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As mayor-elect, one of Zohran Mamdani’s first acts was to squelch an insurgent leftist’s political campaign.

If this, like Mamdani’s chummy meeting with Donald Trump, was obviously jarring, it carried a certain logic. He had been open about the fact that he did not want Chi Ossé, a popular leftist and 27-year-old City Council member, to undertake a primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries next year. To make his point subtly, he had disinvited Ossé from his victory party. Then, to make it more bluntly, he showed up at a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America and told everybody not to endorse Ossé. Ultimately, DSA listened to its mayor.

Why has Mamdani been acting this way? Why does he seem to be forsaking another young leftist who is attempting, in some form, to do exactly what Mamdani just did: shock the world by defeating a heavily favored creature of the Democratic Establishment?

The answer speaks to Mamdani’s emerging pragmatism and the reality of his position as a 34-year-old democratic-socialist mayor. It’s also, to a degree, an indictment of Ossé himself. The young councilmember joined DSA only this year, and some of the rank and file were skeptical of his commitment to the organization. Though the media has characterized Ossé as a staunch Mamdani supporter, he did not solely back the long-shot assemblyman in the primary. He co-endorsed Brad Lander and became an enthusiastic Mamdani backer only as the primary drew. Among DSA members who voted “no,” there was a feeling that he was not truly committed to Mamdani or his politics. (Disclosure: When I ran for office, Mamdani was my campaign manager.)

There was also the steep challenge of the potential primary against Jeffries. Mamdani did beat Andrew Cuomo within the confines of Jeffries’s Brooklyn congressional district, but his victory was not overwhelming. Unlike Cuomo, Jeffries is not scandal-scarred. And unlike another major Democratic leader who was felled by an upstart leftist, he is not absent from his district; Joe Crowley raised his family in Virginia and took his 2018 race against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for granted. Jeffries is well known in central and eastern Brooklyn, especially among the working- and middle-class Black voters who are much more likely to stick with him. In 2027, there’s a strong chance Jeffries could end up House Speaker, and rank-and-file Democrats may be reluctant to toss that seniority aside. And then there’s the money Jeffries can raise now: tens of millions to drown Ossé out.

Jeffries offered only a tepid endorsement of Mamdani, voted for a resolution to condemn socialism on the House floor, and remains an Israel hawk. For many leftists, understandably, this should be enough of a reason to back Ossé and try to drive Jeffries from office. There’s a reasonable argument to make that putting the heat on would force him to the left and give DSA more leverage over him. But Mamdani, a meticulous political operator, must think about his own left-wing agenda next year. Though Jeffries would have little say over whether the state can cough up enough cash to fund a universal-child-care program or make buses free, Kathy Hochul does, and she very much wants Jeffries left alone.

This is the delicate dance Mamdani must now undertake, and there are enough DSA members who do understand his position. Without an assist from Albany, the great ambitions of democratic-socialist governance can’t be realized. Mamdani’s critics are wrong that what he campaigned on is unrealistic; the major planks, from rent freezes to child care, truly are achievable. But he must work in concert with the state legislature and governor to make it all possible. The legislature, dominated by Democrats, shouldn’t be much of an obstacle, considering there is a large number of progressives in both houses. Hochul, though, is a moderate, close to the business and real-estate worlds that have largely been hostile to Mamdani.

The good news for Mamdani is that Albany will be much less foreboding for him than it was for the last progressive Democrat who stormed into City Hall. Bill de Blasio had to contend with a Republican-run State Senate and Cuomo, who despised the new mayor and sought to make his political life hellish. But even de Blasio, after clashing with Cuomo, was able to win state funding for his universal-pre-K expansion. If Hochul and Mamdani are ideologically far apart, they’ve enjoyed a more cordial relationship so far. Hochul endorsed Mamdani in the general election and appeared at his enormous rally in Forest Hills. She wants to expand free child care in the city and has signaled some openness to raising corporate taxes and funding free buses. Next year, she has to worry about her own reelection, and if her primary should be a cakewalk, the general election against either Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik or Nassau County’s county executive, Bruce Blakeman, will be competitive. Hochul is favored, but to ensure she wins more comfortably than she did in 2022, she’ll need a robust turnout from Democrats in the city. She might require Mamdani to whip votes for her.

All of this comes back to Jeffries: Just as Mamdani’s decision to keep Jessica Tisch as police commissioner can be seen as a way to appease the governor, disavowing Ossé is a way to ensure that, on his first day, Mamdani isn’t burning any bridges with the governor’s mansion. The Hochul-Jeffries relationship will matter even more if, come 2028, Hochul has an opportunity to create a Democratic House gerrymander to counter Texas and other Republican states.

As mayor, Mamdani will inevitably alienate at least a few of his leftist supporters who feel he isn’t committed to revolutionary change. There are sour feelings about Ossé already. The retirement of Nydia Velázquez, though, might prove a salve for a divided DSA and Mamdani himself, who should have a far easier time sending another leftist to Congress from that seat. Her Brooklyn-and-Queens district is prime Mamdani territory, and DSA contenders are already being floated. Mamdani can simply support DSA’s choice there and go about governing the city. For his team, that’s a win-win. He could also play a decisive role in driving Dan Goldman, a centrist Israel hawk, from his House seat. He has indicated that he may endorse Lander in that race, and with Mamdani’s help, he could win.

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