Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has become a new voice for progressives
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old New York state representative and democratic socialist, will be the next mayor of New York City. The impacts of his campaign, however, have spread far beyond the city’s limits.
Mamdani won the Democratic nomination in June in a surprise upset over several higher-profile candidates, including incumbent mayor Eric Adams and former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo, whom he defeated again in the Nov. 4 election. The Associated Press called the November election for Mamdani less than an hour after the polls closed. With over 50 per cent of the vote, Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of one of the largest cities in North America. The race has dominated both the news cycle and social media feeds, in part thanks to Mamdani’s snappy, eye-catching campaign videos, which made the previously-unknown state assemblyman a serious contender in a crowded election.
Throughout the campaign, Mamdani’s political opponents criticized him for supporting Palestine, in response to Mamdani calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and saying that Israel is under apartheid. When asked during a debate if he believed Israel had a right to exist as a Jewish state, Mamdani responded that he believes “Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights.” Several Republicans, including Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, called his stances anti-semitic, an accusation Mamdani staunchly rejects. He has vowed to fight anti-semitism and support NYC’s Jewish community, and he has gained support from several prominent Jewish figures, including mayoral primary candidate and NYC comptroller Brad Lander.
Despite pressure, Mamdani stuck to his message: simple promises to ease costs for New Yorkers, including free buses, universal childcare, and city-owned grocery stores. Mamdani’s strict focus on affordability helped him gain support not only across NYC’s five boroughs but across borders. In an interview with Politico, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said she would “love to meet him,” while Avi Lewis and Heather McPherson, both candidates for leader of Canada’s NDP, congratulated Mamdani on his win.
His campaign seemed to have trouble, however, winning over the rest of his party. Several established Democrats either did not endorse him or waited until the last minute. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in September, a little over a month before the election. Chuck Schumer, the senior senator from New York and Senate minority leader, refused to endorse anyone, telling reporters on election day he had already voted and “[looked] forward to working with the next mayor.”
Throughout the campaign, Mamdani faced Islamophobic and racist attacks from his opponents and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Both Cuomo, his main opponent in the race, and Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior Democratic senator from New York, came under fire for seemingly Islamophobic comments about Mamdani in separate radio interviews. Several prominent figures on the right, including Mamdani’s Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa, made racist accusations linking Mamdani to terrorism, based on zero evidence. In a rare shift of focus, Mamdani gave a powerful speech late in the campaign denouncing his opponents’ “racist, baseless attacks” and the normalization of Islamophobia in American politics.
Some of Mamdani’s supporters see the win as representative of a broader shift in U.S. politics, away from Donald Trump and MAGA towards progressives. Mamdani is one of several prominent members of the organization Democratic Socialists of America, which includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. Democratic socialism has also had a long history in Canada, first in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and later in its successor, the NDP. While the federal NDP removed democratic socialism from their constitution in 2011, democratic socialist principles are explicitly mentioned in the constitutions of some provincial wings of the party, including B.C. and Alberta. Chow, who was an NDP MP for eight years before becoming mayor of Toronto, compared Mamdani’s campaign to her own 2023 run, which also focused on affordability.
Mamdani’s win could influence other campaigns. Part of his strategy involved reaching out to communities usually ignored by politicians. His appeal to non-voters was successful: over two million people cast their votes in this year’s NYC mayoral election, the highest turnout since the 1960s.
Municipal elections traditionally attract very low turnout, including in New Brunswick. According to Elections NB, only 37.86 per cent of registered voters cast their votes in the 2022 Tantramar municipal election. Province-wide, municipal election turnout was even lower, at 35.77 per cent. As other candidates start taking inspiration from his strategies, these statistics have the chance to change.