Zoran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoral race has made him one of the most high-profile Democrats in the nation, for better or for worse.
Mamdani’s historic victory will have a major impact on the Democratic Party
Whether from Texas, Ohio, or Arizona, Zoran Mamdani’s historic victory will have a huge impact on the 2026 Democratic race.
He is the next mayor of New York. Will he also become an American mayor?
Zoran Mamdani’s victory in the Nov. 4 election didn’t just make him the leader of the Big Apple. It also turns him into one of the most high-profile Democrats in the country, someone who runs President Donald Trump’s hometown and is not going to sit on the sidelines and watch.
The mayor of New York is in charge of America’s largest city, so he is always in the national spotlight. Then-Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani made a huge impression on Americans by leading the traumatized city in the days and weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, becoming widely known as “America’s Mayor.”
Mamdani will not take office until January. But for months, his face continued to be splashed across TV screens and news feeds. Americans living from Schenectady to Salinas and everywhere in between will hear more about him after he and his wife move into Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence.
Why is there suddenly national interest in a state legislator most Americans had never heard of until a few months ago?
First of all, he is young (only 34 years old), charismatic, and outspoken, which is why he is often compared to a young Barack Obama. He is a newcomer at a time when many Americans are hungry for new leadership.
He is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who promotes a progressive message of fighting inequality, defending immigrant rights and making life more affordable in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Many similar problems are occurring across the country, with rising housing costs, National Guard patrols in multiple cities, and reports of aggressive raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
For many progressives, Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, which mobilized record-breaking volunteer and voter turnout, shows how to reinvigorate a moribund Democratic Party.
two of the most famous progressives in this country − Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York − campaigned on his behalf.
The new Republican boogeyman
Republicans are benefiting from Democrats being able to demonize and tie them to the Democratic Party as a whole ahead of next year’s midterm congressional elections.
Mamdani is their new boogeyman.
With his election, “all House Democrats are now dragging the anvil of radical socialism into 2026,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The committee has already released a strategy memo showing how Republicans plan to cast Mamdani as the villain in next year’s key battleground races. And even before Mamdani’s victory, House Republican leaders were already saying Congressional Democrats were indebted to Mamdani.
It’s a sign of how the Republican Party is trying to characterize this race. “This is not about one race in New York,” the memo says, “this is a national story of a political party knee-deep in socialism and the far left.”
Mamdani’s victory puts him at odds with Trump, who was born and raised in New York and made his name in the city’s real estate market before entering politics. Trump has taken an unusual interest in the mayoral race, calling Mamdani a “100% communist lunatic” and threatening to withhold funding from the city if Mamdani wins. On the eve of the election, President Trump urged voters to vote for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying he has the ability to lead New York and Mamdani does not.
“He wants to destroy New York,” Trump said at an event in Des Moines in July. “I love New York, and we’re not going to let him do that. …America will never become communist in any way, and that includes New York City.”
President Trump also threatened to investigate Mamdani’s immigration status and arrest him if he did not authorize an immigration raid in New York.
Mamdani was born in Uganda, immigrated to the United States with his parents at a young age, and became a U.S. citizen shortly after graduating from college. He said he is ready to work with President Trump on issues of affordability and cost of living. But he vowed to use the courts to fight Trump on immigration raids, remind New Yorkers of their rights and protect the city’s sanctuary cities policy.
Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, was the target of attacks that relied on Islamophobic tropes during the campaign.
“Could you imagine another 9/11 happening with Mamdani sitting there?” Cuomo asked during an appearance on a conservative radio show.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is considering a run for New York governor in 2026, branded Mamdani a “jihadist.” Representative Andy Ogles, a far-right conservative Republican from Tennessee, suggested Mamdani’s citizenship should be revoked and he should be deported. And South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor in her home state, tried to link him to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She posted a photo of Mamdani to X with the message: “After 9/11 we said ‘never forget’. Sadly I think we have forgotten.”
Mamdani was only 9 years old on the day of September 11, 2001.
Schumer and Jeffries separate over Mamdani
The only group that doesn’t want to talk about Mamdani is moderate Democrats.
Some prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, declined to endorse Mamdani. Even on Election Day, Schumer did not reveal who he voted for.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who lives in Brooklyn, waited until a little more than a week before the election to endorse Mamdani. Jeffries, a critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, had resisted endorsing Mamdani for months despite significant pressure from the party’s left. When he finally announced his support, he did so in writing and said he respected the wishes of primary voters and young voters who were encouraged to participate in the election process.
Still, Jeffries’ support was important because he would likely become speaker of the House if Democrats regain the majority in next year’s elections.
Can other Democrats win with Mamdani’s message?
Democrats are scrutinizing Mamdani’s victory to determine the extent to which his affordability message and other left-leaning issues can be transferred to next year’s midterm congressional elections and other campaigns leading up to the 2028 presidential election.
The Democratic Party has been trapped in a political wilderness since then-Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump last year. Some are concerned about how Mamdani’s victory will affect the party’s image and the Republican argument that Democrats are imposing socialism on the country.
But some believe Mr. Mamdani may offer Democrats a formula for winning back voters who have abandoned them.
Progressive activist Adam Green said there is a growing consensus that Democrats need to talk more about affordability issues and appeal more to working-class voters. Mamdani showed how that can be done, he said.
“For a long time, Democratic voters didn’t know that it was okay to be provoked,” said Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a grassroots organization with 1 million members.
“Zoran Mamdani has proven that when Democrats have new, positive ideas and change the system, volunteers flock to their aid and voters flock to the polls,” Green said. “And that’s an important message for all Democrats running in 2026 and 2028.”
Susan Stokes, director of the Center for Democracy at the University of Chicago, said the New York mayoral race shows a generational struggle unfolding within the Democratic Party.
“Zoran Mamdani represents a generation of young progressives (in his case Democratic Socialists) who are more outspoken on issues of income inequality and increasing the chances of poor and working-class voters, who have increasingly turned to Republicans in recent years, when they vote,” Stokes said.
cuomo, 67, Mr. Clinton, who rose to prominence during the Clinton administration, represents an older generation of Democrats who are more centrist or conservative than a younger generation of aspiring leaders.
The rifts center around economics and cost of living issues, but they appear on other issues as well. In New York City’s mayoral race, Cuomo accused Mamdani of harshly criticizing Israel, of calling for defunding the police (which Mamdani recanted), and of disrespecting the legacy of Christopher Columbus.
“Nationally, the Democratic Party faces a very urgent challenge to reaffirm its image as the party of low-income and working-class Americans,” Stokes said. “Will the older, more establishment Democratic Party find a way to solve that problem? Will there be more ‘centrist’ answers that other younger Democratic leaders can provide? Or will a Mamdani/AOC/Bernie-type response become the dominant one within the party?”
Whether he is mayor of New York or the United States, Mamdani’s election may provide some clues.
Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. He is a veteran reporter who has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X: @mcollinsNEWS
