Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen blasted his own party’s Congressional leadership Saturday for repeatedly dragging its feet on endorsing New York City Democratic mayoral nominee and avowed socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Van Hollen, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who has urged Democrats to fight harder, accused New York lawmakers who have not yet gotten behind Mamdani’s campaign of practicing “spineless politics” during a speech at the annual Polk County Steak Fry in Des Moines, Iowa. Though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have met with their fellow New Yorker Mamdani, neither Democrat has endorsed the socialist candidate despite repeated pressure from the party’s far-left flank.
“Many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines,” Van Hollen told a crowd full of hundreds of Iowa Democrats at an annual party fundraising event in Des Moines on Saturday. “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of. They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”
“We’ve become a party that too often trims its sails. Too cautious, too rudderless. Too attached to poll-washed, pundit-rinsed, and donor-dried messages,” Van Hollen continued. “What comes out of the wash is all bleached and blow-dried.”
The Maryland senator announced his endorsement of Mamdani at the event.
Despite the democratic socialist New York state assemblyman securing the Democratic mayoral nomination in June after his shock primary win over former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, top New York Democrats have been slow to back his candidacy.
New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and the Empire State’s junior Democratic senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, have also yet to endorse Mamdani’s campaign.
Schumer privately met with Mamdani on Monday, but did not an issue an endorsement following the meeting.
“We know each other well, and we’re going to keep talking,” he told reporters during a weekly Democratic leadership press conference on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Schumer did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Jeffries, who has met with Mamdani at least twice, fired back at Van Hollen in a statement via a spokesperson, suggesting the Maryland Democrat had no business pontificating on New York City politics.
“Leader Hakeem Jeffries will have more to say about the general election well in advance of Nov. 4,” Jeffries spokesman Justin Chermol told the New York Times in a statement. “Meanwhile, confused New Yorkers are asking themselves the question: Chris Van Who?”
The lead House Democrat has repeatedly defended his decision to withhold an endorsement by pointing to his constituents who he says are not asking him to publicly back Mamdani.
“I don’t hide from my constituents,” Jeffries told reporters on Sept. 4. “I go to mosques. I go to synagogues. I go to black baptist churches. I go to senior centers. I’m on the streets. I’m in parks.”
Mamdani holds a commanding lead over the crowded field, according to recent polling.
A September New York Times/Siena College survey found the democratic socialist captured 46% of the vote, followed by disgraced former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 24% and perennial Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa at 15%. Just 9% of voters said they would vote for incumbent New York City Eric Adams, who has been dogged by a series of corruption scandals during his rocky tenure.
Schumer and Jeffries, who both reside in Brooklyn, would also be Mamdani’s constituents if the democratic socialist is elected mayor in November.
Van Hollen is the sixth most liberal member of the Senate during the 119th Congress that began in January, according to the database Progressive Punch, which ranks lawmakers on their voting records from a left-wing perspective.
The Maryland Democrat has repeatedly defended reputed MS-13 gangbanger and suspected human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen was the first Democrat to visit Abrego Garcia on a taxpayer-funded trip to a detention center in El Salvador and has accused the Trump administration of violating the illegal migrant’s alleged due process rights.
“Our democracy cannot survive on silence or equivocation. It requires an absolute willingness to confront injustice head on,” Van Hollen also told the Iowa crowd. “The lesson is clear: the finger in the wind stuff has got to end.”
“We also need to stop deluding ourselves that the problem is all about messaging, or volume, or style,” Van Hollen continued. “We don’t just need to fight. We need to fight for something.”
A spokesperson for Van Hollen did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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