NY Young Republican group wants Congress to disqualify Mamdani

The New York Young Republican Club is calling on Congress to invoke the Constitution’s “insurrection clause” to disqualify Zohran Mamdani from potentially becoming the new mayor of New York City. 

The group said in a memo released Monday that Mamdani’s words and actions make him eligible to be barred from serving in office under Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War and was originally designed to prevent former Confederates from holding public office in the future. 

The provision was dormant for decades, but it received attention last year in the context of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as President Trump sought to return to office. A few states invoked the provision to prevent him from appearing on the ballot in the Republican primaries, but the Supreme Court struck down those moves, ruling that states do not have the power to enforce the amendment against federal candidates. 

Instead, a majority of the justices ruled that only Congress can enforce the clause, though states still have the power to disqualify candidates for state office for violating Section 3. 

The memo cites a variety of accusations against Mamdani, a democratic socialist who is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. The New York state Assembly member pulled off a surprise victory in the primary to win the nomination following considerable grassroots turnout. 

The group accuses Mamdani of participating in “anti-American actions” such as participating in protests with groups supporting Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and wanting to turn New York City into an “extreme hotbed of socialism, borderline communism, and over Marxism,” ideologies Trump has declared to be enemies of the U.S. 

Mamdani has faced scrutiny over his avoidance in condemning the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has received widespread attention since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The phrase has differing meanings to different groups, with pro-Palestinian activists viewing it as a call for Palestinian liberation and pro-Israel activists and many Jews seeing it as a push for antisemitic violence, recalling extended periods of violence that occurred in the 1980s and 2000s during the First and Second Intifadas in Israel. 

Mamdani has said the phrase has different meanings to different people but that he doesn’t use the phrase. He also reportedly told a group of business leaders last week that he would discourage others from using it. 

Mamdani has said he wouldn’t cooperate with ICE if elected, a position numerous other Democrats leading major cities have also taken. Federal law doesn’t prohibit "sanctuary cities," though the Trump administration has called for cutting off federal funding to states and cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

Mamdani has identified himself as a democratic socialist but hasn’t tied himself to communist or Marxist movements. 

The Hill has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment. 

While the Constitution provides for Congress to disqualify candidates from office, the process to do so is uncertain. The Supreme Court, in its ruling on the attempts to bar Trump from the ballot, said Congress must first pass a law to provide for the means of enforcing Section 3 before it is able to do so.