ABOUT THE HOSTILE TAKEOVER

Across the political spectrum, Americans value democracy, fairness and freedom of thought. Yet a movement has emerged that directly challenges those ideals — the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

As its leaders repeatedly state, the DSA are NOT Democrats. They are an external force that has infiltrated the Democratic Party to reshape it in their own image. Like the cuckoo that lays its eggs in another bird’s nest and then throws out the original bird’s eggs, the DSA is using the party’s structure and reputation while working to replace it with its own extremist agenda.

If successful, this project would transform one of America's great political parties into an unrecognizable entity hostile to the institutions that define our country.

On Sept 1, 2025, Canary Mission released its first report on the DSA. The findings revealed that the DSA is not only engaged in a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party, but has itself been further radicalized through its ties to the terror-linked Palestinian Youth Movement. These influences have created an organization whose goals and alliances make it one of the most destabilizing political forces in American history.

The combined goals of this alliance include:

• Destroying "Empire" (what DSA calls the USA)
• Replacing the market economy with state-controlled Marxism
• Defunding the police and using the funds for DEI programs
• Supporting terrorist groups and terrorist entities, i.e., Hamas and Hezbollah
• Normalizing antisemitism and supporting violent extremist groups
• Promoting foreign policies that align with authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia and Iran

This report is not a conclusion — it is a call to action. Defending democracy requires vigilance from all Americans, regardless of party or ideology.

Read this report carefully. Understand the threat. Discuss it openly. Our shared values are worth protecting.

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

— John F. Kennedy, Address at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Los Angeles, California, September 14, 1960.

Mamdani's Network of Influence

Anti-American Activism

Mamdani’s campaign aligns with DSA factions and leaders who cast the United States as a “settler empire” to be resisted or dismantled. This section features DSA leaders, caucuses, and organizers whose calls to “take the empire down from within” define the ideological bounds of his coalition.

• Frances Gill is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (the DSA’s governing body) and a third-year psychiatry resident
• Says DSA has “a unique responsibility to act from the heart of empire, the belly of the beast,” adding that “the most important thing that we can do is take that empire down from within”

• Amy Wilhelm is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body) and enterprise network engineer
• Calls for overthrowing “our own empire [America]”

• Ahmed Husain is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), member of Springs of Revolution (far-left DSA faction), engineer and Bahraini immigrant to the U.S.
• At a June 5, 2025 event hosted by NYC DSA and allies titled, Logistics of Empire: International Shipping and the Fight for a Free Palestine, Husain described the United States as the “home of empire” and urged members to treat domestic organizing as a battlefield, saying, “We need to get really creative because it is our duty here. We're inside the home of empire, we're inside the house. It is our job here as it is, as they fight there, we fight here. There's multiple fronts. We have to keep fighting”
• Calls America a “decaying fascist … empire” and advocates for “resistance” to “break this empire ...”
• DSA member since 2017

• Mirah Wood is a member of DSA’s International Committee who has been active with DSA since at least 2018
• Administrator of The Babochki Collective, a fund managed by communist financier James Chambers to support “bail for anyone from *any group* facing state repression"
• Calls for the destruction of America, saying, “there’s always room to say death to israel and death to America” and “Glad we agree Amerikkka should be destroyed ...”

• Hazel Williams is a DSA leader and member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body)
• Calls for the destruction of America, saying, “U.S. imperialism is not a thing that can be reformed away. It has to be overthrown through revolutionary struggle"

• Sarah Milner is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body) and a letter carrier
• Calls for the overthrow of the U.S.’s “undemocratic political system”

• The far-left DSA Liberation Caucus believes “The United States is a settler-colony. It is not a nation, it is a prison-house of nations, with the Euro-Americans being the jailer”
• Says the U.S. was “founded on stolen land, with stolen labor. Thus, socialism in the US requires the liberation of oppressed Black, Chicano, Indigenous, Puerto Rican, Hawaiian, and other people who have been reduced by this country’s machinations. Otherwise, it will just be another form of imperialism with a red flag”
• Contends, “The United States remains the number one enemy of the global majority. It is the United States which continues to prop up the fascist settler colony of Israel, enabling it to murder our class siblings in Palestine”

• The DSA Marxist Unity Group (MUG) is a far-left DSA faction
• Calls for socialists to “fight to overthrow the Constitution,” denouncing it as a tool of “capitalists and slavers” and demanding that its legitimacy be destroyed through agitation and revolution

• The Red Star Caucus is a far-left DSA caucus
• Openly declares that it “strives to weaken and ultimately dismantle [the] US empire,” insisting that socialists must oppose America at every turn and reject any position that does not directly undermine U.S. power

• The DSA International Committee is under the auspices of the DSA National Political Committee (the DSA’s governing body)
• With approval from the DSA National Political Committee, the DSA International Committee released a statement in 2019 saying that the “DSA stands for the total dissolution of the United States empire … DSA is committed to the full decolonization of all the occupied lands of the United States: self-determination and full sovereignty for Hawai’i; Puerto Rico; Amerika Sāmoa (American Samoa); Guåhån (Guam); Northern Mariana Islands; Virgin Islands; and to all indigenous nations whose ancestral lands are within current U.S. borders; as well as to the independence to all other overseas territories and dependencies controlled, occupied, or otherwise exploited by the USA”

• The national DSA organization casts itself as a movement explicitly built to confront U.S. power
• Describes the need for a broad, disciplined Left to challenge imperialism, writing, “The best tool we have to fight empire is a mass, resilient socialist organization”
• Frames the current U.S. government as the “empire,” categorizing it as imperialist, white supremacist and evil
• Mamdani is an active member of the DSA

The NYC-DSA Inner Circle

Mamdani’s rise is inseparable from the NYC-DSA chapter that produced him. As the largest DSA chapter in the country, NYC-DSA drives the strategy, field operations, and message discipline behind his campaigns. This section introduces key members who engineered his primary victory, mobilized his volunteer base, and remain among his closest political allies.

• Grace Mausser is the co-chair of NYC-DSA
• Credited as one of the “key architects” of NYC-DSA’s electoral program and Mamdani’s primary victory
• Said, “You can’t disentangle Zohran from DSA at this point”
• In 2023, Mausser spoke about DSA's electoral strategy, saying, "When we do win, we have to know that having a DSA elected is nearly useless if they aren't using the legislative power, district services and platform to help us actually achieve our real goals on housing, unions, healthcare and more. Winning an office isn't the the end of the journey ...”
  

• Gustavo Gordillo is the co-chair of NYC-DSA and an electrician
• Says, “They make figures like Hamas and, quote unquote, terrorists into effective enemies … The terror comes from the capitalists and their pawns…”
• "Key architect" of NYC-DSA’s electoral program and of Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary, photographed with Mamdani days before the NYC mayoral primary

• Ashik Siddique is a DSA leader, co-chair of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), served as 2023-2025 DSA NPC chair and a member of the steering committee, research analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)
• Expressed support for terrorism, posting, "...solidarity with Palestinian resistance. #FreePalestine..."
• Accused "the Israel lobby [of] enabling a genocide [in Gaza]"
• Campaign organizer for Mamdani

• Kareem Elrefai is a member of 2025-2027 National Political Committee, member of NYC DSA, North Brooklyn Branch Representative to the Electoral Working Group, 2023 co-chair of the DSA International Committee’s Palestine Subcommittee, and former chair and steering committee member of Metro DC DSA

• Compared Israel to the Nazis, accusing Israel of conducting “the final solution to the Palestinian question” on X, writing, “We are going to need Nuremberg style trials for any real justice to be doled out”
• Co-authored NYC DSA’s 2024 resolution that would condition endorsement of politicians to anti-Israel legislation and BDS
• Leadership figure within NYC-DSA who helped channel the DSA’s support, volunteer mobilization and field operations toward Mamdani’s campaign

• Sidney Carlson White is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), member of the far-left DSA faction, the Marxist Unity Group and curatorial assistant at Jackie Robinson Museum
• Expressed support for terrorism, posting, “Zohran Mamdani’s readiness to defend 'Globalize the Intifada' as a core slogan of resistance to capitalism and settler colonialism is beyond commendable”
• Called America “fundamentally different in its destructiveness and evils than the rest of the West” and has termed the NYPD “a colonial army that must be defunded - and eventually abolished”
• Wrote about the relationship of DSA caucuses with the Mamdani campaign: “MUG and Emerge members had some disagreements with statements Zohran made regarding ‘Israel’s right to exist.’ We used our power as organizers to cash in our goodwill and ask that he stop saying that. We succeeded ...”
• Campaign organizer for Mamdani

• David Jenkins is a DSA leader; member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body); member of DSA’s Libertarian Socialist Caucus, which expressed support for alleged murderer Luigi Mangione and called for the destruction of Israel; and founder of Transcribblers (a transcription service)
• Labels America an “expansionist, eugenic police state project”

• Eleanor Babaev is a DSA leader; member of DSA’s 2025-2027 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body); and a event coordinator at Roosevelt House, a public policy institute at Hunter College
• Wants to see DSA become “THE progressive electoral force in every major city in this country”
• Has been “a soldier for numerous New York City DSA electoral campaigns, culminating most recently in the Zohran [Mamdani] for mayor campaign"

• Jeremy Cohan is a DSA NPC member, former NYC DSA co-chair and helped start YDSA at NYU
• Defended DSA’s promotion of the October 8, 2023 pro-Hamas rally, co-authored NYC DSA resolution titled, “Organizing for Palestinian Liberation: A Socialist Strategy” in which the group “reaffirms its commitment to the BDS movement, to anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist politics, and to organizing for Palestinian liberation”
• Arrested at anti-Israel protest in October 2023
• Canvassed for Mamdani

• Daniel Goulden is a NYC-DSA member, NYC-DSA delegate to 2025 DSA National Convention, member of DSA Steering Committee, writer, teacher and climate organizer
• Expressed support for terrorist sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil, writing on Bluesky, “As a Jew, it feels awful to have antisemitism [sic] be used as the flimsiest of excuses to disappear Mahmoud Khalil”
• Touted DSA’s close ties to Mamdani at the 2025 DSA National Convention, saying, “We wrote the platform with him”
• Canvassed for Mamdani

• Khader El-Yateem is a Palestinian-American Lutheran pastor based in Bay-Ridge. Mamdani worked on his DSA-backed failed campaign for New York City Council in 2017
• On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians, El-Yateem posted, “The problem in the Middle East is the Israeli occupation of Palestine…”
• Claims, “The problem is not Hamas as they want you to believe…”; calls Israel a “terrorist regime”

• Alicia Singham Goodwin is a NYC-DSA organizer for the past decade and political director of the anti-Israel group JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice)
• Niece of China-based billionaire, Neville Roy Singham, known for funding non-profits including radical anti-Israel and Marxist groups
• Arrested alongside Zohran Mamdani at an anti-Israel protest in October 2023, one week after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis
• JFREJ has organized with Mamdani since 2020, including the “Jews for Zohran” campaign in January 2025

• Ethan Eblaghie is a NYC-DSA organizer, member of Springs of Revolution (far-left DSA faction) and student at Columbia University
• Calls for the destruction of America, attended a “death to America day party”
• Said the American flag carries “every ounce of indigenous genocide, slavery, settler colonialism, and penal capitalism …”
• Supports Mamdani, donated to his campaign

• Alex Pelliterri is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s 2023-2025 National Political Committee (DSA governing body), leader in DSA Bread & Roses caucus and “dues and membership representative” at the New York State Nurses Association
• On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, posted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”; arrested multiple times at anti-Israel events
• Campaigned for Mamdani; featured in Mamdani’s rap music video, “Mr. Cardamom” in 2019
• Mamdani's first fundraiser was hosted at Pelliterri’s parents' house

• Gerard D’Albon is an organizer for DSA’s International Committee, illustrator for DSA and on the leadership team of the NYC-DSA Anti-War Working Group
• Posted, “We’d kick out someone who is a fascist or racist and it shouldn’t be any different for a zionist. Arguments to the contrary only normalize and obfuscate zionism as uniquely distinct and somehow more acceptable from other white supremacist ideology“
• Compared Israel to the Nazis, writing that Israel was conducting “a holocaust in Palestine” and describing the U.S. as “an empire of death”
• Created illustrations for DSA glorifying Hamas terrorists
• Said, “Palestinian resistance in Gaza is doing the most heroic shit imaginable fighting alone against the most powerful evil empire in the world ….”
• Mamdani supporter, promoted Mamdani’s “Not On Our Dime!” campaign

• Estafania Galvis is a DSA leader, member of DSA National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body) and co-organizing director at One Fair Wage
• Says, “... the fact is that Democratic party is not really like our friend … I hope most members understand that the Democratic [Party]is a tool that we use under the current circumstances to be able to wield and build power and win … we don't want to be the green party that runs candidates and loses and loses and … doesn't know how to build power”

• Aaron Narraph Fernando is a member of NYC DSA and the Citywide Leadership Committee, former co-chair of Queens Electoral Working Group and worked in the NY Socialists in Office
• Co-authored NYC DSA resolution titled, “Organizing for Palestinian Liberation: A Socialist Strategy” in which the group “reaffirms its commitment to the BDS movement, to anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist politics, and to organizing for Palestinian liberation”
• Built a “universe” of voters to reach out to as part of Mamdani’s mayoral campaign

• Khalil Sulker is a member of NYC DSA
• Posted, “Palestinian liberation necessitates the transformation of the State of Israel into a binational, multi-religious, democratic state of Palestine”
• Posted, “...We believe in abolition of the fascist carceral state, we believe in opposing Empire and the Zionist entity ….”
• Mamdani supporter

Mamdani’s Campaign Field Organizers

Mamdani’s campaign field operation was powered by a vast coalition of socialist and far-left organizations working in coordination with NYC-DSA. Groups such as the Working Families Party, DRUM, JVP Action, CAAAV, and JFREJ joined DSA in mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers, canvassers, and donors.

• NYC Democratic Socialists of America built and led Zohran Mamdani’s field operation, organizing roughly 50,000 volunteers who knocked on over 1.6 million doors and made 2.3 million calls citywide, the most extensive grassroots canvassing effort in New York City politics
• Used a four-tiered field organizing model (canvassers → field leads → field coordinators → staff) to scale quickly, empower volunteers and sustain a decentralized, volunteer-driven operation rooted in socialist organizing principles
• Received $33,350 for the following actions for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign:
• Fundraising/Fundraising Emails (31 payments): $3,407.23
• Fundraising/Fundraising Texting (3 payments): $569.24
• Fundraising/Texting (1 payment): $450.00
• Other: Explanation/Texting (1 payment): $28,677.57

• New York Working Families Party received $30,000 for “Canvassing” for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign
• In 2018, then New York Director of the Working Families Party (WFP) Bill Lipton discussed the party’s leftward shift and its growing alignment with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In an interview about changes within the Democratic Party, the interviewer noted that candidates were increasingly seeking not only the endorsement of the WFP but also that of the DSA, and asked whether the WFP now considered itself a more centrist force within the left wing of the Democratic Party. Lipton responded, “You know, I was a DSA member…Many of our friends, staff, and allies have been involved. The DSA is doing amazing work, and we couldn’t be happier that they’re on the scene. We think we need this kind of left presence out there”

• Drum Beats is the sibling org for DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving, a South Asian and Indo-Caribbean social justice organization
• Received $20,000 for “Field Canvassing” and “Canvassing” for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign

• Jewish Voice for Peace Action is the political arm of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
• Received $16,321 for “Field Canvassing” and “Canvassing” for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign
• Endorsed Mamdani and created the group “Jews for Zohran”

• CAAAV Voice, Inc. organizes "Asian Immigrant Tenants," works alongside Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), New York Communities for Change (NYCC) and other left-wing groups to build a “multiracial working-class coalition” that includes “self-identified socialists, individuals radicalized by the genocide in Gaza, rent-stabilized tenants, and Arab and Muslim-American progressives”
• On October 20, 2023, joined pro-terror NY-based group Within Our Lifetime in a rally for “Palestinian liberation.” CAAAV maintains, “our struggles are interconnected” and proudly proclaims, “We take to the streets for the END of Zionist occupation in Palestine. FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE”
• In February 2024, joined Palestinian Youth Movement in further pro-terror activism, honoring “martyrs” and protesting the “U.S. war machine”
• Aligned with NYC-DSA’s socialist political agenda, serving as a key coalition partner in NYC-DSA’s plan to win the mayoral race
• CAAAV Voice, Inc. received $16,661 for “Field Canvassing” and “Field Organizing” for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign

• JFREJ’s electoral arm, The Jewish Vote, endorsed Mamdani for mayor, calling him a “courageous and visionary leader in both our city and state”
• JFREJ Action, Inc. received $2000 for “Canvassing” for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign
• Alicia Singham Goodwin serves as political director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) and is also a member of New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA)

Defund the Police Advocates

From political allies to DSA caucuses, many of Mamdani’s partners advocate defunding or abolishing the police and replacing law enforcement with unarmed community and mental health responders. They also call for dismantling NYPD units such as the Strategic Response Group (SRG), a counterterrorism and protest-monitoring division. This section profiles the elected officials, organizers, and activists who promote that agenda within his broader movement.

• Willie Burnley, Jr. is a DSA-endorsed politician running for mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts
• Co-founder of the “Defund Somerville Police Department” campaign, which seeks an “abolitionist future … without police and prisons”
• Following the fatal police shooting of Sayed Faisal, who advanced on an officer with a foot-long knife, Burnley posted, “police have no business dealing with someone in crisis” and that such incidents require an “unarmed, alternative emergency response”
• Burnley’s platform pushes an "Alternative Emergency Response” so that instead of calling on police, “community outreach workers can help create safety without the threat of violence or incarceration.”
• Touted by the DSA-run newsletter Working Mass as “Somerville’s Zohran”

• Megan Romer is a DSA leader, national co-chair of DSA’s 2023-2025 National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), member of DSA’s Red Star Caucus and editor-in-chief and publisher of Arioso Press
• Refers to police officers as “pigs,” and argues that socialism and abolition of the police go hand-in-hand

• Shahana Hanif is a New York City Council member affiliated with DSA who was endorsed by DSA when she ran for council in 2023
• Arrested at an anti-Israel rally in October 2023, shortly after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians
• Called to “reduce our police force to zero”

• Alexa Aviles is a New York City Council member who was endorsed by DSA and a member of NYC-DSA
• Repeatedly called to defund the police
• Endorsed Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign

• Jamie Peck is an OnlyFans star, spokesperson for a legal defense fund for Luigi Mangione (charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson), and founder and host of the Everybody Loves Communism podcast and the Party Girls podcast
• Spokesperson for Block Cop City (protest movement against the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center), refers to police officers as “motherless swine” and “pigs,” calls for getting “rid of” police
• DSA member since at least 2017, reportedly a member of a communist caucus within DSA

• NYC DSA's Racial Justice Working Group aims to “Defund, Disarm, Abolish the Police” and advocates for disbanding the NYPD Strategic Response Group (SRG), a counter-terrorism unit that polices NYC’s protests. The group claims, “The struggles for abolition and Palestinian liberation are deeply intertwined”
• Since October 7, 2023, RJWG’s social media posts have echoed the DSA’s anti-Israel/pro-Hamas statements
• Posted a video of a group disrupting a NY City Council meeting to protest the NYPD/SRG’s management of anti-Israel protests. The caption accompanying the video claimed, ”the NYPD has an office in Israel, trains with the IDF, and practices for our fascist future on those speaking out against an active genocide. We squeak for everyone brutalized by the SRG, and refuse to listen to these pigs lie through their teeth! Free Palestine![sic]”
• Mamdani has repeatedly vowed to disband the SRG if elected mayor

• NYC DSA is the largest and most powerful chapter of DSA (with over 10,500 members in seven branches across NY’s five boroughs)
• Committed to “unapologetically anti-Zionist political education and organizing strategy around Palestine”
• Organizes with pro-terror, anti-Israel groups such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
• After the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, NYC DSA promoted an October 8, 2023 pro-Hamas rally in Times Square “to stand with the people of Palestine, who have the right to resist apartheid, occupation & oppression”
• Mamdani is a member of NYC DSA and has been officially endorsed by the chapter. NYC DSA declared itself “Zohran’s political home.” Led by its Electoral Working Group, NYC DSA powered Mamdani’s Democratic primary bid in June 2025 and mobilized a “mass action” field program to galvanize votes for him

• The national DSA organization released a statement on October 7, 2023, titled “End the Violence, End the Occupation, Free Palestine,” in which they wrote, “DSA is steadfast in expressing our solidarity with Palestine … ”
• Passed an anti-Israel resolution at the 2025 DSA national convention titled “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA.” The resolution affirms DSA’s commitment to the Palestinian nationalist Thawabit framework, the founding principles of the PLO, which supports armed resistance against Israel and the “right of return” for all Palestinian “refugees” (a means to the total destruction of the Jewish state). The resolution says members who declare “Israel has a right to defend itself” can be expelled
• Released a statement after the October 2025 ceasefire reaffirming the PLO’s “Al Thawabit” principles and declared, “the struggle for liberation continues”

Ties to Terror Organizations

Two of Mamdani’s key associates have direct links to individuals tied to terrorism or groups designated as terrorist organizations. This section highlights Imam Siraj Wahhaj and CAIR, both of whom have defended or praised extremists and maintain a public association with Mamdani through events, endorsements, and campaign contributions.

• Imam Siraj Wahhaj is a Brooklyn-based imam listed as a potential conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Several people connected to the bombing attended Wahhaj’s mosque. Wahhaj testified in support of the “Blind Sheikh,” who was sent to prison for life for his part in the bombing
• Says politics should be used “as a weapon in the cause of Islam”
• Mamdani has appeared in public events with Wahhaj and describes him as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders.” Wahhaj has endorsed Mamdani and donated to his campaign

• The Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim Brotherhood front group in America, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-funding trial in U.S. history, the Holy Land Foundation (which funneled millions to Hamas)
• CAIR Founder and Exec Director Nihad Awad said the October 7, 2023 terror attack by Hamas on Israel was an “inspirational” act of “self-defense.” Awad added that he was “happy to see” Gazans “breaking the siege”
• After Mamdani received backlash for posing for a photo op with Siraj Wahhaj, who was listed as a potential conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, CAIR posted their support for Wahhaj, writing, “Imam Siraj is a widely respected faith leader and advocate for peace and justice who has been a pillar of New York City for decades”
• Mamdani received $100,000 from CAIR, has appeared at CAIR events and is endorsed by CAIR

Endorsing Terrorism

Beyond organizational ties, several of Mamdani’s closest allies and DSA leaders have openly glorified or justified terrorist violence, including support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PFLP. Some even celebrated the murder of an Israeli couple in Washington, D.C. in 2025. This section documents those statements and highlights the leadership positions these individuals hold within Mamdani’s political network.

• Rashida Tlaib is a democratic congresswoman from Michigan and a member of the DSA who is virulently anti-Israel and regularly spreads lies about the Jewish state
• On October 8, 2023, a day after the October 7 attack and while Hamas terrorists were still in Israel, Tlaib called the attack a form of “resistance”
• One of Mamdani’s strongest political allies, political backers and fundraisers. Tlaib was the keynote speaker at the 2025 DSA national convention

• Hasan Piker is a former host on Young Turks. He is now a prominent Turkish-American Twitch streamer and far-left political commentator
• Mocked Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a wounded combat veteran, saying “America deserved 9/11”
• Said Oct. 7th was, “a direct consequence of the Abraham Accords and many of Jared Kushner’s and Donald Trump’s administration’s actions, like moving the embassy to Jerusalem”
• Piker featured Mamdani on his show and regularly amplifies the messaging of DSA-aligned candidates. Piker was a featured guest at the 2025 DSA national convention and front and center at Mamdani’s rally a week before the election

• Mahmood Mamdani is Zohran Mamdani’s father and a professor at Columbia University who participated in the pro-Hamas encampment
• Wrote in his 2004 book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, "We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier"
• Says “Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism”
• Contends, “Zionists in Israel have long drawn inspiration from how Americans cleansed the land of Indians”

• Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian-American anti-Israel political activist from Brooklyn
• Claims “Israel … is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else.” and told Muslims to stop "actually trying to humanize the oppressor"
• Said she was “honored” to share a stage with Rasmea Odeh, a convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist who masterminded the 1969 Jerusalem bombing that killed two students
• Was removed as co-chair of the Women’s March due to her antisemitism
• Long-time guide and mentor of Mamdani

• Francesca Maviglia is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), postgraduate research associate at Yale and activist with the Yale SJP chapter
• Expressed support for Hamas terrorism on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas terrorists attacked Israel. On the same day, she posted, ''europe will fall too" in response to another post condemning the terror attack

• Cliff Connolly is a DSA leader, a member of DSA’s National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body), a member of the Marxist Unity Group (far-left DSA faction), a member of the DSA’s Orlando chapter, an emergency medical technician and a subtitute teacher
• Expressed support for Hamas terrorism on October 7, 2023, saying, “Hamas is fighting for the liberation of Palestine…” One week later, posted, "The truest Christians on earth are those fighting alongside Hamas and Hezbollah against genocide. Armed resistance to oppression is a Christian tradition ..."
• Organized with the DSA in "five different chapters" across the U.S. Connolly posted, "We helped write the field plan and led many of the canvasses. Democratic centralism means we fall in line … get the work done.” He also wrote: "...Proud of my MUG [Marxist Unity Group] comrades’ work on the Zohran campaign ..."

• AhmedHusain is a DSA leader, member of DSA’s National Political Committee (DSA’s governing body) and Springs of Revolution (far-left faction of DSA), an engineer and a Bahraini immigrant to the U.S.
• Expressed support for Hamas on October 7, 2023, calling the terrorist attacks “lessons in resistance “; glorified Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the attacks, as a martyr
• Wrote "f**k you," in response to a post from NYC-DSA that said, "... We reject the violence of last night's fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers ..."
• DSA member since 2017, previously co-chair of Denver DSA

• Gustavo Gordillo is a co-chair of NYC-DSA and an electrician
• Reframes Hamas, claiming, “They make figures like Hamas and, quote unquote, terrorists into effective enemies … The terror comes from the capitalists and their pawns…”
• "Key architect" of NYC-DSA’s electoral program and of Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary, photographed with Mamdani days before the NYC mayoral primary

• Parker McQueeny is a member of the DSA Marxist Unity Group, a gardener and an organist
• Posted, “...Hamas seems basically like an [sic] pragmatic and opportunistic Islamic national liberation movement that is willing to be extremely flexible ideologically. But the point is that the attack was not motivated by hatred towards Jews but rather national liberation.” [sic]

• Sammi Al Iryani is a member of Queens DSA
• Supports terrorists, including Yahya Sinwar (mastermind of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel) and Hassan Nasrallah (assassinated leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah)
• In response to an X post showing Palestinians celebrating an imminent Iranian missile attack on Israel in April 2024, Al-Iryani wrote, “My heart swells. This is a moment like when the heroes of the Gaza bulldozed the fence and when they flew over the prison walls in their paragliders …”

• Katy Sliniger is a DSA chapter leader in Connecticut, a grocery worker and tenant organizer
• Celebrated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at the 2025 DSA convention, calling the terrorist group “an organization that has … advanced the socialist line struggle globally”
• Celebrated the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, posting a drawing depicting a bulldozer with Hamas terrorists breaking through Israel’s security fence with Gaza

• Hadeeqa Malik is a former intern for Mamdani working in communications, outreach, policy and constituent services. She was also an outreach intern for CAIR and a SJP president at CCNY
• Student at CCNY, suspended in July 2025 for verbally harassing a police officer
• Called the “resistance” in Palestine “the most profound, most powerful thing ever” and celebrated the “movement for Palestine coming out of Gaza … [as] nothing short of jihad”

• DSA Liberation Caucus is a far-left caucus of DSA that advocates for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist system of government
• Views the U.S. as a settler-colonial “prison house of nations” and calls for national liberation through armed resistance for Black, indigenous and other “colonized” peoples
• DSA Liberation Caucus published an article saying, “October 7, 2023, is a day that will never be forgotten – neither by the free people of the world, nor by their enemies. On that day, we saw a modern day jailbreak, a revolutionary act that heartened the masses all over the world, including here in the imperial core. On this day two years ago, the brave Palestinian people showed us how to fight”
• Openly defended Hamas and Iran in its 2025 resolution guide, where it called Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah a “martyr” and called for Iran’s “right to defend itself after the United States bombed it”
• Praised DSA member Elias Rodriguez after he shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. in May 2025, posting, “It is right to rebel against the enemy. This is Maoist law”

• DSA Red Star Caucus is a Marxist–Leninist faction within the DSA that seeks to transform the U.S. system of government to communism
• Believes “To publicly critique a government or movement that stands in opposition to the American government is to do the U.S. State Department’s work for them, from Iran to Palestine. There is no such thing as a third camp; one is either working to support American imperialism or to oppose it”
• Published an article titled “We Do Not Condemn Hamas, and Neither Should You”
• Considers itself “an ideological center in DSA”

• DSA Reform and Revolution Caucus is a Marxist faction within DSA that promotes Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and seeks the overthrow of the U.S. government and supports U.S.-designated terrorist organizations
• Less than a week after the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, the caucus posted, “We stand with oppressed Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli oppression. We support a mass armed uprising against the Israeli military, democratically organized, like the First Intifada”

• Springs of Revolution is a far-left DSA “revolutionary” faction which says, “Palestine is our compass.” It introduced a resolution at the 2025 DSA calling for a “Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA.” The resolution, which passed, endorses Al Thawabet, the founding principles of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that support terror and armed resistance
• On the second anniversary of October 7, Springs of Revolution published an article celebrating Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, describing it as “a courageous break from a concentration camp in an attempt to once again train the gaze of the world on the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation. The article featured terror propaganda, including a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) poster depicting armed militants standing on top of an Israeli tank
• Has four members elected to the current DSA National Political Committee DSA’s governing body): Ahmed Husain, Francesca Maviglia, Andrew Thompson and Luisa Martinez

Campaigning for Israel’s Destruction

Mamdani’s political career is deeply tied to campaigns that seek to delegitimize and dismantle Israel, a key U.S. ally. Through his “Not On Our Dime” legislation and alliances with extremist groups like JVP, JFREJ, USCPR, and CCR, he advances an agenda aimed at isolating and undermining the Jewish state. This section introduces the individuals, politicians, and organizations that drive these efforts alongside his campaign.

• Sumaya Awad is a Palestinian-American writer, prominent BDS activist who met Mamdani in 2020 and co-founder of a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Williams College. Awad is a speaker and trainer for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and director of strategy and communications for Adalah Justice Project
• Mamdani and Awad staged a five-day hunger strike in front of the White House in late November 2023

• Jabari Brisport is a New York State Senator from Brooklyn and a DSA member
• Co-sponsored with Mamdani the “Not on Our Dime” legislation, which would prohibit New York-based charities from funding Israeli settlements or supporting Israeli military activity that violates international law

• Julia Salazar is the first DSA member to be elected to the New York State Senate. She was previously an activist with SJP
• Arrested multiple times at anti-Israel protests, including in 2023, shortly after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians
• Worked on Mamdani’s election campaign
• On October 14, 2023, the day after Mamdani was arrested at an anti-Israel rally, Mamdani said on X that he “wouldn’t have been there” if it wasn’t for Salazar calling him and organizing him “into action”

• Mahmoud Khalil is a non-American citizen and leader of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group (CUAD) who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The U.S. government is seeking his deportation for "activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization"
• Openly justified Hamas terrorism
• Embraced by Mamdani where they appeared together at a Ramy Youssef show. At the event, Mamdani put his arm around Khalil and said, “I wish I could take you with me everywhere”

• Jewish Voice for Peace is an extremist anti-Israel organization that supports the BDS movement, accuses Israel of apartheid and genocide, and leads disruptive protests targeting Israel and its supporters
• Mamdani has repeatedly collaborated with JVP, joining and amplifying its protests, including blocking the New York Stock Exchange, promoting rallies such as “Jews against genocide of Palestinians” and being arrested alongside JVP activists demanding a Gaza ceasefire
• JVP and Mamdani jointly sponsored the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which targets Jewish and pro-Israel charities by seeking to penalize nonprofits allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”

• Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JREJ) is a far-left, New York–based organization that frames itself as a Jewish social justice group but has become a central hub for anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian and DSA-aligned activism
• Frequently partners with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow to campaign against Israel, including through public support for Mamdani’s “Not On Our Dime” bill, which targets Jewish charities allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”
• JFREJ’s electoral arm, The Jewish Vote, formally endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor in 2025, praising his “courageous and visionary” leadership and his stances on ceasefire activism, rent control and anti-Israel legislation
• Organized rallies, canvassing and public letters in defense of Mamdani, branding themselves as #JewsforZohran and rejecting criticism of his anti-Israel positions from within the Jewish community
• Regularly celebrates and honors Mamdani at its events, showcasing him as a symbol of “Jewish-Left solidarity” and aligning their platform with his broader anti-Zionist and socialist agenda in New York politics

• IfNotNow is an anti-Israel organization founded by “young Jews” in 2014 in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), a military operation launched by Israel against Hamas in response to Hamas’ kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenage boys. The kidnapping was followed by Hamas firing close to 5,000 rockets at Israeli civilians
• IfNotNow endorses and supports Mamdani, canvases for him and trains anti-Israel Jews to engage with other Jews to garner support for Mamdani

• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights was formerly known as the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO)
• Coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that lobbies Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel
• USCPR and Mamdani jointly sponsored the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which targets Jewish and pro-Israel charities by seeking to penalize nonprofits allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”
• In September 2025, USCPR opened a political arm, USCPR Action. In a statement released by the organization, they issued their first political endorsement: “Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City"

• Center for Constitutional Rights is an American NGO active in lawfare suits against Israel and Israeli officials. The group promotes anti-Israel BDS campaigns and urges the U.S. to stop providing military aid to Israel
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7 attack, CCR published a press release claiming, “Israeli Colonial Domination Is Necessary Context to Palestinian Resistance”
• In 2020, CCR represented the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) in a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund against USCPR for allegedly “conspiring to give financial and other means of assistance to terror organizations active in the Gaza Strip”
• CCR and Mamdani jointly sponsored the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which targets Jewish and pro-Israel charities by seeking to penalize nonprofits allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”

• The NYC DSA Anti-War Working Group and Mamdani jointly sponsored the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which targets Jewish and pro-Israel charities by seeking to penalize nonprofits allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”

• Adalah Justice Project is a U.S.-based anti-Israel advocacy group that consistently portrays Israel as the aggressor in the conflict. The organization urges supporters to “stand with the Palestinian people’s right to defend themselves,” a phrase widely understood to refer to armed resistance.
• Operates as a fiscal project of the Tides Center, which is part of the Tides Nexus, a network of left-of-center “pass-through” nonprofits that fund and coordinate progressive causes
• In May 2024, the group became the subject of a U.S. Congressional investigation into nonprofit organizations allegedly providing material and financial support for anti-Israel protests on college campuses
• Adalah Justice Project and Mamdani jointly sponsored the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which targets Jewish and pro-Israel charities by seeking to penalize nonprofits allegedly supporting Israeli “settlements”

• Students for Justice in Paletine is a virulently anti-Israel and anti-American group responsible for the bulk of violence against Jews on college campuses
• Mamdani founded a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter while a student at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
• Mamdani says his activism against Israel began when he started the SJP chapter at Bowdoin

• Multiple investigations have produced substantial evidence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) ties to Hamas
• UNWRA employees participated in the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel by Hamas
• UNRWA facilities were used for weapons storage and tunnel operations
• In response, the United States and several allied governments froze UNRWA funding pending investigations into its role in supporting or enabling terrorism
• Despite mounting evidence of UNRWA’s links to Hamas, Mamdani has repeatedly promoted and fundraised for the agency. He has publicly supported UNRWA since at least 2021, participating in multiple Gaza 5K fundraisers, including one on October 13, 2025—the day of the ceasefire and hostage release. In March 2024, after the U.S. froze funding, Mamdani defended UNRWA and accused Israel of providing “no proof” of wrongdoing

Mamdani’s Media Influencers

A cadre of sympathetic media personalities and outlets actively platform Mamdani and reinforce his narratives while ignoring his record of antisemitism and his ties to extremist figures and organizations. This section highlights the journalists and commentators whose coverage, interviews, and social amplification shape his public image and inoculate him from criticism.

• Mehdi Hasan is a British-American journalist and former MSNBC host known for strident anti-Israel commentary. He left MSNBC in 2024 after his show was cancelled and later launched Zeteo
• Repeatedly accused of antisemitism for rhetoric such as comparing Gaza to the Holocaust and framing Israeli policy as “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing”
• Publicly defended and amplified NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, especially amid criticism of his anti-Israel positions and progressive alliances, including hosting him for a featured interview on Zeteo
• Grok AI Analysis: Found 178 Hasan tweets mentioning “Mamdani” between May 29 – Oct 27, 2025, with activity peaking after Mamdani’s June 24 primary win

• Mohammed El-Kurd is a Palestinian writer and journalist known for promoting anti-Israel narratives, glorifying violence against Israelis and spreading antisemitic rhetoric through his activism and media platforms
• El-Kurd has publicly championed Zohran Mamdani and his anti-Israel “Not On Our Dime” Act, interviewing him in The Nation to promote the bill and amplifying JVP-backed rallies pushing the measure

• Hadas Thier is a member of the DSA, activist and author of A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics
• In an article titled How DSA Built Zohran Mamdani’s Electoral Machine,, Their writes, “With DSA’s electoral infrastructure, Mamdani has redrawn political lines in New York and, hopefully, beyond”

• In an article titled To the Field First, Comrades!, author Michael Thomas Carter writes, “Candidates like Mamdani don’t just assume the democratic socialist label to get our endorsement: they practice democratic socialism as members of a broader organizational culture, making it a core feature of political life. Over the past nine years, we have worked together to radically change our city’s politics, bringing socialist ideals to the beating heart of U.S. capitalism and challenging the U.S. empire in the Empire State”
  

• In an article titled How Socialism Won in NYC’s Mayoral Primary, author Daniel Denvir writes, “The Democratic establishment still wants to pretend that somehow they could generate this kind of mass enthusiasm themselves. But that is not going to happen for a centrist political program ….”

• In the Democratic Left, Alvaro Lopez writes in an article titled A Million Doors to a Million Votes: NYC-DSA’s Plan for a Mamdani Mandate , “Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic Party primary for mayor has transformed what’s possible for socialists in New York City. With a 10,500 member-strong NYC-DSA, the road to November is paved with opportunities to expand our base and muster the forces needed to implement his agenda.”
• In NYC-DSA Has a Plan to Win, Lopez writes that Mamdani’s “...NYC-DSA-endorsed campaign has seized the left lane while centered on winning concrete material demands”
• In An Electoral Strategy for a New York City Socialist Agenda, Lopez writes, “Mamdani’s twelve-point win over Cuomo was a watershed moment for the socialist movement … As much as the political class attempts to chalk up Mamdani’s success to the candidate’s charisma and slick TikTok videos … Mamdani is a product of NYC-DSA’s nine-year electoral project and our mass-membership nature.. “

• In an article titled Zohran Mamdani’s Golden Opportunity, Corey Robin writes, “Mamdani — and all who support him — have a chance to cast his democratic socialism, his alleged “extremism,” as very much tied to the creation of a lawful society“
• Robins also writes, “New Yorkers stand with Palestine. New Yorkers think that Mamdani has the best position of any of the mayoral candidates on Palestine”

• Katie Drummond writes in an article titled Zohran Mamdani, the Internet’s Mayor, “WIRED is ostensibly optimistic about the future. Your campaign has been very optimistic”

• Amy Goodman is co-founder and host of Democracy Now!, a far-left news program known for its sympathetic coverage of anti-Israel movements, which amplifies pro-Palestinian activists and positively portrays campus encampments opposing Israel’s war against Hamas
• Goodman has repeatedly featured Zohran Mamdani on Democracy Now!, promoting his New York City mayoral campaign

• Maysa Mustafa is a Palestinian-American journalist for Middle East Eye, a Qatari-funded outlet known for its consistently anti-Israel slant. Her reporting promotes pro-Palestinian activism, echoes anti-Zionist narratives and frames Israel through a lens of colonialism and oppression
• In a June 2025 article, Mustafa defended Zohran Mamdani after he refused to clearly affirm Israel’s right to exist, portraying him as a victim of “Islamophobic” debate questions and framing the backlash as prejudice rather than addressing his anti-Israel stance

• Ross Barkan is a New York–based journalist, novelist and political commentator who writes the Political Currents newsletter on Substack, contributes to New York Magazine and The New York Times Magazine and is known for his sympathetic, left-leaning analysis of Democratic politics in New York
• In his extensive coverage of Mamdani, Barkan has portrayed the socialist politician’s rise and mayoral campaign as a historic and positive shift for the American left, praising Mamdani’s political talent, downplaying his anti-Israel record and celebrating his victories as a “realignment” moment in U.S. politics
• In The Zohran Pundit Fallacy, Barkan writes, “I believe in his talent and vision, and early indications are that he’s serious about building out a strong, serious government, one that can execute on its policy goals readily and be free of corruption”

NYC-DSA Endorsed Politicians

Since 2018, when Julia Salazar became the first NYC-DSA member elected to the New York State Senate, the chapter has steadily expanded its political footprint. Each election cycle has brought new DSA-endorsed officials into office, culminating in figures like Zohran Mamdani, whose campaigns are powered by the same socialist infrastructure. These are the NYC-DSA endorsed politicians who endorse Mamdani, coordinate with NYC-DSA, and translate the organization’s radical agenda into policy.

DSA National Political Committee Members, 2025-2027

DSA Affiliated Activists