New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has recently expressed optimism about connecting with black voters while campaigning, even though fellow candidate Andrew Cuomo performed better among the demographic in the Democratic primary.

With less than two months until Election Day, Mamdani is trying to secure support from the black community in New York City.

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The mayoral front-runner on Sunday addressed the congregation at Brooklyn’s Bethany Baptist Church, where he spoke about the police killings of black New Yorkers in part. Also over the weekend, he received an endorsement from Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and posted photos of himself watching a soccer game with director Spike Lee.

Mamdani’s confidence in winning the black vote this November is buoyed by a recent Marist poll, which found he received support from 47% of likely black voters. In contrast, Cuomo only won 26% support and the other two candidates, Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, were falling behind at 11% and 5%, respectively.

“It’s a lead that I’ve seen when I speak, especially to elder Black voters, who come up to me and tell me that it was their children, it was their niece, it was their nephew, their grandkids, that told them about this campaign,” Mamdani said in a Sunday interview with MSNBC.

Although the self-described democratic socialist has been making progress in appealing to black New Yorkers, it remains to be seen whether the voting bloc backs him more than Cuomo this fall.

In June’s primary, Cuomo more than doubled the rate of Mamdani’s black support in precincts where at least 70% of residents are black. Although his lead was 33 points ahead of Mamdani, Cuomo did not receive as much support from black voters as Adams in 2021.

Despite his early struggles with black voters, Mamdani is making inroads with the community, as demonstrated by his latest campaign stops.

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Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a black man born and raised in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, has yet to endorse Mamdani. The Democratic congressman has held multiple conversations with the mayoral candidate since the primary. An endorsement may be coming after Jeffries teased on Saturday he will “have more to say about the mayor’s race sometime soon.”

Overall, Mamdani is leading the latest Marist poll in the four-man race at 45% compared to Cuomo’s 24%. But in a head-to-head matchup if Adams and Sliwa were no longer running, Cuomo could close the gap by 10 points.