The New York Times reports:

Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City on Saturday and called on his party’s leadership to do the same, criticizing them for a delay that he said had allowed President Trump to exploit Democratic divisions.

Mr. Van Hollen said Mr. Mamdani, the party’s nominee, was focused on “ensuring that people can afford to live in the place where they work,” a goal that “Donald Trump and New York’s financial elites see that as a threat.”

“Yet, many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines,” Mr. Van Hollen told a cheering group of Democratic activists and officials gathered on Saturday afternoon in Des Moines. “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of. They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”

Mr. Van Hollen isn’t alone in suggesting it is time for the national party to get behind Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist.

In recent days, a series of Democrats across the ideological spectrum have argued that it is important for their leaders to forcefully reject Mr. Trump’s apparent interest in tipping the race toward former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a lifelong Democrat who is running in the mayoral race as an independent after losing the primary to Mr. Mamdani.

Mr. Trump and his aides, allies and donors have gone to extraordinary efforts to meddle in the race and improve the chances of Mr. Cuomo — though Mr. Trump now appears increasingly resigned to a potential victory by Mr. Mamdani. [Continue reading…]

The New York Times reports:

Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City’s billionaire former mayor, spent $8 million as part of an unsuccessful effort to defeat Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist upstart, in June’s Democratic mayoral primary.

On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg took a very different tack, meeting with Mr. Mamdani personally for the first time in what both sides described as a wide-ranging discussion about transportation issues, policing and how to staff City Hall.

“The conversation was definitely cordial and it was substantive actually,” said Howard Wolfson, a longtime political adviser to Mr. Bloomberg who joined the session with Mr. Mamdani, now the Democratic nominee and front-runner.

While Mr. Bloomberg’s aides were careful to stress that it was not an endorsement meeting, the get-together underscored the shifting terrain around Mr. Mamdani’s campaign for mayor as he maintains a double-digit polling lead and Election Day draws nearer. [Continue reading…]