Mamdani made it to New York City Hall. Could his influence grow in Washington?

For more than a year, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani had his focus on making it to the mayor’s office inside New York City Hall.

Now, with early voting underway in New York’s Democratic congressional primary races, the relatively new mayor has his eye on the nation’s capital — though not as a candidate himself.

“Someone like Mayor Mamdani has to look at what’s going on in D.C. and see that having more people who share his political philosophy in D.C. would be helpful to New York City,” Manhattan University professor Margaret Groarke said. “So where he’s got a chance to elect people who are going to be allies in D.C., it’s worth doing.”

Mamdani co-hosted a rally in Brooklyn on Thursday with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in support of the three congressional candidates the mayor has endorsed. The races are expected to be the first major tests of Mamdani’s influence on other high-profile races — and whether his views can gain national relevance.

The mayor endorsed New York State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez in the 7th Congressional District, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander in the 10th and community advocate Darializa Avila Chevalier in the 13th.

All three candidates are running to the left of their primary rivals.

“The mayor of New York, in many ways, is already a national figure,” New York Democratic strategist Trip Yang told ABC News. “Historically, the mayors of New York, at some point in their mayoral careers, have set their sights on if they could expand their influence in D.C.”

3 endorsements — and a Manhattan mystery

Mamdani’s three endorsements have put him at odds with some other prominent New York Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, raising questions about what weight voters will put on each elected officials’ picks.

Mamdani is supporting Hochul and James in their reelection bids, but in the congressional races, Hochul is backing the two incumbents — Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th and Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th — while in the 7th District, James is supporting Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“With those who have a high level of statutory power within state and federal government, he is going out of his way to build a constructive relationship, even if they’re not ideologically always in alignment,” Yang said.

The mayor currently lives in Manhattan’s Gracie Mansion, which falls within the 12th Congressional District. Mamdani previously said he plans to cast a ballot in the district’s election, but he has not made an endorsement in the race.

“I’m not here to play pundit on what he should do or shouldn’t do in a race,” one of the candidates in that race, Kennedy family member Jack Schlossberg, said in an interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis. “That’s up to him, but I think that he’s done a good job so far as mayor.”

Mamdani’s growing influence

Mamdani was a state assemblyman when he announced his run for mayor, but at the time, many New Yorkers had never heard of him.

He stunned many observers when he defeated a number of prominent candidates, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the Democratic mayoral primary last year before going on to defeat Cuomo again in the general election.

Mamdani’s proposals during his campaign ranged from providing free bus service around New York City to opening a number of city-run supermarkets.

“He’s made it clear that he does need partnerships and alliances at the state and national level to support a lot of these programs,” Hostos Community College assistant professor Helen Chang said. “He is aware that his power is not unlimited, and to really kind of deliver, especially on housing, on affordability [and] immigration, he can’t do it by himself.”

In an interview with ABC News, Avila Chevalier said she knocked on doors in support of Mamdani early in his mayoral primary race.

“I don’t know what I said exactly, but I think the mayor was acutely aware of the organizing work that we had done, and he’s an organizer,” Avila Chevalier said after being asked about the process behind the mayor’s endorsement of her campaign.

Mamdani ran on an affordability-focused campaign and Avila Chevalier said that affordability remains the main issue in the 13th District. She has been criticized by Espaillat over her past social media comments that she has since apologized for and her attendance at a pro-Palestinian rally one day after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

In response to a question from ABC News about whether she discussed these controversies with Mamdani before or after his endorsement, Avila Chevalier said, “To my knowledge, I don’t know whether our teams did, but I can’t comment further on that.”

The primaries in New York will be held on June 23. Mamdani has indicated that his focus is on New York, but should his three nominees be successful in their upcoming races, political scientists say it will be a sign of the value a Mamdani endorsement holds.

“I think it’s too early to say if he’s going to want to be a national political figure, but I think in the climate that we’re in right now, a politically involved person can’t help but care what happens in D.C.,” Groarke said. “It’s going to have a huge impact on us, and so trying to influence what Congress looks like next year, as a mayor, you’d have to have your head in the sand if you didn’t want to have some influence on that.”