The outgoing congresswoman at first wanted a woman to succeed her — specifically, a woman of Puerto Rican descent, like her. According to multiple people familiar with what happened, Mamdani was clear that two people who fit that bill with deepest ties to the district, city councilwoman Tiffany Caban and state senator Julia Salazar, were not acceptable because despite their own DSA ties, they’d initially been skeptical of his mayoral run, worried he would lose and set the democratic socialist project back.