Brooklyn councilman shoots down rumors of Hakeem Jeffries primary challenge

Dave Goldiner, Los Angeles Times on Oct 9, 2025

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NEW YORK — Brooklyn City Councilman Chi Osse is shooting down rumors that he will mount a Democratic primary challenge to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries in next year’s midterm elections.

The progressive ally of mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani refuted a report claiming he has privately discussed an insurgent run against Jeffries, who has so far declined to endorse the Democratic City Hall standard bearer.

“Just to be clear, I’m not running for Congress,” Osse wrote in a text message to Axios, the site reported.

Osse, 27, added that he has little interest in leaving New York for a position on the national political stage.

“All I have to say is that it would take a very dire situation in order for me to even consider spending the rest of my 20s in (Washington D.C.),” Osse wrote.

A spokesman for Jeffries did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The House Democratic minority leader has previously brushed off the possibility of a primary challenge and warned that some progressive rivals could wind up facing challenges to their own positions.

Osse, who was first elected to the council in 2021 from a Bedford-Stuyvesant district when he was just 23, is considered a progressive rising star.

Mamdani has name-checked Osse as an inspiration for his prolific use of social media to energize supporters, a key factor in his own meteoric rise in the mayoral race.

Jeffries has raised hackles with some progressives by declining so far to endorse Mamdani, who won the Democratic nomination for mayor months ago. The youthful Queens assemblyman holds a big lead in polls over Republican Curtis Sliwa and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent.

Critics of Jeffries note that Mamdani handily beat Cuomo in Jeffries’ fast-changing central Brooklyn district, suggesting it could be fertile ground for a progressive challenge.

But there are few signs that Jeffries, who would be in line to be the first Black speaker of the House if Democrats win back the House, is in any serious political danger.