'A new direction’: Why Zohran Mamdani backs candidates challenging Democratic incumbents
The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi
MS NOW, Ali Velshi
4.4 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | The 11th hour starts now. |
| 0:02.0 | Tonight, voters in New York City are just hours away from potentially redefining the Democratic Party. |
| 0:10.0 | New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani is here to discuss why he's throwing his influence and his machine into three key races. |
| 0:17.0 | Plus, Iran has no comment as Vance unveils a new path to end the war that looks a lot like something that already existed. |
| 0:24.8 | Then, the man who predicted a racist backsliding under Trump 2.0 almost a decade ago, |
| 0:30.3 | Tata Hassecoats is here to tell us where the country is headed and what must come next. |
| 0:40.2 | We are 133 days away from the midterm elections, and tomorrow, New York votes. |
| 0:46.3 | In a state with 26 congressional districts, exactly one is likely to change hands in November. |
| 0:52.8 | None of what happens tomorrow will determine which party controls Congress. |
| 0:56.5 | And yet, by tomorrow night, the Democratic Party may look meaningfully different than it does tonight. |
| 1:03.0 | Whether that's a crisis or a correction depends entirely on where you sit. |
| 1:06.8 | Every fault line running through the Democratic Party in 2026, |
| 1:10.9 | progressive versus moderate, outsider versus establishment, fighter versus folder is on the ballot tomorrow. |
| 1:17.2 | And at the center of it all is a 34-year-old man who holds no congressional office, leads no party committee, |
| 1:23.6 | and is six months into his first term as the mayor of New York City. |
| 1:27.5 | Zoran Mamdani has put his name and his movement behind just three congressional candidates running tomorrow. |
| 1:33.1 | He says the three will fight for everyday working New Yorkers, take on corporate greed, protect immigrant communities. |
| 1:38.9 | So let's take a closer look at Mamdani's chosen candidates and their races. |
| 1:42.6 | In New York's 7th congressional district, |
| 1:44.8 | Mamdani is backing state assembly member Claire Valdez. She's contending in a race for an open seat |
| 1:50.3 | that covers parts of Queens and Northern Brooklyn. In New York City's 13th district, which |
| 1:55.7 | includes parts of the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, Mamdani is backing the community organizer |
... |
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