Mamdani wins strong victory in New York City

Zohran Mamdani, a DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) member and New York State assemblyman representing parts of Queens, has won the mayoral race in New York City. Mamdani received over one million votes, including big majorities in a number of working-class districts as well as in many liberal or “progressive” middle-class neighborhoods. His election demonstrates a groundswell of support for left political policies and may mark a new chapter for the internal politics of the Democratic Party. For the working class, his election strikes a hopeful yet ambivalent note.

Mamdani’s victory came in the midst of strong Democratic Party gains in many other areas of the country in the Nov. 4 election. Polls of voters in New York City, as in other places, showed that most saw the rising cost of living as the major issue that motivated their choice in the election. Many media commentators view the Democratic victories as an explicit rejection of President Trump’s policies.

Mamdani retreats from earlier policies

Mamdani entered the race for mayor as a practically unknown candidate. Polling at little over 1% in February of this year, Mamdani’s focus on everyday economic reforms and social media expertise quickly helped him into the limelight. While Cuomo and Adams remained mired in various baroque sexual and financial scandals, Mamdani outlined a social democratic vision for addressing issues such as the New York housing crisis, the high cost of childcare, underfunded public transportation, and inflated grocery prices.

Mamdani won the Democratic primary against significant odds. The Democratic Party establishment vigorously opposed his candidacy. Democratic leaders such as Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries refused to endorse Mamdani in the primary, while New York Representatives Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi did not mince words about his politics. Gillen called Mamdani the “absolute wrong choice for New York,” and Suozzi pronounced his “serious concerns” about the assemblyman. That’s not to mention the tens of millions of dollars from top Democratic donors (including billionaire Michael Bloomberg) that went into the Cuomo Super PAC’s attempt to defeat Mamdani in the primary.

After attaining the Democratic Party nomination, Mamdani’s strategy in the general election saw a marked retreat from his bolder policy planks. Mamdani told Steven Colbert on the Late Show that he supported Israel’s right to exist, a sentiment he also conveyed to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in closed-door meetings. He has backed away from substantive criticism of the highly militarized NYPD, maintaining Jessica Tisch, billionaire heiress and NYPD Commissioner under Eric Adams, in her current position. Mamdani has also intimated in private meetings that he intends to compromise on his proposed “millionaire tax”—a staple policy of his primary campaign.

Crisis in the Democratic Party

After the disastrous 2024 presidential election, as well as two years of cowardly inaction in the face of Donald Trump’s assault on the civil rights of immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and women, the Democratic Party found itself in a moment of crisis. What little support Democrats once had among the working-class, Black people, and Latino Americans was eroding by the day. Their bid to court affluent, college-educated voters had failed as well, as their pro-genocide and pro-austerity political program reached historic levels of unpopularity.

This month’s election victories might have injected a burst of enthusiasm into the veins of the Democratic Party. But how long will this bump in popularity last if the party and its elected officials fail to mount a solid counterforce to Trumpism? Or to capitalist exploitation in general? Neither Democrats nor Republicans can claim to represent the working class.

The current dispute over health care, which underlies the government shutdown, shows that the proposals of the Democrats remain tepid. The Democrats are satisfied to argue that insurance prices and subsidies should not skyrocket, but refuse to make the case for universal free health care as a basic right.

It remains to be seen whether Mamdani’s election will shift the Democratic Party’s tactics. However, any such changes are likely to be superficial. While the Democrats might decide to turn up the volume in their speeches about the plight of the poor and hungry, it remains highly doubtful that they will do much of anything to mobilize people in the streets, or to encourage people to organize themselves in popular assemblies and within their unions and community organizations.

Mamdani, for his part, is not quiet about his plan to revitalize the decrepit Democratic Party. On the campaign trail, to POC and immigrant residents of NYC who voted for Trump due to Democrats’ support for the genocide in Gaza, their hawkish foreign policy, and inflation, Mamdani told them he wanted to make the Democratic Party “work for them again.” And his rhetoric has gradually moved steadily to the right in alignment with this goal. Mamdani’s increasing dependence on the support of New York’s billionaires and DNC apparatus indicates that the politics of his administration will trail Democratic Party consensus, rather than lead it.

What does this mean for workers?

Since Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign in 2016, workers in the United States have witnessed a surge in supposedly anti-establishment Democratic campaigns. Sanders’ movement spawned Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who, in turn, inspired countless local, state, and federal candidates. It is rare to see a Democratic primary without a candidate of this “progressive” type. Meanwhile, despite this near-limitless supply of politicians professing anti-racist and pro-working-class policies, a growing and dangerous movement of right-wing populism persists in the U.S.

These “progressive” politicians who run as Democrats, despite their best intentions, are compelled by the demands of wealthy Democratic Party donors and the political pressure of high-ranking party officials to turn away from working-class interests at the cost of their political career. For instance, Ocasio-Cortez voted to break the railworkers’ strike in 2023, and Sanders campaigned strenuously to elect Biden, who unconditionally supported the genocide in Gaza with financial and military aid. More recently, Sanders has gone so far as to voice cautious support for Trump’s catastrophic immigration policies.

Mamdani’s election is a powerful sign of the popularity of left-wing policies. Still, workers do not need another politician who will compromise with bosses and landlords. The Democratic Party has produced these at a rapid clip for over a century.

In our nation’s largest city, working people and immigrants suffer under astronomical rents, police violence, and degrading infrastructure. Mamdani, who campaigned on alleviating these struggles, cuts backroom deals with the very capitalists, cops, and landlords who profit from them. As always, the task of working people and their allies is to create their own independent organizations and to fight the capitalist class directly, not to put their fate in the hands of yet another politician running in a capitalist party.

Photo: Richard Drew / AP