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Zohran Mamdani, in his first major interview since his upset victory in the Democratic party’s mayoral primary in New York shook up US politics, said his brand of campaigning and leftist political stances can translate to anywhere in the US.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, stunned many observers by beating Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night, delivering a devastating blow to the former New York governor who ran a centrist campaign backed by most of the party establishment.
Mamdani told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki that his populist campaign – which focused on inequality and promised radical moves on rent, the price of food and free public transport – could be deployed anywhere in the US as Democrats seek to combat Donald Trump and his Maga movement.
“I think ultimately this is a campaign about inequality, and you don’t have to live in the most expensive city in the country to have experienced that inequality, because it’s a national issue. And what Americans coast to coast are looking for are people who will fight for them, not just believe in the things that resonate with their lives, but actually fight and deliver on those very things,” he said.
Mamdani added: “I think that in focusing on working people and their struggles, we also return back to what makes so many of us proud to be Democrats in the first place.”
Mamdani – who was backed by fellow socialists Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, and the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – campaigned by combining an intense effort to knock on doors and meet voters with a highly effective social media strategy.
That style contrasted sharply with Cuomo, who was backed by millions of dollars of money from rich donors and endorsements from party bigwigs including Bill Clinton and the South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn, and who ran a campaign focused on more stage-managed events. Throughout he was dogged by the sexual harassment allegations that led to his ouster as state governor four years ago, as well as a sense he was using the mayoral campaign to reignite his own political career rather than any particular or long-standing commitment to the city he sought to lead.
“We have found exactly the way to defeat organized money, which is organized people. We’re speaking about a scale of a campaign that we haven’t seen in this city in a long time,” Mamdani said.
“And ultimately, we believe in a politics of no translation, one that is both direct to the struggles of working people’s lives and also delivered directly. And there is nothing more direct than a New Yorker knocking on another New Yorker’s door.”
Mamdani’s victory means he will be the Democratic party’s nominee in the mayoral election, and given the heavy Democratic slant of New York City voters it is often the case that the party nominee also wins the mayoralty.
But Cuomo has signalled he may run as an independent, despite his loss this week. And the current mayor, Eric Adams, who won as a Democrat, will also run as an independent, after his popularity within the party plummeted due in part to allegations of corruption and his newfound closeness with Trump.
Including the Republican party candidate, Curtis Sliwa, the rightwing podcaster who founded the Guardian Angels charitable organization focused on street safety, it sets up a likely four-way race in November. Mamdani nevertheless remains the favorite to win, which would make him New York’s first Muslim mayor and solidify his place at 33 years old as a bright new star of the Democratic party.
