Morris Katz, 26, is a top adviser and “muse” to Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner
It’s no surprise that the Democratic Party’s embrace of chic left-wing radicalism—anti-capitalism plus anti-anti-terrorism—is being driven by a bunch of fancy prep-school kids with hipster beards. Zohran Mamdani is on the verge of being elected mayor of New York City and becoming the de facto party leader. Democrats are equally enamored with Graham Platner, the U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, in spite of his “accidental” Nazi tattoo and myriad personality flaws.
Like most of the people who go on to become professional Democrats (or left-wing radicals), Mamdani and Platner attended elite high schools that cater to the rich and well-connected. So it makes sense that they’re both being advised by a 26-year-old nepo baby who shares their disdain for free markets and functioning societies. Mamdani’s top strategist, Morris Katz, is a failed screenwriter who bonded with the candidate over their pampered upbringings. They both attended elite public schools in New York City before enrolling at Ivy League safety schools (Bowdoin and Skidmore).
Katz is the son of David Bar Katz, a successful screenwriter (American Gigolo, Ray Donovan) and playwright (who cares?), best known for finding Philip Seymour Hoffman’s body after the legendary actor overdosed on drugs. (He won a financial settlement after suing the National Enquirer over an article claiming he and Hoffman were gay lovers.) He is the longtime theater collaborator of John Leguizamo, one of the most obnoxious left-wing activists in all of Hollywood. Katz is also the founding artistic director of the American Playwriting Foundation, which recently produced a “riveting” series involving actors sitting on a stage and reenacting interviews with real immigrants.
“It usually sucks when it’s written with the idea, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to write something about Trump and fascism,'” Katz said. “[But this is] so organic and in a way simple, yet the complexity of what’s happening onstage is so theatrical, and again, almost supernatural.”
The nepo baby’s paternal grandfather, Harry Jay Katz, was a notorious Philadelphia hustler described as a “playboy prince of darkness” with a “multi-million dollar trust fund.” He once hired Ira Einhorn, the radical environmentalist known as “The Unicorn Killer,” to edit poetry at his weekly paper. A woman was found dead in his hot tub after a drug-fueled house party in 1995; no charges were filed. Years later, he was accused of physical abuse, found liable for sexual harassment, and ordered to pay child support for a son he fathered with a mistress.
Katz’s mother, Julie Merberg, is the celebrated author of left-wing children’s books. Popular works include: My First Book of Feminism, My First Book of Feminism (For Boys), Diversity Is a Superpower, and No!: My First Book of Protest. “Wonderful book to teach my daughter about how she can stand up for what’s right,” one Amazon reviewer wrote of the latter title. “I never read her the Greta Thunberg page because what has she ever done? Don’t line her up with Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, MLK etc.”
According to a glowing profile in Vanity Fair, the younger Katz got his start in politics when his father introduced him to a friend in then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. Morris, who was in middle school at the time, claims he told the Cuomo aide, Melissa DeRosa, to tell the governor to “raise the minimum wage and pass universal pre-K.” DeRosa insisted there’s “absolutely no way” he said that.
Katz has been working for Democratic candidates since 2018, occasionally lying about his age to appear older. He was a deputy media consultant for Sen. John Fetterman’s (D., Pa.) campaign in 2022—another candidate who grew up rich but cosplayed as a rugged everyman. That’s where he met one of Platner’s other top strategists, Joe Calvello, the lacrosse-playing communications guru who went on to advise Brandon Johnson, the radical pro-crime mayor of Chicago.
Vanity Fair commended Katz for his “poise” under pressure, fueled by “beer drinking with a steady diet of Zyn menthol ice nicotine pouches.” As his work for Mamdani and Platner makes clear, he is intent on “remaking” the Democratic Party into a left-wing activist group that cloaks its radicalism in slickly produced campaign ads.
Mamdani and Katz “are like each other’s muses,” his business partner Rebecca Katz (no relation), told Vanity Fair. He has proved “especially valuable” in persuading Jewish leaders in New York to overlook Mamdani’s winking support for terrorism against Jews, and his refusal to condemn rhetoric that many view as a call for anti-Semitic genocide. As a result, Katz says, some of his own family members have said “vile things” and denounced him as a self-hating Jew, a charge he denies. After all, his mother is the author of My First Jewish Baby Book and My First Book of Famous Jews.
“There’s just a calmness, a clarity about him,” said Patrick Gaspard, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee. “And I’ve seen him responding in real time, whether it was the horrific shooting in midtown Manhattan this summer or the moment when ‘globalize the intifada’ became an issue.”
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