The House GOP’s campaign arm is seeking to oust four Democratic lawmakers in competitive districts by linking them to Zohran Mamdani, who is campaigning to become New York City’s first socialist mayor. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Friday launched a new digital advertising campaign targeting Reps. Laura Gillen (D-NY), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Josh Riley (D-NY), who all represent districts in New York considered vulnerable to GOP challenges. 

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“Together we can raise taxes, defund the police, and build a socialist New York,” says the 30-second ad, which features a picture of Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the city’s mayoral race, and the lawmakers.

Mamdani shocked political pundits last month when he pulled off an upset win in the city’s Democratic primary against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who carries the weight of establishment power and critical funding and will now run as an independent.

Republicans have seized on Mamdani’s socialist agenda to paint him as the radical new face of the Democratic Party. The mayoral candidate, also a New York state assemblyman, is running on an affordability platform seeking to raise taxes on the rich, provide free public buses and child care, freeze rent in subsidized units, and create government-run grocery stores. He has particularly faced criticism from the GOP over his support for taxing “white” areas at a higher rate and abolishing billionaires, as well as comments concerning “seizing the means of production,” a communist concept.

By tying Democrats in competitive districts to Mamdani, the GOP hopes to convince centrist voters to vote for a Republican in those seats.

The NRCC is also targeting a northeastern New Jersey seat considered a Democratic bastion until President Donald Trump flipped it red during the 2024 election, representing a stunning 20-point swing compared to his performance in the 2020 election. Last year, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-NJ) won reelection in the state’s 9th Congressional District, which lies just miles from New York, by only 4 points in her race against Republican Billy Prempeh after he lost by 34 points when he campaigned for the seat in 2020.

Several of the vulnerable Democrats targeted by the NRCC in their latest ad campaign have already distanced themselves from Mamdani, expressing concern that he is too far left for their taste. 

Gillen declined to attend a breakfast meetup on Wednesday that Mamdani helped set up in Washington to shore up support for his candidacy among skeptical Democrats.

The congresswoman’s move came after she said Mamdani was “too extreme to lead New York City” after he won the primary. 

“His entire campaign has been built on unachievable promises and higher taxes, which is the last thing New York needs. Beyond that, Mr. Mamdani has called to defund the police and has demonstrated a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments, which stoke hate at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing. He is the absolute wrong choice for New York,” Gillen said.

Suozzi has similarly noted he shares “serious concerns,” adding that such worries “remain” despite Mamdani’s decisive win over Cuomo.

HOW ZOHRAN MAMDANI TOOK DOWN ANDREW CUOMO IN NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY

Although he’s steered clear of endorsing Mamdani, Suozzi argued earlier this month that the socialist had tapped into a populist sentiment and compared enthusiasm for his candidacy to Trump’s appeal to voters concerned about the economy during last year’s presidential election. 

“Affordability and the economy are the No. 1 issues in the country, and too often, Democrats are not perceived as being focused on affordability and the economy and the middle class and people aspiring to the middle class and their economic concerns,” Suozzi said. “They see Democrats as being primarily focused on reproductive rights and on LGBT protections, which are important issues, but they’re not the issues that people think about every night when they’re lying in bed thinking about paying their bills or when they’re talking about how they’re going to send their kids to school.”