Mamdani Confirms Talks With Former VP Kamala Harris Amid Reports 2028 Contender Strengthening Ties With Anti-Israel Activists

Corey Walker

US Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo: Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed early Wednesday reports that he has been in contact with former Vice President Kamala Harris, raising eyebrows among pro-Israel and moderate Democrats.

“The vice president reached out to have a conversation,” Mamdani said in an interview with progressive radio host Clay Kane, “and we’ve had a brief conversation. We’ve been in touch over the last few months, and I really do appreciate her outreach.”

The interview comes amid a Wednesday Axios report that Harris, who is widely considered a frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has sought out discussions with progressive and pro-Palestine activists ahead of an expected presidential campaign launch. The report signals that Harris is attempting to mend relations with party activists, a wing of the Democratic base which largely condemned her for refusing to support a full arms embargo against Israel during the 2024 presidential campaign.

During that election cycle, anti-Israel activists routinely protested and shouted down Harris at campaign events, accusing her of helping facilitate a so-called “genocide” in Gaza. The activists also organized the “Uncommitted Movement,” an effort that encouraged Democratic voters not to vote for Harris over her unwillingness to acquiesce to their slate of anti-Israel demands.

Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement, met with Harris for a discussion last week in Michigan, according to Axios. Alawieh told the outlet that he “reiterated my longstanding position that American tax dollars should never be used to target civilians or destroy entire communities.”

Israel denies allegations that its military operations involve targeting civilians. The Jewish state points to various measures it says are designed to mitigate civilian harm, such as alerting civilians before commencing airstrikes and establishing evacuation corridors. Hamas, the terrorist group that governs Gaza, maintains a long-established practice of embedding military operatives within the civilian population and repurposing civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals for military use — actions that endanger the population of the beleaguered enclave.

Notably, the Uncommitted Movement has not condemned Hamas and has not called for the terrorist group to surrender control of the Gaza Strip.

Harris’s outreach is perceived by observers as part of a strategy to curry favor with an increasingly influential progressive flank of the Democratic Party. Anti-Israel progressives have enjoyed a flurry of victories in recent weeks, toppling incumbents in both New York City and Colorado. Skeptics caution, however, that these victories occurred in deep-blue districts that are not representative of national sentiment.

The former vice president wrote in her memoir, 107 Days, that she “pleaded” with former President Joe Biden to express more “empathy” for Palestinians in the months following the Oct. 7 attacks. She lamented that Biden stridently labeled himself a “Zionist” and said his remarks about innocent Palestinians “came off as inadequate and forced.”

The story has also sparked concern among pro-Israel liberals that Harris and other 2028 contenders will distance themselves from the Jewish state. Polls indicate that Israel’s popularity has cratered among the Democratic electorate in the nearly three years since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, with an overwhelming majority of Democrats now saying they believe Israel has committed a so-called “genocide” in Gaza. The plummeting support for Israel within the Democratic base has prompted many high-profile Democrats to more publicly condemn Israel and its leaders, with several progressive firebrands leveling unsubstantiated accusations of “genocide” against the Jewish state.