Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani focused his campaign on making New York more affordability for middle- and low-income earners.Olga Fedorova/The Associated Press
It has been barely a week since Zohran Mamdani seized the attention of the entire American political class – from Donald Trump on down to left-wing activists across the country – by winning New York’s Democratic mayoral primary.
His improbable victory over former New York governor and prohibitive favourite Andrew Cuomo has galvanized progressives but left the Democratic establishment shell-shocked and unsure whether to embrace the party’s new star and social-media sensation, or disown the strident anti-capitalist and Israel critic.
There is no denying that the 33-year-old Mr. Mamdani ran a brilliant primary campaign, one that is already being studied closely across the political spectrum. With his eye-catching posters, to his snappy, on-the-street videos, he projected exuberance and energy to contrast with the 67-year-old Mr. Cuomo’s low-key and aloof style. It was reminiscent of Barack Obama’s 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign.
Zohran Mamdani defeated Cuomo by 12 points, crossing 50 per cent after just 3 rounds and receiving the most votes in a Democratic primary for NYC Mayor in 36 years.ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
Despite a thin résumé that included two unremarkable terms as a state assemblyman, Mr. Mamdani came off as a supremely confident candidate. Despite an infectious and seemingly permanent smile, he repeatedly went for his rival’s jugular. Mr. Mamdani did not miss a beat when Mr. Cuomo, who had resigned as governor in 2021 after facing sexual harassment allegations from multiple women, attacked his inexperience during a debate.
“To Mr. Cuomo, I have never had to resign in disgrace. I have never cut Medicaid. I have never stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the MTA,” he shot back, in reference to state cuts to New York’s transit authority. “I have never hounded the 13 women who credibly accused me of sexual harassment, I have never sued for their gynecological records, and I have never done those things because I am not you, Mr. Cuomo.”
A self-described democratic socialist, Mr. Mamdani focused his campaign on making New York more affordable for middle- and low-income earners – which sounds reasonable, were it not for the policies he promises to enact if he wins the November election against scandal-plagued Mayor Eric Adams, a former Democrat who is running as an independent.
Mr. Mamdani has vowed to freeze the rents of the city’s one million rent-controlled apartments, provide free childcare and city buses, and open city-owned grocery stores in each of New York’s five boroughs. He says he would pay for it all by raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and businesses, even though city council would need state-government approval to do so.
“I’m not raising taxes at a time where affordability is the big issue,” insisted Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who has not endorsed Mr. Mamdani. “I don’t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach.”
How Zohran Mamdani, a critic of Israel, excelled among Democrats in America’s most Jewish city
Mr. Mamdani often sounds like he would welcome an exodus of wealthy New Yorkers. Though he himself grew up on the Upper West Side, and attended elite schools, he bluntly told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”
That kind of talk is popular with the activist base, but establishment Democrats fear it could cost the party critical seats in the 2026 midterm elections. Mr. Mamdani’s campaign platform explicitly promised to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighbourhoods.” The unsubtle racial reference was indicative of how Mr. Mamdani infused a campaign focused on the cost of living with the same wedge and identity politics that has consumed Democrats in recent years. The same goes for Mr. Mamdani’s criticisms of Israel and his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is widely seen as a call for violence against Jews.
“I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech,” Mr. Mamdani told Meet the Press. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, told ABC’s This Week that the phrase is “unacceptable” and insisted Mr. Mamdani is “going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.”
Not even The New York Times editorial board could bring itself to endorse Mr. Mamdani, warning that “he too often ignores the unavoidable trade-offs of governance.” His primary campaign was a hit with campus youth and the mostly white inhabitants of Brooklyn brownstones, but he lost to Mr. Cuomo among Black and working-class Democrats.
Republicans risk making a hero out of the Ugandan-born Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, by suggesting he should be deported. Mr. Trump has called him a “communist lunatic,” while New York Representative Elise Stefanik labelled him a “radical communist antisemite who will destroy our great city.”
Mr. Mamdani might seem like a perfect foil for the MAGA movement. But he also has the raw talent and charisma lacking in most of the current crop of leaders in the Democratic Party. He just might even be its future.