Mayor Brandon Johnson has been in touch with the frontrunner in New York City’s mayoral race — democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who’s proving polarizing and at the same time wildly popular — but Johnson’s campaign said it was just to congratulate him on his primary victory this summer.
“Mayor Johnson was happy to call Mr. Mamdani and congratulate him on winning the Democratic primary… and wishing him the best of luck,” says Christian Perry, a Johnson campaign spokesman.
Asked whether Johnson might endorse Mamdani, Perry said: “We haven’t had a conversation about that.”
In an open records request, the Chicago Sun-Times asked Johnson’s office for a copy of any texts and emails this year between the men, whose progressive politics seem to intersect at some levels.
A copy of a single message was produced this week by Chicago’s City Hall in which Mamdani, a New York state assembly member, texted Johnson on July 11 around 1 p.m., saying, “Hi Mayor Johnson, this is Zohran Mamdani. I just called, looking forward to chatting.”
They ended up speaking sometime later.
A copy of the text message between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani’s campaign wouldn’t elaborate — though a source asserted that “Zohran did not seek Mayor Johnson’s endorsement.”
A Mamdani campaign aide, Dora Pekec, said via email, “Zohran has participated in a breadth of conversations with numerous city, state, and federal leaders from major cities across the country.”
It’s not clear whether Mamdani — whose primary was June 24, with his victory becoming official July 1 — would want Johnson’s political backing given Johnson’s abysmal popularity in polling.
A spokesman for Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the primary and is now running outside the Democratic Party in the November general election, said he hopes Johnson backs Mamdani.
“Oh lordie I hope that’s the case,” said Rich Azzopardi, adding “I can comfortably say” there’s been “no contact” between his candidate and Johnson.
Azzopardi noted that Cuomo’s new campaign manager is Greg Goldner, a longtime political operative in Chicago for, among others, former Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel.
“We hired a Rahm Emanuel-Daley guy because he saw what happened to your lovely city under a special brand of entitled and incompetent socialism and he was willing to relocate half way across the country to make sure it doesn’t happen in New York City,” Azzopardi said.
NBC News recently reported that “Mamdani’s camp is tracking Johnson’s challenges and trying to avoid repeating Second City missteps,” citing a source. Johnson has been criticized for, among other things, not adequately dealing with the city’s financial mess, appearing to carry water for his philosophical and campaign bedfellow, the Chicago Teachers Union, and floating unpopular tax increases.
Also running for New York mayor is the incumbent, Eric Adams.
A previous open records request to Johnson’s office earlier this year revealed Johnson and Adams were in touch in February, though a Johnson aide said at the time it was over upcoming congressional testimony by big city mayors on immigration policies.
On Feb. 4, Adams texted Johnson at 7:40 p.m. saying, “Brother Mayor u go ice [sic] me a call when you are free. Mayor Adams.”
Johnson texted back, “ Yo! What’s good sir?! Give me 30? [REDACTED] Happy new year!”
Adams texted back: “Thank you [REDACTED]. I am walking in a meeting. Will be done in an hour and half. You can catch me after or tomorrow.”
Johnson replied: “I’ll be up till 10:30 CDT . . . if you [sic] any energy left otherwise first thing in the morning works. [REDACTED] 8 am your time.”
They texted again Feb. 6 in a brief exchange that ended with Johnson typing “Yo!” just before noon.
An Adams spokeswoman said Adams and Johnson were in touch amid the migrant crisis at least a few times as New York tried to coordinate with other mayors in dealing with the influx of people and the resulting challenges.
“The mayor has a good relationship with Brandon Johnson, they’ve worked well together,” she said.
While New York’s mayor is subject to term limits, Chicago’s mayor is not, and Johnson has boasted about possibly surpassing Daley’s 22 years in office.
Text messages between Brandon Johnson and Eric Adams