Democratic mayoral nominee and Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani.
Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is making numerous adjustments to his marketing campaign crew as he shifts from his far-left underdog standing within the major to a Democratic nominee intent on uniting his big-tent get together within the November normal election.
Mamdani, who’s at present on a two-week jaunt to his dwelling nation of Uganda, has employed Maya Handa as his new marketing campaign supervisor, his crew introduced on Friday. Handa will lead Mamdani’s normal election group after serving in the identical function on state Sen. Zellnor Myrie’s (D-Brooklyn) failed Democratic major marketing campaign.
Myrie completed within the second spherical of ranked-choice voting within the major with simply 1% of the vote. Whereas he’s additionally a progressive, Myrie clearly ran to Mamdani’s proper throughout that race, displaying that hiring Handa could possibly be a part of his technique to enchantment to extra reasonable voters.
Previous to working Myrie’s marketing campaign, Handa was a senior adviser to progressive former Westchester and Bronx Rep. Jamaal Bowman — an in depth Mamdani ally. She was additionally “national pipeline director” at Run for One thing, a company that recruits and trains younger individuals to enter electoral politics.
Mamdani’s earlier marketing campaign supervisor and present chief-of-staff within the Meeting, Elle Bisgaard-Church, is shifting to a brand new function as his “chief adviser,” his crew stated.
The marketing campaign can also be bringing on Afua Atta-Mensah, who holds and has held management roles at progressive organizations together with Neighborhood Change and Neighborhood Voices Heard, as its new senior political director.
Deandra Khan, a senior adviser to 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich, can be Mamdani’s “director of labor and intergovernmental affairs,” in line with the marketing campaign. In that function, Khan will handle the marketing campaign’s relationships with labor unions and elected officers.
32BJ SEIU is among the metropolis’s strongest labor unions, representing 185,000 constructing service employees throughout the 5 boroughs. The union pivoted to again Mamdani shortly after he trounced its endorsed candidate within the major: former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s working within the normal election on an unbiased line.
Mamdani can also be shaking up his marketing campaign’s communications crew.
His new press secretary is Dora Pekec, who served in the identical function on metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander’s failed major marketing campaign. Lander is shut political allies with Mamdani, and lots of view their cross-endorsement in the course of the major as key to Mamdani’s victory.
Obama White Home veteran Jeffrey Lerner joined as Mamdani’s new communications director earlier this month. He changed Andrew Epstein, who’s now overseeing the crew that produces Mamdani’s viral social media movies.
The staffing adjustments seem like a part of Mamdani’s push to enchantment to reasonable Democrats as he stares down a normal election area that features Cuomo, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and unbiased legal professional Jim Walden.
Mamdani has spent the weeks because the major making an attempt to win over institution Democrats and town’s enterprise neighborhood, who’ve been hesitant to embrace him as a consequence of his socialist branding and platform that depends on elevating taxes on the rich.
Final week, he met with the handfuls of enterprise and tech leaders with the intention to assuage their considerations about his candidacy. He additionally had a confab with Democratic Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, who has but to endorse him, within the consultant’s Brooklyn district final Friday.
U.S. Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul have additionally held off on endorsing Mamdani.
Nonetheless, Mamdani has already picked up help from a lot of the metropolis’s highly effective labor unions and a few institutional pols, together with Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan/Bronx) and Brooklyn Democratic Occasion Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
