Zohran Mamdani’s Wins the race for mayor of New York City There is a political earthquake.
It emerges surprisingly from obscurity, giving the left its biggest victory yet and igniting an already fierce battle within the Democratic Party.
The internal fighting intensified when the mayor-elect took the stage at his victory party in Brooklyn just before midnight.
Mamdani unleashed a volley of rhetoric not only against President Trump, whom he called “autocratic”, but also against the leadership of his own party, which he described as corporatist and weak.
He promised that his mayoral election would be based on “a bold vision of what we will accomplish, not on a list of excuses that we are too timid to try.”
A few moments later, in an even more direct attack, he said:
“The convention has held us back. We have bowed down at the altar of caution and we have paid a heavy price. Too many working people can’t recognize themselves in our party, and too many of us have turned to the right for answers as to why they have been left behind.”
His speech, which also named American socialist icon Eugene Debs and India’s first post-independence Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, must have sent centrists into a panic.
But, at least for now, the wind is in Mamdani’s favor
The 34-year-old state assemblyman defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo twice — first in the June primary and again on Tuesday.
Despite lavish spending by outside groups and billionaires to stop him in the closing stages of the race, he did so with ease.
The Hill’s data partner Decision Desk HQ announced the race for Mamdani minutes after polls closed at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
As of midnight, Mamdani was hovering just above 50 percent of the total votes and was ahead of Cuomo by nine points with 91 percent of ballots counted. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa was in third place with seven percent.
Voting turnout in the country’s most populous city crossed 20 lakh, the highest in decades. This is evidence, at least in the eyes of Team Mamdani, that their candidate’s brand of politics has sparked new hope, attracting voters to the polls for the first time.
“People are inspired by this vision,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told NBC News during an interview with Mamdani’s program Tuesday night.
The congressman, a potential 2028 presidential candidate who appeared at a massive rally with Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at the finale of the mayoral campaign, stressed that the landslide victory showed that Democrats can find success by “delivering a new message.”
In Mamdani’s case the centerpiece of the message – and what he focused on with relentless discipline – was affordability.
He promised New Yorkers free child care for infants five years of age and younger, free bus travel, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, and the creation of a government-run grocery store in each of the city’s five boroughs.
He promised to pay for the program by raising the city’s corporate tax rate so that it is on par with neighboring New Jersey and by raising the city’s income tax rate to two percent for those earning $1 million or more.
But Mamdani’s more outspoken, defiant tone also included another issue that came to define the campaign: Israel and the Palestinians.
Mamdani calls Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide. He has said that, as mayor, he would order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.
By contrast, Cuomo announced last November that he had joined Netanyahu’s defense team. For his part, Trump accused Mamdani of being a “Jew hater” on the morning of Election Day and said that any Jewish person who voted for him was an “idiot.”
In a more general sense, Mamdani’s more assertive stance was clearly welcomed by many Democrats. Nationwide, multiple polls have shown that Democratic voters are more dissatisfied with their party than Republicans.
Given all this, it is not surprising that the Democratic leadership has kept its distance from Mamdani.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) never endorsed Mamdani and even avoided telling reporters who he voted for in the mayor’s race on Tuesday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) waited until the day before early voting began before offering somewhat lukewarm support.
The leadership and its allies fear that Mamdani’s brand of leftist politics will be seen as emblematic of the party at large. Centrists argue that the left will play a far worse role across the country — and in purple districts and states — than in the liberal strongholds of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
They fear that this will lead to a painful defeat for the party.
Trump has advanced similar views, suggesting that Mamdani’s victory would benefit the GOP. In a September 29 social media post, the President asserted that the mayor-elect “could prove to be one of the best things that has ever happened to our great Republican Party.” [LINK: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115287641147640374]
Democrats favoring a more revised approach than Mamdani’s also scored meaningful victories on Tuesday.
In the night’s two big gubernatorial races, centrist Democratic candidates won easily. Representative Mickey Sherrill (D-N.J.) outperformed Republican Jack Ciattarelli by a significant margin in New Jersey, defeating him by about 12 points. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) scored an even bigger victory in Virginia over state Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl-Sears (R).
Spanberger’s speech was miles away from Mamdani-style rhetoric.
“Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” he said, promising to emphasize “problem-solving, not stoking division.”
Mamdani’s victory was huge. As a result, the battle lines for the future of the Democratic Party are clearer than ever.
The Memo is a column reported by Niall Stannage.
