(NEW YORK CITY, NY - 9/10/2025) - CAIR Action, a leading national Muslim political advocacy organization, urged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to respect the will of New York City’s Democratic primary voters by endorsing Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s historic candidacy for mayor and rejecting pressure from anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian lobby groups.
In a letter sent today, CAIR Action Executive Director Basim Elkarra wrote:
“Assemblymember Mamdani made history by decisively winning the Democratic primary, and stands on the cusp of making further history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Your silence months after his victory is not only an insult to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who supported his vision for addressing the affordability crisis, but also to American Muslims across the country who see in his candidacy a long-overdue moment of representation and inclusion.”
The letter also warned:
“At this point, your refusal to endorse can only be read as the result of pressure from the notoriously anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian lobby group AIPAC and from donors hostile to Assemblymember Mamdani’s principled support for Palestinian human rights. If so, this is both unacceptable and deeply out of step with the values of the Democratic Party and its base.”
Assemblymember Mamdani made history as the first Muslim to win a major-party mayoral primary in New York City and now stands poised to become the city’s first Muslim mayor. The letter argues that withholding an endorsement undermines both voter choice and the growing diversity of the Democratic electorate.
CAIR Action called on Schumer and Jeffries to “respect the will of Democratic voters, acknowledge that a clear majority of Democrats—and a growing number of Americans—support Palestinian human rights, and endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City.”