In January, Zohran Mamdani polled at 6% among Democratic voters looking ahead to the New York City’s mayoral primary. Andrew Cuomo then polled at 32%, and in the spring, after the former governor had officially announced his bid for Gracie Mansion, that number would rise as high as 45%, with none of the other 10 candidates claiming half as much support at the time.
What happened between April and June? How did a 33-year-old Queens assemblyman, tarred as both an extremist and a neophyte by major media institutions, defeat Empire State royalty?
In the final hours, voters revealed a more willful spirit than pollsters could have predicted, exercising their right to reject the preordained outcomes that follow electoral processes driven by deference to big names and mainstream standards of credibility. They exercised their right, in other words, to choose leaders on a political basis.
It must have helped Mamdani’s cause that, in his own way, Cuomo, as a figure of recent national disgrace, strains those same standards of credibility that typically motivate support for experienced machine candidates over bright-eyed upstarts. Nevertheless, in the lead-up to the primary, Democratic Party luminaries like Bill Clinton and Jim Clyburn stepped in with endorsements, giving Cuomo the establishment’s seal of approval.
Mamdani couldn’t have triumphed if voters hadn’t trusted their own judgment over the judgment of top politicians and pundits. It took a measure of confidence. Fair and square, Mamdani won their confidence on the basis of his steadfast commitment to a set of clear policies prioritizing affordability for working-class New Yorkers.
New Yorkers now must hold onto their confidence in themselves and take the final step. With the general election approaching on Nov. 4, Cuomo remains in the race, as does our current mayor, the crooked buffoon Eric Adams.
A victory for a youthful, left-wing figure like Mamdani in America’s largest city would carry national implications, representing a major blow to the blue-state gerontocracy at a moment where timid leaders like Chuck Schumer face increasing backlash for perceived failures to stand up to Trump’s fascist administration. Young voters won’t hesitate to upset the apple cart, but older people may better recognize the risks of breaking from the status quo.
They may also recognize that sometimes such a break becomes necessary. Mamdani, who owed his first electoral victories in Astoria to the far-left activist community that remains his primary political home, couldn’t have won a citywide primary without forging connections with New Yorkers of vastly different political identities and backgrounds.
New Yorkers of all types ride public transit. They all pay rent. They all have children, and they all buy groceries. Mamdani promises fast, free buses; a tenant-friendly Rent Guidelines Board; free, universal childcare; and city-owned supermarkets with cheap staples. Labeled unrealistic by conservatives, this program seemed to win points popularly for its reasonable, pragmatic character above all.
Over the course of his campaign, Mamdani demonstrated an ability to meet New Yorkers of nearly all political persuasions on friendly terms, to listen to their problems, and to craft broadly appealing progressive policy around those concerns. One can see that he has already begun to think like a mayor with a constituency of 8.8 million – his rhetoric today avoids the strident, academic registers that can lead voters outside of Western Queens and North Brooklyn to dismiss other democratic socialists.
We expect him to govern with the same tactical wisdom. Yet in Mamdani one can still happily spot the underlying purity of purpose that characterizes the radically idealistic milieu that bred him. New York City has a clear opportunity to say goodbye both to the clownish self-dealing that has defined the Adams administration and to the more complex forms of corruption that led Cuomo, as governor, to make cuts to public hospitals, schools, and subways at the behest of his wealthy donors.
As our country’s only democratic socialist in a major executive position, Mamdani will become the new standard-bearer for one potential political alternative to the growing consolidation of power by the nation’s increasingly cancerous and reactionary power elite. The previous standard-bearer, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, got his own start as a successful mayor. The perceived viability of American socialism will soon shrink or expand with the fortunes of Mamdani’s mayoralty, and ideologues on both sides of the national conversation will work eagerly to shape the narrative.
In reality, like most other mayors, Mamdani likely will accomplish some of his goals and will fail to accomplish others. But we think he stands a better chance than his opponents of making life a little easier for ordinary New Yorkers.
That probably won’t lead to a revolution. It’s OK by us if it doesn’t, but all things considered, it’s OK by us if it does. Early voting begins on Oct. 25.
