Rep. Elise Stefanik is pressuring New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to denounce New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s decision to tap policing critic Alex Vitale and activist Lumumba Bandele for transition roles, arguing their records clash with Mamdani’s prior pledge to maintain police resources that Hochul cited in her endorsement.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) has escalated her criticism of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) over appointments made by New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist whom Hochul endorsed in the mayoral race, according to The Daily Wire.
Stefanik launched her campaign for governor in November, just days after Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election with Hochul’s backing, The Daily Wire has reported.
Mamdani has appointed Alex Vitale, a sociology professor and author of The End of Policing, to his community safety transition advisory committee, The Daily Wire reported. Vitale is a longtime critic of modern policing and an advocate of police defunding and abolition. In a 2020 interview cited by The Daily Wire, he argued that police officers and their unions are often embedded with "deep racism" and said they can become, in many cities, "the locus, the institutional hub, for a whole set of right-wing 'thin blue line' politics that believe that policing is not only effective but it's the most desirable way to solve our problems." He linked this outlook to the "logic of slavery" and "colonialism" and urged activists to "take concrete steps to dismantle" police unions’ political power.
As summarized by The Daily Wire’s review of his work, Vitale’s book contends that modern policing is designed to reinforce inequality and cannot be fixed by reforms such as diversity training alone. Instead, he envisions reducing police roles by decriminalizing certain offenses, including prostitution and drug use, and relying more on community-based support and housing programs for people experiencing homelessness.
Mamdani himself has previously used sharp language about the New York Police Department. The Daily Wire noted that he has described the NYPD as "racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety" and called the department "wicked & corrupt," arguing that it should be defunded and ultimately dismantled.
In addition to Vitale, Mamdani has selected Lumumba Bandele to serve on his transition team’s Community Organizing committee, according to reporting from The Daily Wire and the New York Post. The Daily Wire describes Bandele as a black nationalist and notes prior New York Post coverage indicating that he has aligned himself with members of the Black Liberation Army who were convicted of killing police officers in the New York–New Jersey area.
Stefanik, in comments to The Daily Wire, said Hochul should publicly oppose these choices. "Kathy Hochul must condemn Zohran Mamdani’s appointment of Alex Vitale to his transition advisory committee," she said. "Vitale is a radical police abolitionist who will destroy New York if he gets his way." On Bandele, she added, "Kathy Hochul’s endorsed Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, just picked a man who supports the killers of cops in New York and New Jersey to serve on his transition team."
Stefanik urged Hochul to call for Bandele’s removal from the transition effort, arguing that "Mamdani’s vision for New York is getting very clear and it’s starting to look like a nightmare." The Daily Wire reported that, as of its publication, Hochul had not publicly addressed Vitale’s or Bandele’s appointments.
Hochul’s earlier endorsement of Mamdani, which she made in a New York Times opinion piece, highlighted what she described as his commitment to keep police resources in place to protect public safety. The Daily Wire noted that Vitale’s role on Mamdani’s transition team appears to conflict with that pledge, at least in the view of critics such as Stefanik.
