Portside

Young people carried Zohran Mamdani in his victory in the Democratic mayoral primary, stunning establishment Democrats and reshaping the electorate. Nowhere was this more clear than the so-called “Commie Corridor,” where young voters had extremely high turnout and overwhelmingly supported Mamdani.

 The “Commie Corridor” is a swath of North Brooklyn and Western Queens that New York City organizer and researcher Michael Lange describes as “the young and hungry leftist base reshaping politics in New York City….overwhelmingly renters with left-leaning politics.”

The Corridor is commonly understood to stretch along the East River from Astoria to Sunset Park. However, as young, college-educated people move deeper into Brooklyn and Queens into neighborhoods like Kensington, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Bed-Stuy, and South Slope, the Corridor is expanding. 

Politicians besides Mamdani that have been elected in the Commie Corridor include Jabari Brisport (in Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, and Fort Greene), Alexa Avilés (Red Hook and Sunset Park), Tiffany Cabán (Astoria), and Kristen Gonzalez (Astoria to Williamsburg). 

When asked what caused the Commie Corridor, Lange explained “young people have been very politicized, in the Obama, Trump, Sanders era…and the housing crisis is basically just pushing them farther and farther out. And so the Commie Corridor has definitely expanded.” 

Lange traced the beginnings of a baby Commie Corridor in Green Point, Williamsburg, Bushwick, and some of Astoria and Long Island City, to 2016, when Bernie Sanders ran for president. Cynthia Nixon’s run for governor in 2018, and Maya Wiley’s 2021 mayoral campaign, expanded and strengthened the Commie Corridor. 

“And then Zohran was someone who, very uniquely, was able to bring a lot of voters out,” Lange said. “He had a very compelling affordability focused message, which is the dominant issue for young people in the city. Rents go up every year. The cost of living is really bad. Young people don’t have much protection from that, because they’re rarely homeowners.”

Nowhere is this more true than in Bushwick’s voting precinct 53/025, where Mamdani won a stunning 90% of the vote. The precinct borders Maria Hernandez Park, and saw roughly 500 voters turn out. Of those 500 or so, Mamdani won 434 votes compared to Cuomo’s 18 (Brad Lander got the second largest amount of first choice votes with 22). His sweep probably makes it the most pro-Zohran block in the city. In neighboring precincts in Bushwick and nearby Ridgewood, the pro-Zohran pattern held up, where he led from 60 to over 80 points. 

The Indy went to Maria Hernandez park on a sweltering July day to ask people who lived in or near the neighborhood why they voted for Mamdani, and why they thought their neighborhood swung so hard for him.

Madi, a singer-songwriter and marketing manager, said she voted for Mamdani because he was the most anti-corruption of all the candidates, and was able to connect with her generation. She has lived in Bushwick for a year and a half, and credited his win to “a large and growing community of artists around here… a lot of political artists and activist artists, and if there is a specific community that’s gonna rep a guy like that really hard, it’s this kind of neighborhood.”

Maddie’s roommate, Amina, a 26-year old who has lived in Bushwick for three and a half years and works in customer service also said there was a lot of support for Mamdani’s campaign in the neighborhood. “I first heard about him because one of our other roommates was handed a flyer about him in the park…I think a lot of people were just talking about him in this area, there’s posters of him everywhere. People were in our building ,and  there were signs up. I feel like he was very visible,” Amina said.

Meredith, a 24-year old elementary school teacher who has lived in Bushwick for the past year, was also drawn to Mamdani for his social media presence and values. 

“He just does seem like the person that is for all people. I really liked his media tactics…. And I really appreciated his, his outward takes on the Palestine-Israel genocide,” she said. “I just really like his humanitarian ideas.”

Meredith  also said many people in her friend group were excited about the Mamdani campaign, which further motivated her to vote for him. “It was just nice that he is a candidate that is known in closer settings too. I have some friends that worked with him or played soccer with him. So he just felt more familiar of a person,” she said.

Meredith also thought that the neighborhood was “very excited about him. She said “wasn’t super surprised” to hear he won 90% of the vote in the area surrounding Maria Hernandez. “Every corner there were people trying to get his word out, which was exciting…and everyone does seem to be on the same page [about Mamdani].” 

Clara, a food server, and Jaime, an audio engineer, have lived in Bushwick for three and five years. When asked why they voted for Mamdani, Jaime said that “considering I don’t vote that often, I only vote if it’s somebody that somebody’s on the ballot that I really align with, and Zohran aligned with 98% of the issues that I cared about. It was like, ‘yeah, I should vote for this guy. And I hate Andrew Cuomo a lot. So it was, like, even more so a reason,’” Jaime said.

Clara agreed that her dislike for Andrew Cuomo started her enthusiasm for Mamdani, but felt like that was “selling his platform short…I think it was refreshing to see someone who was actually sort of aligned with a lot of my viewpoints and a lot of the viewpoints of people that I am I’m friends with here, and not just Bushwick, Brooklyn or New York in general.”

Both said they see Mamdani as breaking a trend within the Democratic Party, of the “very status quo, centrist-left politicians that don’t really align with the working class,” as Clara said. 

“He was promoting making things more affordable, which is something that I feel every day, things are getting more expensive seemingly every week,” Jamie said. “Basically it’s a bottom line and that’s probably why there was a 90% swing, is because he was the only one talking about a practical issue that could be addressed.”

Sitting on a bench nearby were Fay, a writer and lifelong New Yorker who lives on the Lower East Side, and Josh, a chef who lives in nearby Ridgewood. They were also Zohran-voters. Fay said she voted for Mamdani because she has seen “a lot of politicians really fuck up the city, specifically Eric Adams.”

“Most of my friends who are native New Yorkers have had to move to New Jersey or far out in neighborhoods that they weren’t raised in because they can no longer afford it. So having a politician who’s young and cool and really seems to put his money where his mouth is really exciting for me,” she shared. 

“He was a candidate that I resonated with in that he was young and was speaking to a lot of the values that hat felt true and that felt real,” Josh agrees. “Whereas, as opposed to the current mayor, I just didn’t feel like his policies not aligned with my values, but it just wasn’t a person that I felt like I was able to resonate with.”

Josh said he certainly saw a push for Mamdani in his neighborhood, in talking to his roommates, his close circle of friends, and people at the restaurant he works at. Josh contrasted these conversations with ones he had with his father and some of his friends, who he described as “more conservative.”

“I feel like every reason that he [Josh’s father] gave me not vote for Zohran had no sort of real implication…it was something related to Israel or, ‘Oh, he’s a terrorist, he’s totally irrational.’” Josh said. “So I think every reason that I was getting from the conversations that my more conservative friends were giving me not to vote for Zohran, really paled in comparison to the people that I talked to that did vote for him.”

It’s largely “Commie Corridor” voters like the ones in Maria Hernandez that gave Mamdani his decisive win.

“I think his margin of victory came from the Commie Corridor. If you removed it from New York City, he probably would have lost,, but he wouldn’t have lost by that much. We showed that he did very well beyond the Common Corridor. But, if just removed those assembly districts, he loses,” Lange said when asked what portion of Mamdani’s votes came from the Commie Corridor. 

[Elsie Carson-Holt is a journalist based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, FAIR, and LGBTQ Nation, among other places.]

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