Hochul Issues Endorsement

By
Mark Stevens
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Sometimes politics delivers a spectacle so perfectly absurd that you almost wonder if it was scripted for satire. Enter Gov. Kathy Hochul and her decision to endorse Zohran Mamdani, the open socialist running for mayor of New York City. For weeks she wavered, sensing the danger of hitching her wagon to a radical leftist whose rhetoric sounds like it was cribbed from a 1970s Havana rally. But in the end, she bent the knee. Why? Because, she said, Mamdani will “stand up to Trump.”

That’s it. That’s the whole rationale. In 2024, there is no Democratic policy platform, no governing vision, no unifying principle beyond Orange Man Bad. Entire campaigns are now constructed on that singular obsession, and Hochul—like so many other Democrats angling for national relevance—has chosen to play the part.


But here’s where the irony bites back. Less than 24 hours after receiving Hochul’s endorsement, Mamdani refused to endorse her in return. No reciprocal gesture. No polite “she’s been a good governor.” Nothing. Just a cool dismissal: “It’s premature to ask about the thing beyond the thing.” Translation: thanks for your endorsement, comrade, now go stand in the corner until we decide whether you’re useful to us again.

It’s a page ripped straight from the revolutionary playbook. The “useful idiots,” as Lenin famously labeled them, are always the first to be discarded when their usefulness wanes. Hochul thought she was shoring up her left flank, but what she really did was hand her enemies the narrative: she needs us more than we need her. Rep. Elise Stefanik nailed it when she said Hochul looks weak—and she’s right. No governor should look desperate in front of a backbench radical still wet behind the ears.


The broader problem for Hochul isn’t simply Mamdani’s snub. It’s that she embodies the chameleon politician: opportunistic, uncharismatic, and perpetually chasing the winds of the Democratic base. During COVID, she governed as an authoritarian. Now, she tries on the revolutionary cloak. Tomorrow, if the party decides moderates are back in vogue, she’ll reinvent herself again. There’s no core, no authenticity—only calculation.

That’s why Hochul will never command the loyalty that figures like Bernie Sanders or AOC do. Whatever one thinks of their policies, Sanders and AOC radiate a kind of raw authenticity that energizes the left. Hochul has none. She’s a placeholder in Albany, tolerated because she’s pliable and nonthreatening to the factions that actually wield power.


Her gamble is that the media will insulate her. Just as Kamala Harris was transformed overnight from gaffe-prone liability to “joyful warrior” by a fawning press, Hochul is betting that the same spin machine will sanitize her alliance with Mamdani if it ever comes back to haunt her nationally. But propaganda has limits, especially in a general election where the broader public still gets a say.

For now, Hochul is left with the worst of both worlds: branded as “Comrade Kathy” by critics, yet still mistrusted by the hard left whose approval she so desperately seeks. And Mamdani? He got exactly what he wanted—legitimacy from the governor without offering anything in return.

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