Zohran Mamdani's win came even as Democratic Party stalwarts helped fund the largest super PAC ever created in a New York City mayoral campaign and spent millions on attack ads portraying him as a radical.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Debra Thompson is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Everyone is talking about Zohran Mamdani.
Last month Mr. Mamdani won a stunning upset victory against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and a host of other candidates to cinch the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.
After three rounds of ranked-choice voting, Mr. Mamdani captured 56 per cent of the votes compared with Mr. Cuomo’s 44 per cent. He dominated in his home borough of Brooklyn, also winning in Manhattan and Queens thanks to middle-class voters and renters, though he struggled with homeowners and in predominately Black and Latino neighbourhoods.
His win came even as Democratic Party stalwarts, including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, helped fund the largest super PAC ever created in a New York City mayoral campaign and spent millions on attack ads portraying Mr. Mamdani as a radical. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed his candidacy. President Donald Trump called Mr. Mamdani a communist, implied he was in the United States illegally, threatened to have him arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and warned that he “better behave. Otherwise he will have big problems” if he is elected this November.
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Mr. Mamdani’s primary win was important not just because he might become the first immigrant, the first South Asian, and the first Muslim mayor of the largest and arguably most important financial hub in the United States. It also gives Democrats still struggling to explain what happened in the 2024 election both a reality check and a potential blueprint to win back working-class voters.
A central preoccupation of the American left in the wake of Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump is whether Democrats need to move toward the centre of the political spectrum. Mr. Cuomo, with his support of the majority of elected Democratic officials and labour unions and despite being forced to resign as governor in 2021 because of allegations of sexual harassment, imperfectly represented this faction.
But Mr. Mamdani, an unabashed democratic socialist, laser-focused his platform on the core issue of affordability in an extraordinarily expensive city – and it turns out that this is not nearly as ideological as it is often cast. His campaign promises for free buses, a rent freeze, no-cost child care and city-owned grocery stores resonated with voters. He listened to voters and their concerns, instead of lecturing, condescending, admonishing, or issuing high-minded warnings about democratic erosion while the rent is too damned high.
Mr. Mamdani’s ground game was also on point, with more than 50,000 volunteers knocking on doors to spread his message. The energy from New Yorkers who gave their time and money, and Mr. Mamdani’s success in expanding the electorate to young and new voters, was reminiscent of Barack Obama’s revolutionary grassroots organizing in 2008, but this time with the promise that the revolution would stay true to social democratic ideals.
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In essence, centrism is not the only, nor even the most viable path to electoral success for what’s left of the American left. A revived coalition among working-class voters could redefine urban politics in America, especially among those who were never all that convinced by culture war issues or social conservatism. This isn’t to say that issues like women’s reproductive rights, vaccine availability and academic freedom aren’t important. But food, rent, and child care just aren’t affordable for too many people. Rather than promising tax cuts or credits, as both Republicans and Democrats are wont to do, Mr. Mamdani’s proposals are simple, memorable, and perhaps even plausible for making living in New York less expensive.
Some of this success will not be replicable. Mr. Mamdani is young, charismatic, and his social media game comes from someone of a generation for whom Instagram reels and TikTok videos are second nature. His viral videos had a different uptake than Mr. Cuomo’s attack ads, which played on an endless loop on network television. The primary used a ranked-choice voting system that allowed Mr. Mamdani and other left-wing candidates, like progressive city comptroller Brad Lander, to endorse one another in a bid to defeat Mr. Cuomo’s centrist, old-guard candidacy. Mr. Mamdani had the political machinery of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose New York chapter notably helped launch the career of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, behind him. And, of course, New York is a unique place, where the super wealthy and celebrities live in glass encased penthouses and impoverished classes struggle daily to afford the cost of the subway.
Mr. Mamdani still must face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who has declared that he will run as an independent in the next mayoral election, as well as Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. But this candidate and his playbook are already upending expectations.