Zohran Mamdani’s People-Powered Win Is a Rebuke to Democrat Cowardice
Zohran Mamdani did something different, and it made all the difference. The 33-year-old Ugandan-born, Indian American state assemblymember has consistently demonstrated his leftist politics over the years, from hunger strikes in solidarity with taxi workers and the people of Gaza, as covered on this site, to his campaign platform, which embraced progressive policy proposals ranging from city-owned grocery stores to free buses and childcare to strong LGBTQ+ protections. (Also covered on this site: his 2010s music career, which became the subject of many memes over the last few weeks — ideal, given his prolific social media presence. As with so much else, he knew how to work it to his advantage.)
This was the playbook the Democratic Party eschewed in 2024 by essentially leaving those issues and constituencies on the table, as I argued in the wake of that year’s presidential election. After a chaotic election season that saw many Dem candidates and electeds trending more moderate, and a subsequent second win for Donald Trump, a number of Democratic pundits were shocked by how badly they had gotten beaten, but others closely following, including myself, were unsurprised. The Democrats had failed to provide an appropriately stark alternative to the anti-migrant, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-education, anti-climate science policies platformed by Trump. Failing to present a strong left-wing or anti-establishment presidential candidate, particularly after years of intra-party conflict sowed in a post-Bernie Sanders political world, cost them at the polls.
Even though it’s absurd to keep trying the same thing over and over and expect a different result, last year plenty of Democratic lawmakers moved away from the constituencies that have historically made up their base and have continued in that direction into the second Trump administration. Take the white dudes you might not be shocked to see back down, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who tried to make himself the main character of Los Angeles’s anti-ICE protests and bowed to Trump’s attacks on a trans high school girl. Despite the latter, the U.S. Department of Education just found that the state violated Title IX by historically allowing trans students to compete in school sports based on their gender identity, showing his attempt at capitulating wasn’t enough for the administration.
Then you have Congresswoman Sarah McBride of Delaware, who since November has complied with a bathroom ban in the Capitol and U.S. House office buildings pushed by Republicans like Rep. Nancy Mace and Speaker Mike Johnson, a policy that targets not just her, but all the trans people who work on the Hill. In an interview with the New York Times’ Ezra Klein last week, McBride scapegoated the left for some of the political backlash to trans rights, suggesting that being more conciliatory towards the likes of those campaigning against her right to use the correct bathroom might’ve netted more electoral gains for Democrats. Except Harris already tried that in 2024 by generally avoiding the issue of trans rights during her debate with Trump and her campaign writ large.
Rather than going conciliatory on trans rights, Mamdani actively campaigned to trans New Yorkers, a number of whom are refugees from more conservative states’ discriminatory laws. He unabashedly embraced New York’s immigrant-heavy population, continuously recording social media content in different languages. Instead of trying to get on Joe Rogan’s podcast, as the Harris campaign reportedly attempted to do (or trying to become him — looking at you, Newsom), Mamdani went on Hasan Piker’s stream. In so doing, he was able to speak to those same constituencies who either felt burned or simply ignored by Democratic centrist campaign strategies.
Hundreds of thousands of young people live in New York City, about one-fifth of whom are students, according to a 2024 report from Robin Hood and Columbia University researchers. These young people watched political institutions, including the current Democratic mayor, send NYPD onto their campuses to arrest students and their professors across the boroughs. The first time I ran into Mamdani in person after interviewing him over the phone, it was at a New York City campus where he quietly visited protesting students. Those young people drove the increased mayoral primary turnout — just like they helped net national wins for progressives in 2022. (It’s also worth noting that progressives did well across New York state last night, as pointed out by Bolts editor-in-chief Daniel Nichanian.)
The immigrant communities who watched Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bus migrants to Democratic cities, the trans people who fled gender-affirming care bans in more than two dozen states, the New Yorkers feeling the squeeze of ever-increasing economic suffering: They were offered something different in Zohran Mamdani.
His win was in spite of establishment machines doing their damnedest to legitimize the campaign of disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. The New York Times editorial board gave the advice that it would be better to elect someone the Justice Department found sexually harassed women than Mamdani basically because he’s 33, claiming the candidate field wasn’t good enough for New Yorkers, who seemed to clearly disagree. The Atlantic has run several op-eds critical of Mamdani, even including one calling his campaign “magic realism,” though Mamdani has held elected office for several years and has not been accused publicly of harassing at least 13 state employees and causing the death of thousands from COVID.
Those news outlets expressed no such concern about the cartoon villain who expected to waltz back into office on the basis of his blustering bullying and political dynasty — let alone over the misogyny inherent in deciding the actions that led to his stepping down as governor in 2021 were easy to overlook. National Democrats tried to close ranks around Cuomo, too, with former president Bill Clinton — you know, the guy who violated professional boundaries by having a sexual relationship with an intern and lied about it to the American people — and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn endorsing Cuomo in the final hours.
Critics reasonably wondered if this had anything to do with the terror the business and wealthy classes felt over Mamdani’s blazing campaign. The wealthy have been able to exert influence over the current mayor; just as one example, a group of business leaders successfully directed him to send police to deal with student protesters at Columbia University, according to a group chat reviewed by The Washington Post. Bill Ackman, who was in that group chat, was a significant backer of one of the pro-Cuomo PACs that sent attack mailers on Mamdani, Mother Jones reported. Ackman also backed another pro-Cuomo PAC that spent more than $16 million on his campaign, almost half of the total outside spending in any New York City primary race this cycle, according to City & State New York. That’s still less than the over $19 million Cuomo has spent in New York taxpayer dollars to legally go after his accusers, going so far as to request their medical records.
Rejecting these arguments, several of the other candidates running in the ranked choice mayoral Democratic primary took it upon themselves to take Cuomo to task over the harassment accusations against him, resulting in a high-profile debate stage moment for Mamdani that went mega-viral, and resisted party maneuvering in Cuomo’s favor by cross-endorsing each other. It’s impossible to cover Mamdani’s success without mentioning the collaboration of fellow candidate Brad Lander, who made headlines last week for being detained by ICE while accompanying someone as they attempted to leave an immigration court. While some critics accused Mamdani of antisemitism for his support of the pro-Palestine movement, Lander, who is Jewish, used an election watch party speech to congratulate his fellow candidate and say of Mamdani, who is Muslim, “We are not going to let anyone divide Muslim New Yorkers and Jewish New Yorkers.”
New Yorkers lobbied to show each other the differences between the candidates, too, running a “Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor” campaign (re-christened after Eric Adams dropped out of the Dem primary) to make sure his name recognition didn’t go to waste. Mamdani’s commitment to showing he was a different candidate, a different New Yorker, went deeper than just policy. More New Yorkers can likely relate to Mamdani needing to correct Cuomo on stage on the pronunciation of his name than to Cuomo’s political dynasty and ability to return to power despite wrongdoing with little accountability.
Excerpts from this morning’s headlines: “Zohran Mamdani offered New Yorkers a political revolution,” The Guardian. “Zohran Mamdani crafts a Democratic blueprint” and “A political earthquake,” CNN. “Stunning upset,” local outlet the City. New York Magazine: “Zohran Mamdani Just Remade American Politics.”
If people are shocked Mamdani could win, it’s because we’re so used to regular people’s votes not counting and to powerful establishment politicians winning no matter what happens. It helps explain why so many people from outside the five boroughs have eagerly watched this election, desperately seeking a sign of hope amid the darkness of the Trump administration. One election does not a total political revolution make, but as we wait for the November general, people power can take this win — and, hopefully, run with it.
[Lex McMenamin is the news and politics editor at Teen Vogue and a GLAAD Award-nominated writer covering politics, identity, activist movements and pop culture. A regular contributor at Them, they have been published by the BBC, the Nation, i-D and elsewhere.]