Among the thousands in attendance at a rally in Washington Square Park Monday night were some of the 17 New York politicians who have endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Warren's campaign amasses support in Sanders' native New York City

City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and Elizabeth Warren shared a personal moment when they met at a small gathering organized by New York City political player Mark Green, at his swanky Manhattan pad last year.

Warren, who was running for reelection to her Massachusetts Senate seat at the time, was being introduced to potential supporters when she and Van Bramer discovered they were both children of janitors.


The Queens politician, now a candidate for borough president, recalled the connection as he explained why last week he joined the growing list of New York Democrats endorsing Warren over Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Brooklyn native and darling of the left — or, for that matter, hometown candidate Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“While I obviously have great respect for Bernie Sanders, and as a gay man certainly love Pete Buttigieg, for me the battles that we’ve been fighting, I just feel like Liz Warren is a candidate that this time demands,” Van Bramer said ahead of Warren’s visit to New York City Monday night to speak inside a packed Washington Square Park about combating political corruption.

Among the thousands in attendance were some of the 17 New York politicians who have endorsed her. Many of them are seeking higher office and wanted to telegraph to their own voters that they are squarely in Camp Warren.

Their support for Warren demonstrates her growing popularity among New York’s left-leaning politicians, many of whom said they would otherwise back Sanders were it not for a sense that she is simply a stronger candidate with a better chance of winning the nomination.

“She’s a much more viable, credible candidate who speaks to a broad section of the population. He’s got a lot of great ideas. I just think she’s a much better candidate,” said Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, who endorsed Sanders in 2016 before shifting to Warren this year.

Council Member Brad Lander, who is running for city comptroller in 2021, backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 but said he would have supported Sanders in this race had he not been so taken with the senator from Massachusetts.

He was attracted by some combination of her intellect, her policy platform and her potential to make history as the nation’s first female president.

“I did talk to a lot of people before making my endorsement, including people who are strong supporters of Bernie,” he said. “After having endorsed her there’s still plenty of times recently when I have praised him.”

But, he said, he wanted to push back against an earlier prevailing argument that voters would be more comfortable replacing President Donald Trump with another white man. “I think that’s a self-defeating and sexist narrative,” Lander said.

Others who have backed Warren include mayoral contender Scott Stringer, the sitting city comptroller; Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who is seeking the Brooklyn borough president’s seat; and a trio of first-term state lawmakers who defeated moderate incumbents last year — Alessandra Biaggi, Yuh-Line Niou and Jessica Ramos.

Sanders has received five endorsements from New York elected officials so far — City Council Member Rafael Espinal, who is running for Brooklyn borough president; state Sens. Julia Salazar and James Sanders; and Assemblymen Phil Steck and Ron Kim, according to his campaign team.

He also received the early backing in March of the organization that helped propel Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into Congress — the Democratic Socialists of America. The group’s political action committee reported that 76 percent of its members voted to endorse Sanders.

But this week he suffered a blow when another left-leaning political organization, the Working Families Party, opted to throw its weight behind Warren. She received 61 percent of the party’s support, compared to 36 percent for Sanders.

Bhaskar Sunkara, a Sanders supporter, told POLITICO the Working Families Party and Sanders are of a like mind. “It’s a shame they didn’t endorse the candidate that best embodies their mission,” Sunkara added.

“Elizabeth Warren is surging. There’s a certain amount of, ‘I want to be with the one who’s winning,’” said political consultant Alexis Grenell, who said she voted for Sanders in 2016 and is now “one-thousand percent” supporting Warren.

“Look, Bernie is obviously a hugely compelling figure,” she said. But, she added, “I think there’s a feeling that Bernie hasn’t updated his strategy and hasn’t updated his message.”

New York’s political class is now whispering about whether Ocasio-Cortez will lend her celebrity status, social media firepower and unapologetically progressive ideals to help Sanders, who counted her among his organizers in 2016. Her spokesperson declined to comment on her endorsement plans.

Meanwhile Warren hasn’t just outshone Sanders in his city of birth — she’s also outperformed the city’s mayor, whose long-shot bid for president is sputtering.

For everyone interviewed by POLITICO, supporting de Blasio, who fancies himself the most economically progressive candidate in the race, was not a consideration. Many gave a one-word answer when asked if they had considered him: “No.”

“I want to endorse someone who I believe can win. I want to endorse someone who I believe in, and feel really strongly about. And I want to endorse somebody who is inspiring,” Van Bramer said. “And I think that Bill de Blasio has not run a campaign that has shown any of those things to be true.”