Zohran Mamdani celebrates with his wife, Rama Duwaji, at a Democratic primary night gathering in New York yesterday. Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker whose progressive economic platform electrified younger voters, surged into the lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, putting him on the verge of a stunning upset. Photo / Shuran Huang, the New York Times)
Zohran Mamdani celebrates with his wife, Rama Duwaji, at a Democratic primary night gathering in New York yesterday. Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker whose progressive economic platform electrified younger voters, surged into the lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, putting him on the verge of a stunning upset. Photo / Shuran Huang, the New York Times)
The national Democratic establishment is struggling to absorb the startling ascent of a democratic socialist in New York City who embraced a progressive economic agenda and diverged from the party’s dominant position on the Middle East.
As elections go, yesterday’s party primary for mayor was a thunderbolt.
NewYork voters turned away from a well-funded familiar face and famous name, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and in doing so made a generational and ideological break with the party’s mainstream.
They turned to a 33-year-old, three-term state Assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, who ran on an optimistic message about affordability and the rising cost of living that has eluded many national Democrats.
What became vividly clear as votes were counted across the racially and economically diverse neighbourhoods of New York, was that Mamdani had generated excitement among some — though not all — of the traditional pillars of winning Democratic voter coalitions.
Democratic leaders badly want to win over young voters and minority groups in the coming 2026 and 2028 elections — two groups they have struggled to mobilise since the Obama era — but they also need moderate Democrats and independents who often recoil from far-left positions.
“It really represents the excitement that I saw on the streets all throughout the City of New York,” said Letitia James, the New York Attorney-General.
“I haven’t seen this since Barack Obama ran for president of these United States.”
That Mamdani had such success while running on a far-left agenda, including positions that once were politically risky in New York — like describing Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as genocide and calling for new taxes on business — may challenge the boundaries of party orthodoxy and unnerve national Democratic leaders.
His views on Israel are likely to force some national Democrats into an uncomfortable position, said David Axelrod, a native New Yorker and Obama’s chief strategist.
However, he said that Mamdani’s relentless focus on economic affordability resonated widely and could be a playbook for the party’s success as well.
“There is no doubt that Trump and Republicans will try and seize on him as a kind of exemplar of what the Democratic Party stands for,” Axelrod said.
“The thing is, he seems both principled and agile and deft enough to confront those sort of conventional plays.”
The primary results raised questions about how Democrats on the national level would react.
Would they embrace Mamdani as a next-generation leader of the party who can articulate a resonant economic message in a way that former Vice-President Kamala Harris failed to do in November?
Or would they distance themselves from his democratic socialist ideas and move more directly towards the centre to court independent voters?
Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters at a Democratic primary night gathering in New York yesterday. Photo / Shuran Huang, the New York Times
The enthusiasm that Mamdani generated among a swathe of New Yorkers looking for fresh leadership called to mind the insurgent campaigns of Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her upset victory in a 2018 House primary.
All three are democratic socialists, a once fringe movement popularised by Sanders that calls for reining in the excesses of capitalism and curbing the power of the wealthy.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom endorsed Mamdani, remain popular progressive figures but have had only limited impact on changing the Democratic Party’s agenda and messaging.
A key question is how the Democratic donor class and business community, which was already unsettled by Mamdani’s rise, will react to his apparent victory.
Business leaders may flock to his rivals in the general election in November or try to use super political action committees to stop him.
In the meantime, other Democratic elected officials are likely to be questioned on whether they agree with his positions.
“It’s a national election, not just a New York City election. People are going to be watching,” said James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist.
“Everybody will have to weigh in one way or another. Everybody is going to be asked, do they support him.”
Even before Mamdani addressed his supporters, Republicans were gearing up to caricature him.
Zohran Mamdani attends a campaign rally earlier this month in Queens, New York City. Photo / Andrew Lichtenstein, Corbis via Getty Images
The National Republican Congressional Committee gleefully declared Mamdani the “new face of the Democrat Party”.
Senator Rick Scott of Florida predicted on social media that more New Yorkers would be fleeing to his state.
And Representative Elise Stefanik of New York sent a fundraising appeal saying her “stomach was in knots”, calling Mamdani a “Hamas Terrorist sympathiser”.
Mamdani has defended pro-Palestinian slogans like “globalise the intifada”. He has said that he supports an Israel with equal rights for all its citizens but has not said if it has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He has emphatically denied accusations that he is anti-Semitic.
As recently as last month, few people expected Mamdani to beat Cuomo, 67, who benefitted from near universal name recognition, a deep war chest, and the endorsement of party heavyweights like former President Bill Clinton.
But the embrace of the party establishment may have done Cuomo no favours in a race that appeared to be marked by a deep hunger for change.
“Voters are not happy with the national party establishment and want to focus on building a movement,” said Basil Smikle, a professor at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies.
“I think that’s key here. Mamdani created a movement around his candidacy.”
Mamdani ran a relentless and cheerful campaign focused on affordability in a city that has grown too expensive for an expanding circle of residents.
He used zippy videos and catchy tag lines like “freeze the rent” and “free buses” that told voters he cared first about their wallets.
That kitchen-table focus actually mirrored economic messaging that some in the centre of the party have also urged Democratic candidates to embrace.
Many Democrats were frustrated that did not occur with former President Joe Biden and Harris during the 2024 election.
David Shor, a Democratic researcher and strategist who worked with the leading pro-Harris super PAC, Future Forward, wrote on the social platform X that Mamdani was “a great example of how far you can go if you genuinely centre your campaign in an engaging way around the issue that voters overwhelmingly say in surveys they care the most about”.
