‘The worst people in American politics are so mad’: Zohran Mamdani’s victory and its aftermath

New York is a city that lives in the imagination of the world. Sharing in that collective dream, however, can have the unfortunate side-effect of inspiring a sense of familiarity that may not strictly be justified.

It is an understandable temptation; the focal position New York occupies arguably makes it one of the most heavily reported-upon cities on Earth – so much so that I can more easily read up-to-the-minute coverage of the five boroughs than I can of, say, Peebles. In light of this, one does not need to be an actual resident of NYC to recognise the incredible weirdness of its embattled current mayor Eric Adams, because there are alien species in distant galaxies who could recognise the incredible weirdness of Eric Adams.

Nevertheless, many who have never experienced New York, never lived or struggled there, can yet be prone to act as if the vividness with which that mythic city exists in their minds entitles them to speak as if they had first-hand knowledge of the place. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, so it is worth reminding yourself occasionally that a lifetime of Lou Reed lyrics and the ability to recite Ghostbusters from beginning to end do not an honorary New Yorker make. Or, as the journalist Cooper Lund succinctly put it recently: “Please don’t talk about my city if you don’t live here, you’re going to show your whole ass.”

Despite Lund’s wise counsel, asses have been unveiled in abundance in the weeks since democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, confirmed by the New York City Board of Elections on July 1. The Queens assemblyman not only defeated the well-funded campaign of former New York governor/Lurch lookalike Andrew Cuomo, but was last week confirmed to have won the most primary votes in the city’s history.

Mamdani’s campaign focused heavily on cost-of-living issues relevant to the city’s working class, with policies including free bus services, the implementation of universal childcare, a rent freeze and the creation of city-run grocery stores. As much as the broad appeal of these commitments may have contributed to Mamdani’s success, he may also have been aided by the sheer gruesomeness of his opponent, who resigned in disgrace following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and is bitterly remembered by many New Yorkers for a controversial directive compelling New York nursing homes to accept Covid-positive patients, with 15,000 seniors dead in consequence.

If the nature of Mamdani’s extraordinary triumph is difficult for outsiders to simplistically parse, the hysterical reactions it has inspired from the wider Democratic establishment and the myriad centrist pundits who act as their interlocutors can perhaps be assessed with a little more confidence.

The sense of panic among Mamdani’s ideological enemies is palpable; they do not understand how this happened, because this was not supposed to happen. Now that it has, many of the certainties upon which their worldview hinges have come unstuck. It is difficult, first and foremost, to maintain the fiction that socialists are unelectable when they, y’know, win. It is equally tricky to sell the notion that any hint of anti-Zionism is merely antisemitism by another name when an anti-Zionist candidate – who not only refused to condemn the slogan “globalise the intifada” but also, to the bewilderment of Atlantic columnists and other hapless dweebs, cogently and unapologetically articulated why – wins in a city with the largest Jewish population in America. And it is downright impossible to get anyone to change their vote out of sympathy with their landlord.

The New York Times has found itself in some truly uncharted waters, and the intensification of its negative coverage of Mamdani – which, among other things, has included the unapologetic utilisation of a white supremacist as a source – might be attributed to how much his victory has challenged the paper’s own self-image. In a lean, dark age for journalism in general and legacy media in particular, the ‘Grey Lady’ still flatters itself as one of the last newspapers standing that can claim genuine widespread influence. How disquieting it must have been, then, to discover that the New York Times – despite sternly instructing its readership not to vote for Mamdani under any circumstances – has only negligible impact on the politics of New York itself.

Meanwhile, the Spectator gave space last week to Monica Porter who, despite not having set foot in New York for eight years, warns that her beloved city could fall to Bolshevism if Mamdani takes power, because “while he denies being a communist (he would hardly admit to it), his views are proto-Marxist, to say the least”. Porter laments that “New York – once my family’s sanctuary from communism – could one day have a mayor that takes his cue from Marx and Lenin”. In some circles, I believe this is referred to as ‘threatening us with a good time’.

Perhaps regrettably, reports of Mamdani’s radicalism may be somewhat overblown. Few of the policies that have prompted such apocalyptic doom-mongering from his critics are untested or unfamiliar (for example, despite the howls of the city’s landlord lobby, former New York mayor Bill de Blasio froze rent on the city’s stabilised units three times during his time in office). Mamdani is far from the first candidate to be portrayed as being considerably further to the left than he really is, though what may be most significant is how little this characterisation has damaged his candidacy. Either voters no longer buy this kind of naked red-baiting, or they do not find the idea of having “a communist at the highest level” in City Hall all that unappealing. Neither possibility bodes well for the establishment forces Mamdani so thoroughly routed in the primary.

Still, just in case a red dawn does break over Gotham, an actual socialist perspective might be illuminating. For that, Heckle spoke to the writer and cartoonist John Leavitt, a member of the Bronx-Uptown Manhattan chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who described the general feeling of the New York DSA as one of “relief and elation” in the wake of Mamdani’s victory.

“So many people worked so hard to make this happen,” Leavitt says. “A big thing I’ve noticed is former volunteers or vaguely supportive people suddenly signing up for work. Success is the best motivator – it’s like you played basketball and the hoop got wider every time you scored.”

Although a Mamdani victory was far from certain on the day of the primary, there were some key moments during the campaign where such an outcome began to feel possible. “I maintained, because of Cuomo’s grip on the state party and his name recognition, that even if we posed a credible challenge, it would be a good sign,” Leavitt recalls. “I kind of thought we might win when he failed to get matching public funds, ‘cause it was a sign he was taking it for granted. But after that debate where Cuomo was confused and hostile and unprepared, I thought ‘oh holy shit, we could do this’.”

Leavitt’s measured appraisal on Mamdani and his policies stands in sharp contrast to the hysteria of his detractors – free buses, Leavitt points out, are “such a basic, normal social democratic thing that’s been proven a thousand times to work elsewhere – just simple steps to being a normal 21st century city” – and the takeaways from Mamdani’s victory are similarly straightforward.

“It’s easy to be natural and speak off the cuff about the issues if you actually care about the issues and have a point of view and aren’t being coached by consultants over what opinion to have on any given day,” Leavitt says. “Also, if you build your own base you don’t need the endorsement of some corpse from six states away.”

Regarding Cuomo, Leavitt adds: “I hate to give the enemy ideas, but they did not run a campaign. They kept Cuomo out of the public for the longest time – he didn’t even speak in his non-stop TV ads – it was all vague negative mailers and endorsements from Democrats out of state. Totally entitled, top-down stuff. I couldn’t name a single Cuomo campaign promise other than ‘Bill Clinton likes me’, which doesn’t really fly anymore.”

Asked if there are lessons the wider American left could take from the Mamdani campaign, Leavitt says simply: “Organise. Organise. Organise. For all people talk about his personal charm or message discipline or great videos, it came down to literally tens of thousands of volunteers knocking on doors and canvassing and handing out flyers and phone-banking to make it happen. The youngest voting bloc for Zohran was the largest one, which is insane electorally. It’s like they invented faster-than-light travel. And that’s because the NYC-DSA has spent a decade learning how to do this and getting people’s trust that they can do this and building up local networks that can get people out to do this.

“You have to talk to your neighbours. This has to be local. Most of the old party structures are corrupt and out of touch and in the case of America, literally dying of old age. Find a local structure and actually believe in something and tell people what you believe. It’s insane how much having an actual demand like Universal pre-K versus vague stuff you’ve been told to say by consultants assigned to you works.

“Also, Andrew Cuomo is a uniquely disgusting ghoul who bent all local politics around himself to the point where most people supported/donated to him out of fear of what he would do if they didn’t and he won. You’re not going to get that in every race.”

Following their abject failure to derail Mamdani, Leavitt does not predict that the Democratic establishment in New York and beyond will overcome their disdain for the candidate any time soon. “They’re flailing. The only joy in that is that the worst people in American politics are so mad they can’t think straight. They’re gonna say rent freezes are antisemitic.”

With Mamdani now the Democratic nominee for mayor, both Cuomo and Adams have committed to standing as independents; as of last week, Mamdani holds a 10-point lead over Cuomo, while the beleaguered Adams – who remains entangled in an almost comical array of corruption charges – trails in fourth place behind the red beret-sporting Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Reportedly, the powerful interests which uniformly coalesced around Cuomo’s initial campaign – major landlords, financiers, real estate developers, CEOs and the ultra-rich in general – are now waiting to see which will emerge as the most viable opponent to Mamdani, with the expectation that the others will drop out to maximise his chances. There is, however, one problem with this strategy.

“They are all egomaniacal sociopaths,” one political operative who had worked with all three told New York magazine. “And to imagine that any of them would step down for the so-called greater good is to pretend that they are three completely different people.”

That may not be their only problem. Leavitt makes no predictions about the election itself as such, but notes: “It’s entirely possible both Adams and Cuomo [will be] in court facing charges while it happens.”

Main photo credit: edenpictures / Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 BY