Mamdani rallies with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as Democrats close ranks around NYC mayoral nominee

By Gloria Pazmino, David Wright, Maria Sole Campinoti, CNN

New York (CNN) — As New Yorkers cast their ballots in the city’s mayoral race, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani sent a message to voters Sunday, asking them not to choose “settling for the lesser of two evils,” warning his supporters to not take his double-digit lead in the polls as a guarantee.

“While Donald Trump’s donor billionaires think they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses,” Mamdani said to a roaring crowd.

Mamdani took the stage at a raucous rally alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, where thousands of people chanted Mamdani’s name and repeated in unison his signature proposals to freeze the rent, make buses fast and free, and provide universal child care.

The rally was part closing argument, part rallying of the troops ahead of the November 4 election, with Mamdani casting the race as a choice between democracy and oligarchy and Sanders and Ocasio Cortez touting Mamdani’s campaign as the vanguard of a progressive movement itching to push back on the second Trump administration.

“I’m talking to you, Donald Trump,” Ocasio-Cortez declared, saying that “in nine short days we will work our hearts out to elect Zohran Kwame Mamdani as the next mayor of the great city of New York.”

Sanders, speaking in the Brooklyn accent he’s never shed, told the crowd Trump and “the rest of the world” were watching the election.

“A victory here in New York will give hope and inspiration to people throughout our country and throughout the world,” the Vermont senator said. “That is what this election is about, and that is why Donald Trump is paying attention to this election.”

After walking out to a roaring crowd and thumping Desi beat, a beaming Mamdani credited Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, in particular, for inspiring the progressive movement that’s become the backbone of his campaign.

“I stand before you tonight, only because the senator dared to stand alone for so long. I speak the language of democratic socialism, only because he spoke it first,” Mamdani said. “And when we win on November 4 and then govern from City Hall with dignity as the foundation of our politics, it will be because of the movement that Bernie built.”

The trio of leaders repeatedly nationalized the high-stakes New York mayoral contest, with Sanders remarking that “these are not normal times, this is not a normal election.” Each threaded calls to action against Republicans with critiques of the Democratic Party.

“While Donald Trump’s billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses,” Mamdani said. “No longer will we allow the Republican Party to be the one of ambition. No longer will we have to open a history book to read about Democrats leading with big ideas.”

Ocasio-Cortez argued that “the very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally, both an authoritarian criminal presidency, fueled by corruption and bigotry and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement.”

The New York representative castigated the “insufficient, eroded, bygone political establishment, this time in the form of Andrew Cuomo.”

The rally, though, reflected efforts to form a bridge between the upstart progressives and a wary Democratic establishment. Mamdani was also joined by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who endorsed his campaign just last month — as well as State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a show of support in the closing stretch of the divisive race.

“Any person who wants to the mayor of the city in New York, to have three people you probably have to work with the most” showing support gives Mamdani “momentum into trying to achieve his agenda,” Heastie told CNN at the rally.

Addressing the crowd, Hochul echoed that sentiment. “The three of us can’t do it alone. We need a fighter in City Hall, who wakes up every day, ready to punch and fight for the working people of the city, and that person is Zohran Mamdani,” she said, repeatedly interrupted by chants of “tax the rich.”

Hochul has said she opposes Mamdani’s plan to tax the wealthy. With her own election next year, Hochul will be under pressure to deliver for Mamdani if he wins, but also to keep taxes from increasing. As the shouts continued through her speech, Mamdani came onstage and embraced her before the two walked off together.

Hochul also praised Mamdani for showing “grace, and courage and grit” during his campaign and criticized “Islamophobia and bigotry and hate-filled speech” directed his way.

“That kind of bullsh*t doesn’t belong in New York,” the governor told the fired-up crowd.

The rowdy atmosphere was underscored by New York Comptroller Brad Lander — a former primary rival of Mamdani who quickly threw his support behind the upstart progressive — reprising a rousing condemnation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, and the anti-Mamdani coalition.

“We had to send that corrupt, abusive bully Andrew Cuomo back to the suburbs. I said it on election night and I can’t wait to say it again next Tuesday — good f**king riddance!” Lander said.

The rally’s slogan, “New York Is Not for Sale,” was a dig at the vocal wealthy New Yorkers, including Bill Ackman and John Catsimatidis, who have been speaking out in opposition to Mamdani’s candidacy, and in many cases donating to the super PAC aligned with Cuomo.

“We have the same billionaires who funded Donald Trump’s campaign funding Andrew Cuomo’s, and whether it be Bill Ackman or the Waltons, people who think they can look at a city like ours, they can appraise it and they can buy it,” Mamdani told CNN in an exclusive interview Sunday.

He noted the rally’s slogan was a callback to Sanders’ own mayoral campaign in Burlington, Vermont, three decades ago.

“He said when he was running to be the mayor of Burlington, that Burlington is not for sale,” Mamdani said. “It continues to be the rallying cry for working-class people across this country, and for us, it’s that New York City is not for sale.”

The rally came amid a surge in early voting turnout, with more than five times as many New Yorkers voting during the first weekend of early in-person voting for this year’s mayoral election compared with four years ago.

Data released Sunday by the New York City Board of Elections shows 164,190 people voted this weekend. During the first weekend of early voting in 2021 — the first mayoral election where it was an option — only 31,176 people voted.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.

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