He hasn't been elected New York City mayor yet, but congressional Republicans have already sought to make frontrunner Zohran Mamdani a line of attack against his fellow Democrats.

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and a democratic socialist, was brought up repeatedly by House Republican leaders at an Oct. 29 news briefing about the government shutdown.

“The Democratic Party has changed, Mamdani is now running the party,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said. “That party has changed. The American people still have the same needs.”

Scalise and Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Louisiana Republican, have tried to pin the shutdown on Mamdani, a state Assembly member from Queens. Mamdani's mayoral campaign has focused on addressing affordability in the nation's largest city.

Johnson blamed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, two Brooklyn Democrats, for not being able to end the shutdown due to attacks from their party's left wing. While Jeffries reluctantly made a last-minute endorsement of Mamdani, Schumer has yet to endorse the Democratic nominee.

Calling the two Brooklyn Democrats in Congress “irredeemable,” Johnson said, “I don't think they'll be able to tell Mamdani in New York and his disciples that they voted to open the government. I've given up on the leadership.”

The Mamdani campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Jeffries didn’t respond to a request for comment.

On Oct. 29, Schumer didn’t say whether he’d cast his ballot for Mamdani, his party's candidate.

“The bottom line is very simple: I have a good relationship with him and we are continuing to talk,” he told reporters.

A day earlier, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a strategy memo to win battleground districts centering on Mamdani. The memo said Mamdani shows Democrats are too radical − citing his self-identification as a democratic socialist, calls for policing reform, and his criticism of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians.

"This isn’t about one race in New York," the memo concluded, "it’s a national story of a party bending the knee to socialism and the far left."

In the nation's capital, over 200 miles from Manhattan, the shutdown is still ongoing.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House Republicans attack Zohran Mamdani ahead of NYC mayoral election

Reporting by Eduardo Cuevas and Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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