Zohran Mamdani endorsed by Queen borough president — who compares socialist to Obama

Zohran Mamdani ended his anti-President Trump tour of the five boroughs Friday with a glowing endorsement from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards — who compared the socialist upstart to former President Barack Obama.

Richards, a Democrat who has been serving the borough for over 13 years, urged the party to fall in line behind the 33-year-old mayoral nominee, as top New York Dems continue to drag their feet on publicly backing Mamdani.

“Zohran has inspired hope, and I couldn’t understand it all at first, but then I thought back to who inspired me in 2008, Barack Obama. He gave me hope. It was this feeling of hope,” said Donovan at the Kew Gardens office of the 32BJ SEIU union

“The Democratic Party has to meet this moment. We’ve always been a big tent party,” Richards said, seemingly pointing to the slew of high-profile centrist Democrats who have yet to give the socialist candidate their stamp of approval.

The comparison between Mamdani and Obama comes just days after The New York Times reported the pair spoke on the phone shortly after the frontrunner’s landslide primary win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June.

Donovan is the third borough president to put their weight behind the Democratic candidate. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine — who is the Democratic candidate for city comptroller– and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso have also endorsed Mamdani.

Among those holding off are Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn congressman.

“This is not about socialism, it’s not about the establishment. This is about working people and ensuring that working people can thrive to survive in this very city that’s becoming out of reach for everyday New Yorkers,” Richards said.

Mamdani, who lives in Astoria, chose his home borough as the last stop on the “Five-Boroughs against Trump” tour he embarked on this week.

He and Richards were joined by members of 32BJ SEIU, an influential union primarily representing property service workers with over 80,000 members in New York City.

Mamdani spoke to attendees about immigration, small businesses, cost-of-living and other issues, with a message more centered around his campaign policies and mayoral foes rather than attacks on Trump — though he did make some fear-mongering remarks in his speech Friday.

“There is no one that is safe, from the cruelty that marks so much of what animates the Trump administration,” he said.