To My Fellow Democrats: We resist Zohran Mamdani to our peril
We will not get another chance if we screw this up again.
With the New York City mayoral Democratic primary victory of Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic establishment finds itself at a crossroads—again.
Before I launch into the bulk of my argument here, let me start off my speaking directly to my fellow Democrats: This is not a time for the circular firing squad. Making the mistakes of the recent past is not an option.
DO NOT SCREW THIS UP.
Think back ten years ago.
A tax-avoiding former slumlord and reality TV grifter perpetrated the most gaudy publicity stunt in recent memory when he descended an escalator and blanketed his paid audience with racist accusations about Mexico sending rapists and drug dealers across the Southern border.
What should have been the end of his campaign was only just the beginning.
With help from Russia, sundry other monetarily gifted entities, voter apathy, third-party voters, and the anachronistic electoral college, that grifter went on to defeat the most qualified candidate at that time to ever seek the presidency, one former NY senator and Obama administration secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Arguably, had the Democratic party not sidelined Clinton’s progressive primary challenger Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders, if Sanders had been the nominee over Clinton, or if Clinton had chosen Sanders as her running mate over Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the racist Russian toady would have faded ignominiously into the historical rear-view mirror.
Democrats lost after Barack Obama’s eight successful years, though.
But in 2018, Democrats came surging back, knocking out republicans—and some Democrats—in races many believed were safe.
In 2020, Democrats nominated former vice president Joe Biden. Many reacted to this (yours truly included) with trepidation, knowing Biden’s middle-of-the-road sometimes-too-republican-cozy track record after decades in the US Senate.
With help from record mail-in voting due to the covid-19 pandemic, Americans sent Joe Biden to the White House with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
Despite on the campaign trail Biden stating if elected “nothing would fundamentally change,” he listened to progressive voices and actually governed for four years as the most transformational president since Franklin Roosevelt.
But here we are, once again, contending with an authoritarian administration blatantly pandering to a racist right-wing base and the economic royalists serving it.
A New York City mayoral race shouldn’t be national news.
With Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory last week, however, we fellow Democrats find ourselves faced for the third time with that familiar moment of progressive reckoning.
Let’s consider some of the headlines from so-called "lefty” media the past couple days:
Talking Points Memo: “The Political World’s Five-Alarm Mamdani Meltdown”
Associated Press: “Democrats fret about national fallout after Mamdani stuns in New York City”
The Guardian: “Wall Street shivers over ‘hot commie summer’ after Mamdani’s success”
The City: “New York’s Congressional Democrats Split on Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral Win”
Axios: “Democratic establishment melts down over Mamdani's win in New York”
And those are just from the so-called “liberal” sources.
On the right we get…
Townhall: “The Zohran Mamdani Revolution”
The Gateway Pundit: “Any Criticism of Zohran Mamdani Is Suddenly Islamophobic”
American Spectator: “NYC Mayoral Race Is the Perfect Catalyst for Major Immigration Reform”
The Washington Times: “The Socialist Takeover of the Democratic Party”
NY Post: “Cuomo's Ego Will Help Mamdani Be NYC Mayor”
The pretender to the presidency even threatened to withhold money from New York if Mamdani becomes mayor and doesn’t “do the right thing”.
Hey, look at that: we’ve united the left and right. Look how easy that was. Clearly both sides feel potentially elevating a 33-year-old Muslim immigrant Democratic Socialist to lead the country’s largest city warrants urgency.
I can understand the right’s freak out, but we Democrats? Come on. Have we learned nothing?
First, I understand the desire to support former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who may or may not be planning on running in the general election as an independent. He’s a familiar face, served as Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary in the Clinton administration; he hails from Democratic royalty, being the son of popular progressive former NY Gov. Mario Cuomo; served for 10 years as NY State’s 56th governor, for which his leadership during the Covid-19 epidemic, in which NY was at the epicenter, led to whispers of a possible run for the White House. (However, his cover up of nursing home deaths may hindered that.)
However, I’ve got two words for those on my side of the aisle gunning for him instead of Mamdani: Al Franken.
Remember how NY Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s voice was among the loudest calling for former Minn. Sen. Franken’s ousting after a vague accusation of sexual misconduct emerged? Without an investigation, without due process, Franken was forced to resign for the “good of the party”.
Now, sexual misconduct is serious, and accusations of it must be pursued through legal processes. That’s what we expect whether it’s Franken or the adjudicated sexual assaulter currently sitting in the Oval Office.
But Franken wasn’t afforded that. He was pressured to leave to avoid political blowback. Andrew Cuomo resigned in 2021; last year, the justice department concluded he sexually harassed over a dozen state employees.
Yet Sen. Gillibrand is supporting Cuomo in his bid for NYC mayor, stating, “This is a country that believes in second chances. So it’s up to New York voters to decide if he should get a second chance to serve.”
Agreed, but why the double standard?
Is it just Cuomo’s $8 million war chest?
I realize the Supreme Court decided in several cases that money equals free speech and since the 1990s we have been operating under the “if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em” attitude, but let’s be real. It’s 2025. Look at the cancer money has been for our body politic. Just ask members of the Progressive Caucus eschewing corporate PAC money how they fair not being beholden to corporations’ legalized bribery. This is a popular—and populist—stance with progressive voters. We would do well with more of it.
Another reason to support Mamdani is simply because he’s whom Democratic voters chose. In the ranked-choice voting system New York City practices, Mamdani received 43.5 percent to Cuomo’s 36 percent. This is New York, not Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and New York City is one of the bluest locales in the nation. So why the freak out when a blue, progressive municipality votes overwhelmingly for the most progressive candidate? Aren’t we, Democrats, supposed to be the party that respects free and fair elections and their outcomes? Mamdani’s primary victory is firing up a base of voters we need to turn out in next year’s congressional midterms. Alienate them again and we’ll be licking our wounds asking “What happened?” next November while republicans are popping champagne and plotting the rest of their fascist takeover.
Thirdly, let’s look at the policies that got Mamdani’s foot in the door voters find so appealing.
According to his campaign website, Zohran Mamdani is focusing on 12 key platform positions: housing, safety, affordability, education, higher taxes on the wealthy, climate, LGBTQ+ protections, healthcare, labor, small business, libraries, and “Trump-proofing” the city.
He wants to:
freeze rent-stabilized tenants’ rent;
“triple the City’s production of permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes – constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years”;
“overhaul the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and coordinate code enforcement under one roof, making sure agencies work together to hold owners responsible for the conditions of their buildings”;
“create a new Office of Deed Theft Prevention to protect homeowners” and a “Department of Community Safety to prevent violence before it happens by prioritizing solutions which have been consistently shown to improve safety”;
“create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit”;
“permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way”;
“fight misleading advertising and predatory contracts, and ban all hidden fees”;
“implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years, ensuring high quality programming for all families”;
“provide new parents and guardians with a collection of essential goods and resources, free of charge, including items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, and books”;
“ensure our public schools are fully funded with equally distributed resources, strong after-school programs, mental health counselors and nurses, compliant and effective class sizes, and integrated student bodies. He will create car-free “School Streets” to prevent traffic fatalities, improve play, and lower pollution for every school, and address student homelessness by expanding the successful Bronx pilot Every Child and Family Is Known”;
“raise the corporate tax rate to match New Jersey’s 11.5%, bringing in $5 billion. And he will tax the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers—those earning above $1 million annually—a flat 2% tax”;
“lead a massive decarbonization and climate resiliency process citywide. This will include building out renewable energy on our abundant public lands”;
“renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, transform 500 asphalt schoolyards into vibrant green spaces, create 15,000 union jobs, and build resilience hubs in 50 schools that provide resources and safe spaces during emergencies”;
“protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs”;
“create a new corps of outreach workers to support New Yorkers navigating the healthcare system. Those workers will support patients in understanding the public resources available to them: how to find insurance, apply to programs, access financial assistance, and claim their health benefits”;
“champion a new local law bringing the NYC wage floor up to $30/hour by 2030. After that, the minimum wage will automatically increase based on the cost of living and productivity increases”;
“strengthen licensure requirements for delivery apps, expand capacity and resources to support deliveristas, and improve street infrastructure including expanding DOT e-bike programs and investing in deliverista hubs”;
“cut small business fines in half, speed up permitting and make online applications easier, and increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500 percent”;
“end the practice of using library funding as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations and commit 0.5% of NYC’s budget to libraries”;
“fight Trump’s attempts to gouge the working class, and deliver a city where everyone can afford a dignified life. He’ll ensure our immigrant New Yorkers are protected by strengthening our sanctuary city apparatus: getting ICE out of all City facilities and ending any cooperation, increasing legal support, and protecting all personal data”
Yeah, pretty scary, right?
Next thing you know, we’ll be waving the Communist flag and sporting little Lenin goatees.
So, c’mon, fellow Dems.
I joined the party because our house needed fixing, and I’m not one who believes in abandoning it for want of work.
Zohran Mamdani could run as a socialist or Green Party member, but he, like me, like you, believes we can better address the rot from the inside, not by throwing rocks from the other side of the street. He is one of the most progressive candidates in politics today, and he’s a Democrat—one of us, a member of the NY Assembly.
We need to rally around Mamdani, for if we succumb to the same old establishment rubrics, this will not be simply a missed opportunity for New York City. It could spell a split in the Democratic party that could prove catastrophic.