Chi Ossé, a democratic socialist New York City councilman, promised to defund NYPD in 2020 and has repeatedly accused Israel of committing a ‘genocide’ in Gaza
New York City councilman Chi Ossé (D), a democratic socialist from Brooklyn and ally of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D.), launched a primary challenge against House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) on Monday, setting up a fight between the highest-ranking Democrat in the House and a left-wing extremist.
Ossé, who left the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) after taking office in 2022 before rejoining the organization over the summer, hopes to follow Mamdani’s lead. Both DSA members, they have expressed similarly radical views on police, Israel, and other issues.
In June 2020, during the height of Black Lives Matter-led unrest across the country, Ossé wrote, “We’re going to defund the NYPD … I DONT SPEAK [pig]” in an Instagram caption.
He frequently invokes rhetoric like “late-stage capitalism,” has posted slogans like, “Eat the rich!” on X, and once wrote, “I wish [former president Joe] Biden were a socialist.”
Ossé’s positions on Israel mirror Mamdani’s, as well. Just two days after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, he shared a statement declaring Israel’s “occupation” was the “primary root of the violence” and, though deriding terrorism, said that “the Palestinian movement for national liberation is legitimate.” He has repeatedly described Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas as a “genocide,” and falsely accused Israel of causing a famine in Gaza.
Like Mamdani, Ossé grew up a child of privilege. His father, Reggie Ossé—known professionally as Combat Jack—was a music attorney who represented figures like Jay-Z and later served as managing editor of the Source, a hip-hop magazine. His maternal grandfather, Teddy Vann, was a music producer and songwriter who won a Grammy Award for his work with Luther Vandross.
Ossé was educated at Friends Seminary, a selective private school where tuition now tops $60,000.
While Ossé, 27, had told allies he planned to run for Congress in the wake of Mamdani’s victory, the mayor-elect reportedly urged him not to challenge Jeffries, fearing a potential primary fight could derail Mamdani’s agenda. The disagreement over Ossé’s candidacy, the New York Times reported, reached a boiling point, leading Mamdani to disinvite his ideological ally from his victory party on election night.
When an X user pointed out that Ossé had said “it would take a very dire situation” for him to run for Congress, Ossé responded, writing, “Seems like we’re in a dire situation.”
That dire situation, according to other posts of his, may be Jeffries’s continued support for Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). Ossé responded “lol” to a post noting Jeffries said Schumer should keep his job.
Ossé told Axios in a statement he decided to run because “The Democratic Party’s leadership is not only failing to effectively fight back against Donald Trump, they have also failed to deliver a vision that we can all believe in.”
Jeffries, for his part, dismissed a potential primary challenge when asked about the prospect last month.
“If you ask me a serious question, I’ll give you a serious answer,” he told Axios. “And you know that’s not a serious question based on everything coming out of Brooklyn.”
It remains to be seen whether Ossé will present a problem for Jeffries, but the attention he has received may be cause for concern. The left-wing councilman received a fawning write-up of his gift-giving style from New York magazine in which he said—if given only $10 to buy a gift for someone at Walgreens—he would choose a Revlon eyebrow pencil.
“People look good with shaped brows,” he said. “I think it frames the face.”
Neither Ossé nor Jeffries responded to Washington Free Beacon requests for comment.
