Mamdani attended exclusive fundraiser hosted by his supporters for Abdul El-Sayed

Por Chris Sommerfeldt — POLITICO – TOP Stories

NEW YORK — Supporters of Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed earlier this week — and the mayor himself made an appearance.

The mayor’s attendance marked the first known time he’s stumped in person for a 2026 congressional candidate running outside New York. Their gathering behind closed doors with big donors also came as both Mamdani and El-Sayed face pressure to build trust beyond their political bases, including among Jewish voters.

The private Monday event, the specifics of which haven’t been previously reported, was held on Manhattan’s tony Upper West Side before the Democratic Senate candidate’s campaign threw a larger, publicly announced fundraiser in downtown Manhattan.

To attend the private affair, attendees had to donate at least $3,500 to El-Sayed’s campaign, but were encouraged to give as much as $57,800, the legal maximum, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. For the public fundraiser later in the day, attendees were asked to give a minimum of $250.

Per the invitation, the closed-door shindig was hosted by Aisha Jukaku, Asad Baig, Debbie Almontaser, Shan Shaheen and Salim Syed. Several of the hosts are personally close with Mamdani and financially supported his successful 2025 mayoral run.

Shaheen, a Long Island caterer who provided food for the fundraiser, said in an interview Thursday that Mamdani showed up at the event to voice support for El-Sayed and exchange pleasantries with attendees. Shaheen described the gathering as “a bunch of friends” coming together and said it was his impression Mamdani appeared because he was asked by some of the hosts, including Jukaku, who gave $3,000 to a super PAC that boosted Mamdani’s 2025 run, and Almontaser, who served as an immigration adviser on the mayor’s transition team.

“They were big supporters of Mamdani when he ran for mayor, and I think it was more the fact that they invited him and he came, as opposed to Abdul inviting him,” Shaheen told POLITICO, adding that neither El-Sayed nor Mamdani delivered formal speeches at the event, but socialized more informally with attendees.

Spokespeople for Mamdani and El-Sayed did not return requests for comment.

Mamdani’s decision to appear at the El-Sayed event takes on outsize significance given the cautious approach he’s taken with 2026 midterm races outside New York.

With control of both chambers of Congress on the line, Mamdani has generally just said he’s focused on New York City when asked about races in other parts of the country and, up until this week, he had not shown up in person to throw his weight behind an out-of-state candidate, whether in private or in public. He has also only formally endorsed candidates in congressional races for New York City-based seats, a sign he’s mindful of the prospect that expending political capital beyond the Big Apple could open him up to criticisms that he’s not focused on the complexities of running the country’s largest municipal government.

In that light, the appearance at the El-Sayed shindig speaks to how important Mamdani considers the Michigan contest — and to their ideological and personal overlap.

Though he doesn’t describe himself as a democratic socialist as Mamdani does, El-Sayed shares many of his worldviews and policy objectives. They both agree the U.S. must stop providing military aid to Israel and support proposals for a national single-payer health care system. On a personal level, they’re both Muslim millennials with affinities for sports.

“What we’re talking about is someone who has shone a light on the importance of public health and health care in our country for years,” Mamdani said of El-Sayed in August after he won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. “And I am proud to be part of a movement of politicians and candidates who are looking to put working-class Americans back at the heart of our politics.”

On a more fraught note, both Mamdani and El-Sayed have faced accusations that some of their rhetoric about Israel’s war in Gaza is fomenting antisemitism.

In El-Sayed’s case, that has proven a political vulnerability. He’s trying to win an election in one of the country’s most competitive battleground states, and he will likely need some of Michigan’s Jewish voters to come out for him to prevail.

In a sign that he’s worried about that constituency, El-Sayed recently urged Hasan Piker, a campaign surrogate and controversial far-left political commentator, to tone down his rhetoric on Israel, telling him it could cost him votes, CNN reported this week.

Though he doesn’t have to contend with the same electoral considerations, Mamdani is navigating similar concerns in New York City, where Jewish leaders blasted him this week for marking Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack by issuing a statement mostly dedicated to criticizing Israel’s response to the deadly assault.

El-Sayed is vying to defeat Republican Mike Rogers for retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ seat, and the election is seen as the biggest prize on the table for the Democratic Party’s left flank this November. If Democrats are going to have a shot at flipping the Senate, the Michigan contest is a must-win, and, looking ahead, an El-Sayed victory would be a welcome bellwether for progressives as they prepare for the 2028 presidential race.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s actively mulling a 2028 White House bid, highlighted Michigan as a proving ground for progressives while speaking at El-Sayed’s larger fundraiser in Manhattan on Monday. “If Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere,” she said.

Mamdani’s growing association with El-Sayed doesn’t come without risk, though.

Rogers and other Republicans have sought to portray El-Sayed and Mamdani as being cut from the same cloth, arguing they’re both too radical in their leftist beliefs. After El-Sayed’s primary victory, House Speaker Mike Johnson even went as far as to write an X post calling El-Sayed a “mini Mamdani” who would lead the country down “the failed, dangerous, deadly path of COMMUNISM.”

Shaheen, the co-host of Monday’s Manhattan fundraiser, said he’s not concerned about Republican attacks because he believes El-Sayed’s campaign message resonates with a broad spectrum of voters.

“That message needs to be loud and clear: It needs to go to every state, to every senator,” he said. “This movement has to be really national and I think if it starts with Abdul, that’s great.”

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories