By now we all know that Zorhan Mamdani, the New York State freshman Assemblyman who lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Queens, is the current odds-on favorite to be elected Mayor of New York against disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo, who lives in a big house in Westchester. You may have seen his personable 30-second TikTok videos that have gone viral on social media or watched his impressive performance in the debate against the newly-Independent Cuomo and the equally checkered Curtis Sliwa, the GOP’s candidate.*
Mamdani was profiled at length in the October 19th New York Times Magazine by reporter Astead W. Herndon (gift link). Herndon describes Mamdani as a committed socialist who has evolved his positions to be “a tad less punitive:”
He has made it clear that he wants to support renters, not punish landlords. He wants to support public education, not take a hammer to specialized schools with elite admissions. He supports Palestinian rights; he’s not anti-Zionist. He made key concessions when it comes to policing. Importantly, he made clear that he was open to compromise when it came to his proposed millionaires’ tax. Call it Mamdani 2.0.
In that respect, Mamadani reminds me of Bill Clinton, except for the latter’s tawdriness. Like the Arkansan, Mamdani excels at retail politics and courts potential enemies across the spectrum. (Clinton’s advisors called this “triangulation.”) Similarly, Mamdani has been wooing business people, law enforcement, and real estate interests well beyond his base. Both men campaigned as affable down-home folks. And of course both have a good deal of charisma. On the campaign trail, both hammer on pocketbook issues, though Clinton’s promises were far more vague and he finessed many of them. Mamdani could yet do that, but selling out isn’t his nature in my opinion.
Clinton’s presidency was disappointing, his scandals not withstanding, partly because he had triangulated and had donors to please and so left progressive hanging. Of course so was Obama’s and to some extent Biden’s tenures. Democrats are good at watching which way the wind blows and acting cautiously. Republican politicians respond to winds even more easily, and are anything but cautious.
Mamdani seems to fit the bill in many respects and even if he doesn’t sell out his supporters’ ideals. I suspect we’re in for some disappointments if he’s elected. Not all will be his fault, as forces will build to make sure he doesn’t succeed, and some will stymie his efforts. It’s possible he can come to terms with the Police Department, which he has tried to do, starting with backpedaling on his call to defund the police during the George Floyd uprisings, continuing by schmoozing with some lower-ranked officers in what seemed like a focus group. And he’s engaged with clergy, visited synagogues and black churches along with mosques, and met with civic and landlord organizations.
Donald Trump greeted Mamdani’s surprise primary victory with “It’s shocking” (that a socialist could be mayor), going on to call him a communist, and threatening consequences:
“Let’s say this – if he does get in, I’m going to be president, and he’s going to have to do the right thing, or they’re not getting any money. He’s got to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money.”
And no doubt he will do so, legality be damned. This will be a test for Mamdani and his coalition and appointees. Will they bargain with Trump or defy him?
A telling moment came in the middle the Times’ profile, where he said he learned not to feel like an outsider. Something his father said seems to have helped him through that:
Mamdani said he remembers once telling his father, a professor of international affairs and anthropology at Columbia, that he was exhausted with “always feeling like a minority.” But his father’s reply changed his perspective. “I was an Indian in Uganda. I was a Muslim in India. And I was all of these things in New York City,” Mahmood Mamdani explained to his son. And “to be a minority is also to see the truth of the place amidst the promise of it.”
If Mamdani isn’t elected, he won’t be going away. At the least, he will still be a New York lawmaker. He could even primary AOC to replace Schumer, though that wouldn’t look good. I personally think he would be fighting above his weight and would face some headwinds from upstate. He would need to articulate a domestic agenda that appeals to homeowners and suburbanites and a foreign policy that involves more than Israel and Palestine.
It really is a generational thing, much more than than a minority thing, the has held the Democratic elite from endorsing him. (Bernie doesn’t count.) Mamdani represents a harsh truth that they seem unwilling to confront: the youth of this country despise them as much as they despise Trump. And while there are fairly young members of the DNC (one of whom was left out in the cold when he ran for Chair and another who left the committee), they still don’t get that they’re stuck in the past. There is always a reluctance among elected officials to pass the torch to anyone, much less young upstarts. I hope they learn before they lose again.
*Another young progressive with an unlikely name is Chicago’s Kat Abughazaleh, also adept at campaigning on social media. A Palestinian-American from a family with deep Republican roots, she’s a supporter of a free Palestine and a dogged opponent of ICE operations She’s energetically running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th district, where she hopes to unseat Jan Schakowsky, a four-term Democrat who Abughazalehv feels has gone soft despite caucusing with Progressives. See Kat being slammed to the ground by ICE agents, one of many short portrait videos on her You Tube channel. Like Mamdani, she’s earned death threats from the MAGA fringe. Here’s her campaign site.
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