By TONY STABILE and GUILLERMO SCHRODER
Zohran Mamdani, a DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) member and New York State Assemblyman representing parts of Queens, won the Democratic Party mayoral primary in New York City on July 1. His electoral success demonstrates a groundswell of support for left political policies and a heightening of the crisis of legitimacy confronting the Democratic Party. Mamdani claims that his successful primary campaign serves as an example of how Democrats can “unite our party and build our party such that we can take on and defeat this right-wing authoritarianism we’re seeing in Washington, D.C.”
What happened
Mamdani entered the primary race 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 gain prominence quickly. While Cuomo and Adams remained mired in various baroque sexual and financial scandals, Mamdani outlined a clearer vision for addressing issues such as the New York housing crisis, the high cost of child care, underfunded public transportation, and inflated grocery prices.
Mamdani won 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 calling Mamdani the “absolute wrong choice for New York,” and Suozzi pronouncing 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 Andrew Cuomo’s Super PAC, which was attempting to defeat Mamdani in the primary and now to defeat him in November.
Crisis in the Democratic Party
After its disastrous defeat in the 2024 presidential election—as well as its cowardly inaction in the face of Donald Trump’s assault on the civil rights of immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and women—the Democratic Party finds itself in a moment of crisis. Neither Democrats nor Republicans can claim to represent the working class. Moreover, the majority of workers do not regularly vote in any elections.
What little support Democrats once had among the working class, Black people, and Latinos is eroding by the day, and their bid to court affluent, college-educated voters has failed as well. Democratic Party support for the Israeli genocide, coupled with domestic austerity, has driven them to historic lows in terms of overall public approval.
Mamdani, for his part, is not quiet about his plan to revitalize the decrepit Democratic Party. He has already begun to play the role of an “outsider” candidate, bringing in people disaffected by the leaderships of both parties’ establishments. This recuperation of voters is a significant concern for the Democratic Party, which lost significant elements of its “historic” base to Trump or to non-participation in the 2024 election.
The Gothamist recently published an analysis finding that “Mamdani won 30% of the primary election districts Trump won in the 2024 general election and garnered over 35,000 votes in districts that went for Trump. Around the Jamaica Hills, Queens intersection where Mamdani filmed last November, voters in 2024 moved toward the GOP by nearly 25 points. On Tuesday, Mamdani won there with 84.2% of the vote.” These statistics illustrate the effect of Mamdani’s politics, whether he intends it or not, which utilize his history as an activist and his “anti-establishment” ethos to bring disgruntled voters back into the fold of the Democratic Party.
More recently, Mamdani has sought to gain backing from the “centrist” mainstream of the Democratic Party, meeting with party leaders in Washington, top party donors, and big business executives in New York. Simultaneously, his rhetoric has gradually inched toward the right. He has steadily backtracked on his previous unapologetically pro-Palestine positions and was seen shaking hands with NYPD officers at the New York City Pride parade, who have been banned from official participation since 2021.
Mamdani is a young and charismatic Democratic candidate with a political platform focused on real, material concerns that has resonated with voters. His candidacy could be a boon to the otherwise floundering Democratic Party. It remains to be seen whether the Democrats will accept this gift or attempt to crush Mamdani in the general election. This issue divides the party. On the one hand, Mamdani has selected Jeffrey Lerner, a top DNC and Obama adviser, as his communications director, and is considering keeping Jessica Tisch as NYPD Commissioner. On the other hand, some Democratic donors and functionaries appear to remain attached to Adams and Cuomo, both of whom have filed paperwork to run as independents in the general election.
What does this mean for workers?
Since Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign in 2016, we have witnessed a surge in “progressive” Democrats running for office. Sanders’ movement prepared the ground for 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 in this “progressive” mold. 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 United States.
As a rule, the demands of capital, particularly as they are personified in large donors and party officials, drive these “progressive” Democratic politicians to act against working-class interests. For instance, Ocasio-Cortez voted to break the railworkers’ strike in 2023 and just recently voted against cutting funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense program. Sanders notoriously voted in support of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, inaugurating the imperialist Iraq War. More recently, Sanders campaigned strenuously to elect Biden in 2020, who unconditionally fueled the genocide in Gaza with financial and military aid.
Mamdani’s election in the Democratic primaries was a powerful sign of the popularity of seemingly “socialist” policies aimed at addressing people’s immediate material needs. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether he will adhere to his professed intentions once in office, let alone deliver on the promised reforms. It is already clear that even if we were to assume the best of Mamdani as an individual, the institutions of the U.S. state and its capitalist beneficiaries, including significant elements of the Democratic Party itself, are prepared to fight any but the most timid proposals for reform. Meanwhile, figures like Sanders and AOC will lure him into joining the Democratic Party political machine.
The decisive factor in advancing working-class politics in New York City is the level and direction of activity by the membership of unions and organized, progressive social movements. Winning reforms is a key aspect of mobilizing these bases and building working-class consciousness and organization on the road to gaining revolutionary power. The struggle for significant reforms, however, must be guided by and rooted in a principled, independent working-class party that fights for change regardless of who is in office. It is not a matter of throwing any left-wing candidate with socialist rhetoric into governmental power. History proves that such attempts to gradually transform capitalism into socialism by electoral means end in failure and misery for the working class. Instead, workers must use elections to mobilize our class’s forces and measure our strength in the struggle for revolution.
The ultimate test of a left-aligned electoral campaign is whether it strengthens the organization of the working-class movement toward socialism—a movement capable of producing its own leaders and fighting for its own revolutionary interests in the class struggle. Our current situation in the U.S. requires diligent work and concrete steps toward building an independent working-class party that fights uncompromisingly every day for working people and the oppressed. Unfortunately, Mamdani’s attempt to rekindle faith in the prospects of a “progressive” Democratic Party and increasing entanglement in its party politics will only perpetuate politically fatal illusions and hinder the challenging but necessary collective work of party building.
