Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani rallies with United Federation of Academics President Michael Mulgrew and union members after the group endorses him. Wednesday, July 9, 2025.
Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Practically all the metropolis’s strongest unions have now consolidated behind Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani as he vies to topple Mayor Eric Adams within the November normal election, with the most recent nod of help coming from the United Federation of Academics on Tuesday night time.
Mamdani celebrated the UFT’s endorsement, following a Tuesday night time vote in his favor, by the union’s governing physique, alongside its president — Michael Mulgrew — and rank-and-file members at its Manhattan headquarters on July 9. The highly effective union, which represents 200,000 members together with public faculty lecturers and different training professionals, backed Mamdani after declining to endorse a candidate within the crowded Democratic main that additionally included former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Mulgrew praised Mamdani as “someone who has spoken and has clearly broken through to the people of this city” — referring to the democratic socialist Meeting member’s resounding main win on an affordability message.
“The politics of old are no longer working,” Mulgrew mentioned. “Just giving a little bit so people can continue just to get by does not work. It is time for the city to say to everyone across this country, that is the workers, it’s the poor, it’s the middle class, who have been getting the shaft throughout, and we’re going to lead the way in this city, because that’s what New York City has always done.”
In his remarks, Mamdani pledged to companion with the union to completely fund New York Metropolis’s public faculties, fill long-vacant paraprofessional positions, and reform the extensively criticized Tier-6 pension system—applied by Cuomo—that considerably decreased advantages for public workers. He added that he needs to have a extra collaborative and fewer oppositional relationship with the union than previous mayors.
Mamdani mentioned lecturers, mother and father, and college students, “must be partners in the way that we lead our education policy across the city, because ultimately, it is those New Yorkers who oftentimes know the exact answers as to what is plaguing our schools, what policies could fix those schools.”
Mamdani additionally appeared to counsel that he needs to maneuver away from mayoral management, through which the mayor chooses a chancellor who runs the general public faculties — a system that has been in place for over 20 years.
“It’s not about choosing between an old system and the current system,” Mamdani mentioned. “It’s about building a system that actually reflects the realities of the city.”
The UFT endorsement of Mamdani is a transparent rejection of Mayor Adams, who struck a beneficiant five-year contract with the union in 2023.
It’s simply the most recent union to leap on board with Mamdani’s marketing campaign as he faces off towards a subject of normal election challengers that features Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa, unbiased legal professional Jim Walden, and presumably Cuomo. Adams and the ex-governor each maintain unbiased poll traces after the previous opted out of the Democratic main and the latter was soundly defeated within the contest by Mamdani.
The Democratic nominee has additionally acquired the backing of 32BJ SEIU and the Resort and Gaming Trades Council, which each endorsed Cuomo within the main. Moreover, he has help from the New York State Nurses Affiliation, New York Metropolis Central Labor Council, and District Council 37.
The Democratic Social gathering institution is slowly falling in line behind Mamdani as properly. On Monday night time, the Manhattan Democratic Social gathering and its chair Keith Wright endorsed the Meeting member, following an earlier nod from Brooklyn Democratic Social gathering Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
However whereas the state’s main Democrats — together with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries — have complimented Mamdani’s affordability-focused marketing campaign, they’ve but to endorse him.
On the identical time, a number of centrist and right-leaning political and enterprise leaders, akin to former Gov. David Paterson, try to get Mamdani’s opponents to coalesce behind one candidate who can defeat him.
Nonetheless, Mamdani appeared unphased by that technique when reporters requested about it on Wednesday.
“So much of what was suggested is what you would describe as a Democratic primary, which we just went through, and I won that primary by more than 12 points,” Mamdani mentioned. “I won it because of the fact that New Yorkers want a new direction in their politics.”
