As Democrats across the country are falling in line to endorse their party’s pick for mayor of America’s largest city, one top Democrat is bucking the trend, while former Democrats are warning that the controversial mayoral candidate poses a threat not just to the city but to the Democratic Party as a whole.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) refused to endorse Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, when asked about the mayoral election on Wednesday. A reporter questioned whether or not Schumer would cast his vote for Mamdani, to which the top Senate Democrat responded, “The bottom line is very simple. I have a good relationship with him and we’re continuing to talk.”

Schumer’s non-endorsement comes just days after his Democratic counterpart in the House of Representatives formally backed Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Despite promoting the Ugandan-born mayoral hopeful as “a Mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) did add that he expects that “there will be areas of agreement and areas of principled disagreement” between Mamdani and other Democrats.

However, a coalition of former Democrats has pointed to Mamdani as emblematic of what has gone wrong with the party. In an interview Wednesday, independent mayoral candidate and former Democratic Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo pointed out the rise of radical progressive ideology in the Democratic Party. “New York will be a socialist economy if Mamdani wins. The city will not survive that as we know it, and it will not recover for a long time,” Cuomo warned. He noted that “an extreme left, radical left” has infiltrated the Democratic Party in the form of figures like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “Mamdani is just the banner carrier for that movement, versus the mainstream moderate Democrats,” he added. “They used to call me liberal. Now I’m a moderate because the whole party shifted.”

“The truth is there’s a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now,” Cuomo observed, pointing to Mamdani and other progressives as one faction, and “moderate” figures such as himself as another faction. “That’s what this election is about, it is that civil war,” the former governor suggested. “I believe that far-Left will destroy the Democratic Party. I believe that it will destroy the Democratic Party nationwide if that far-Left [fringe] becomes dominant. This is not a socialist country. People are not going to accept anti-law enforcement, anti-business policies.”

Cuomo had originally run for mayor as a Democrat but was defeated by Mamdani in the primaries. In the first two rounds of Democratic primary voting, Mamdani polled at around 43% and Cuomo at around 36%, before Mamdani bested Cuomo in the final round 56.39% to 43.61%, precipitating Cuomo’s independent run. As an Independent, Cuomo has also garnered a slate of endorsements from both current and former Democrats, including Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), former Governor David Patterson, former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, and a host of state and local legislators and officials.

Former New York City Mayor and billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who once ran for president in the Democratic primaries, formally endorsed Cuomo earlier this year. In a social media post on Wednesday, Bloomberg reiterated his support for the former governor “because I thought his management experience and government know-how made him the best choice for New Yorkers. I still do.” He continued, “Being Mayor of New York City is the second toughest job in America, and the next mayor will face immense challenges. Andrew Cuomo has the experience and toughness to stand up for New Yorkers and get things done. I hope you will join me in supporting him.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter observed, “Shortly after Mamdani secured the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, it was clear prominent New York Democrats were not enthused by the voters’ choice.” He continued, “The specter of an openly socialist, Islamic extremist-adjacent nominee for mayor under their party banner for the nation’s largest city would mean their political opponents can credibly tie Mamdani to the Democratic Party’s brand.”

“Remember, the Democrats hope to win back control of Congress next year. To do so, they will need to appeal to voters in places like Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio,” Carpenter pointed out. “How well does anyone think Mamdani’s brand of jihadi-adjacent socialism will play in these states where rural and suburban voters hold more influence than they do in New York City?” He continued, “It’s no wonder then that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just recently came around to endorsing Mamdani, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has not endorsed Mamdani. They understand their party will now be tied to Mamdani heading into 2026, and they also understand that will not play well with millions of voters they need to win back majorities in Congress.”

While Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa is running as the Republican nominee for mayor, he is polling far behind both Cuomo and Mamdani. According to a Marist poll published Thursday, Mamdani is leading the race by a wide margin, polling at 48% against Cuomo’s 32%, while Sliwa trails behind at 12%. Notably, Mamdani’s support among registered Democrats is more than double Cuomo’s, with the Ugandan-born Muslim polling at 63% Democratic support and the former governor at only 31%.

Cuomo, however, would receive the lion’s share of support from Republicans were Sliwa to drop out of the race. In a head-to-head race between Mamdani and Cuomo, the latter would receive over three-quarters (77%) of the Republican vote. Mamdani also outpaces Cuomo in favorability, with nearly 60% of voters holding either a very favorable (36%) or somewhat favorable (21%) view of the Democratic nominee and only 40% of voters holding either a very favorable (15%) or somewhat favorable (25%) view of the former governor.

A previous survey from Patriot Polling found that much of Mamdani’s support comes from foreign-born New York City residents. If only foreign-born residents were to vote in the election, Mamdani would win the election with 62% of the vote, compared to Cuomo’s 24% and Sliwa’s 12%. However, if only American-born New Yorkers were to vote, Cuomo would win with 40% of the vote, compared to Mamdani’s 31% and Sliwa’s 25%. According to the left-wing magazine Jacobin, Mamdani is leaning into the immigrant vote, particularly in “ethnic” immigrant neighborhoods and enclaves in the city.

“In the June Democratic primary, Mamdani, running on a platform that framed left-leaning policies as a promise of liberation from economic hardship and the calculations of moneyed interests, triumphed in Asian American precincts that largely cast their ballots for centrist incumbent Eric Adams four years ago,” Jacobin reported. Mamdani’s “message found traction in places like Pelham Parkway, a heavily Vietnamese American neighborhood in the Bronx, where the median household income barely scratches $60,000 — about 75 percent of the city’s median household income,” the magazine continued. “Mamdani posted better numbers in other Asian neighborhoods, winning the primary by twenty-eight points in Manhattan’s Chinatown and sixteen points in New York’s Asian-majority 49th state assembly district…”

Mamdani’s foreign roots have become the subject of controversy in the weeks leading up to the election. Republicans have suggested that the Democratic nominee’s ties to Islamic extremist and communist organizations may disqualify him from holding citizenship and have urged President Donald Trump’s administration to investigate, denaturalize, and deport Mamdani. A recently-resurfaced interview clip featuring Mamdani’s mother has exacerbated the debate over the mayoral hopeful’s allegiances. Filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdani’s Indian-born mother, asserted in a 2013 interview that her son is “not an American at all.”

“He is a total desi. Completely. We are not firangs at all,” Nair said, using the Hindu pejorative “firang,” which refers to Westerners. “He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan (American) at all. He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian,” she continued, sharing that the frontrunner in the race for mayor of New York City grew up speaking Hindustani at home and helped her cast Indians in American-produced films. “He is a very chaalu fellow.”

The possibility of a Mamdani victory has caused a stir in the city, with many New Yorkers considering relocating. TWS previously noted that hundreds of New Yorkers responded to an offer from the group StopAntisemitism to connect with realtors in states like Florida and Texas. “You deserve to live in a city not run by an antisemite,” the group said in a social media post. “If Mamdani is elected, we will make it our mission to remove as much of his tax base as possible. Antisemites understand one thing — consequences.”

Bankers are also eyeing relocation in the event of a Mamdani win, according to insiders. Emma-Jo Morris, a senior consultant for Beck & Stone, reported on a podcast appearance that “there are people at JPMorgan who have told me … all of JPMorgan is basically scrambling maniacally emailing H.R. and emailing management at the bank to see if they can work out of the Texas offices, out of the Florida offices.” She emphasized, “They are scrambling to leave.”