After his November win, Zohran Mamdani privately asked unions and party leaders to delay endorsing a City Council speaker while his team assessed the field. Their late and uneven efforts could not stop Julie Menin from announcing a supermajority and winning major union backing. The episode raises questions about Mamdani’s ability to navigate the backroom dealmaking that is essential to governing, though both Menin and Mamdani have signaled a willingness to cooperate on affordability priorities.
Mamdani’s Quiet Bid to Shape NYC Speaker Race Falters as Julie Menin Secures Supermajority
NEW YORK — In the weeks after his November victory, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made a quiet play to slow the internal contest for New York City Council speaker — an early test of his political reach that ultimately fell short.
Rather than publicly endorsing a candidate, Mamdani and his team privately asked labor unions, borough Democratic organizations and several Council members to delay pledging support while they evaluated the field, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. The outreach continued in the weeks that followed as the team explored possible ways to shape the outcome, but those efforts were uneven and arrived too late to alter the race.
Behind the Scenes
At the SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico, Mamdani met with union leaders and party officials — including representatives of 32BJ and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council — and requested that they refrain from making immediate endorsements. Two contenders emerged: Julie Menin, an Upper East Side Democrat who had been steadily building a coalition and was viewed as more independent of the incoming administration; and Crystal Hudson, a Brooklyn progressive whose support clustered in the Council’s left wing.
Over subsequent weeks, Mamdani’s team privately urged some members to hold off on endorsing Menin while weighing options, and explored informal avenues to influence the contest. But Mamdani never publicly articulated a clear preferred outcome, and backers of Menin moved forward on their own timeline.
The Decisive Move
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Menin’s coalition convened at Representative Greg Meeks’s Queens office to finalize a press release listing supporters. By the next day, Menin announced she had secured a supermajority of Council members and endorsements from major unions including 32BJ, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the NYC District Council of Carpenters and the United Federation of Teachers.
“Zohran’s team is obviously gifted and sharp but not when it comes to political maneuvering and backroom scheming,” a Democratic consultant who followed the race said on background. “His team comes from the outsider advocacy world, and these are two wholly different animal breeds.”
What This Means For Mamdani
The episode has prompted questions about how Mamdani will manage the dealmaking and coalition-building central to governing in New York City and at the state level. Allies say his restraint reflected practical limits — a bruising general election that demanded attention, an agenda heavily dependent on cooperation with state government, and a calculation that wading into the speaker fight would expend political capital for an uncertain payoff.
Critics counter that the move revealed an administration still adjusting from movement-oriented campaigning to the transactional negotiations that guide policy implementation. Political consultants note that the Council and its speaker are among the strongest checks on mayoral power: they approve the budget and rezonings, conduct oversight hearings, issue subpoenas, and can override vetoes or litigate the city.
Following Menin’s victory, both sides issued conciliatory notes. Menin signaled a willingness to collaborate on the mayor-elect’s affordability priorities, while Mamdani’s team said they looked forward to working together. Menin has also said she would use the Council’s subpoena power strategically and would scrutinize proposals such as Mamdani’s planned Department of Community Safety before offering full support.
Looking Ahead
Advisers say Mamdani will need to strengthen his intergovernmental and backchanneling capabilities — the quiet dealmaking with Albany and City Council members that turns campaign goals into policy. How effectively he builds those relationships will shape his ability to pass ambitious, costly initiatives in the year ahead.