n But the fact that this strategy is so common does not make it any less narrow-minded. At best, billionaire-backed electeds provide crumbs. At worst, such politicians actively undermine workers\u2019 lives (and members\u2019 trust in their unions). Despite Cuomo\u2019s AWFUL track record<\/a> for workers as governor, and despite his disgraced ouster due to sexual harassment charges, it seemed at the beginning of this race like politics as usual would reign in the House of Labor. Indeed, Andrew Cuomo launched his mayoral run in early March from the carpenters\u2019 union hall.<\/p>\n Zohran\u2019s rank-and-file backers knew from day one that they would have to get organized to avoid a repeat of the dynamic in 2018, when exactly zero unions endorsed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s primary challenge against Democratic Party leader Joe Crowley. Not only are unions unaccustomed to joining anti-corporate political insurgencies, but Cuomo, like Donald Trump, has a long history of using his political power to punish opponents. As the District Council 37 (DC 37) member Joshua Barnett put it to me, \u201cCuomo is a real vindictive son of a bitch. So if you don\u2019t endorse and he wins, it could cost you.\u201d Challenging a bully is risky.<\/p>\n With Zohran\u2019s initial polling running in the low single digits, his earliest union supporters understood that it would take a lot of outreach and persuasion to get their unions on board. So they began by building up ad hoc rank-and-file organizing committees, starting in United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees\u2019 (AFSCME) massive DC 37, which represents city workers.<\/p>\n They had their work cut out for them even in a progressive union like the newly reformed UAW<\/a>. \u201cThere were lots of doubts about Zohran\u2019s viability early on,\u201d one rank-and-file member told me. \u201cBut we knew we really needed an early UAW endorsement, to make it clear to the rest of labor \u2014 and the rest of the progressive movement \u2014 that he was a serious contender.\u201d<\/p>\n Zohran\u2019s supporters succeeded in mobilizing their coworkers to come out in large numbers to the union\u2019s endorsement forum, highlighting his labor platform<\/a>, including a plan for a $30 minimum wage by 2030, as well as his broader push for a rent freeze, fast and free buses, and free childcare. And they then pivoted to a concerted grassroots lobbying campaign to convince the members of UAW Region 9A\u2019s Community Action Program.<\/p>\n This organizing worked. On December 4, 2024, Zohran got his first labor endorsement when Region 9A endorsed him on an unranked slate of three. Then on May 30, 2025, once Zohran had begun to surge, the union urged<\/a> its members to rank him first.<\/p>\n \u201cSome may say we took a chance,\u201d explained 9A director Brandon Mancilla, \u201cbut the actual reckless gamble is to endorse status quo candidates that caused the crisis working families face in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n Such views are not widely shared among New York City union leaders. On April 14, Cuomo received the endorsement of two of the city\u2019s biggest unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) and 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which, respectively, represent tens of thousands of hospitality and building service workers. These \u201chighly sought\u201d endorsements, noted<\/a> Politico, <\/i>solidified \u201cCuomo\u2019s status as the clear frontrunner.\u201d Though not surprising, 32BJ and the HTC\u2019s decisions were particularly disheartening since both unions in 2021 pushed for Cuomo\u2019s resignation over sexual harassment charges.<\/p>\n This type of realpolitik is, above all, selfish. <\/i>It is personally beneficial for top union leaders to make nice with Cuomo, and doing so might occasionally benefit the narrow short-term interests of some of their members. But there\u2019s a price to pay: throwing the rest of the working class under the bus, not just in New York City but nationwide. Everybody understands that this race has become a referendum on the future of the Democratic Party, a test of whether voters want a party that pushes for the old status quo or one that will vigorously champion workers and challenge billionaires.<\/p>\n It\u2019s particularly disheartening to see working-class leaders continue with the same old political playbook at a moment of unprecedented crisis in America and the world. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained<\/a> to the three-thousand-strong Zohran rally on June 14:<\/p>\n We will never get past Donald Trump if we continue to elect the same people and make the same decisions that got us here in the first place. And I will tell you there are people out there that say if you go out and if you make this [Zohran] endorsement . . . your political career will be over. And to that I say, \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d We will never get to a better place if everyone\u2019s just worried about themselves and making decisions that are selfish.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n By late April, there were two big New York City union endorsements still up for grabs: DC 37 and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). The former is the city\u2019s largest union, with 150,000 members and 89,000 retirees. A powerhouse of city and state politics, DC 37 had endorsed Cuomo for governor in 2018, despite the fact that in 2012 he had slashed<\/a> public sector worker pensions through his much-hated \u201cTier 6\u201d policy that raised the retirement age and raised employees\u2019 retirement contributions.<\/p>\n Massive labor machines like DC 37 do not have much of a tradition of including members in political decisions. Joshua Barnett, a longtime DC 37 member who works in Local 375\u2019s public housing division, explained to me that \u201cduring the last mayoral primary [in 2021], we all first found out over the news that the union had endorsed Eric Adams. That\u2019s how little the leadership had tried to involve us members.\u201d But this time around, \u201ceven though the process was technically still the same, our grassroots movement, all our vocal pressure, made things a bit more inclusionary.\u201d<\/p>\n Like hundreds of other DC 37 members, Barnett had spent the preceding months rallying support for Zohran. Even so, on the eve of the union\u2019s endorsement announcement in late April, Barnett was convinced the leadership was going to endorse Cuomo. \u201cI was really surprised, pleasantly<\/i> surprised, that [our union leaders] actually listened to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n