In just a few months, Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist, has gone from a long-shot fringe candidate to a national figure — securing an upset win in the June primary, where voters 18-29 had the highest turnout of any age group.
Now, on the cusp of Election Day — where polls show him the clear frontrunner over his closest rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — Mamdani is counting on that youth coalition to show up again. But his pledge to address rising costs appears to be resonating with young people far outside of the five boroughs. It’s a message that many Gen Z and millennials say speaks to their most pressing concerns at a time when many feel hopeless about their leaders and yearn for new voices willing to break with political norms.
“When a candidate is able to speak to the concerns of the populace and validate those concerns … I think that that has a big impact, especially when it comes to young people,” said Ruby Belle Booth, who studies young voters for the nonpartisan research organization CIRCLE.
I remember when I was in college and people were clamoring on the Ron Paul bandwagon, entirely because he was a high profile politician from a bright red state that wasn’t rabidly pro-war. Like, the demand for something that wasn’t (Republican: KILL’EM ALL!) or (Democrat: Let’s only kill as many people as is fiscally sensible) was so overwhelming that Paul’s dogshit economic and social politics failed to register for millions of people who probably should have known better (myself included).
Over twenty years later, I feel like we’re getting something of the reverse. A guy whose politics would normally rub GenZ / GenA liberals the wrong way and whose faith/tan would enrage young conservatives is getting a Katamari-like following across the political spectrum entirely because he’s outside the increasingly narrow R/D divide.
Its such a stupid shit show where we have one side of Democrats pushing for healthcare and food for all, another side of Democrats refusing to provide trans support and want more big business, and then Republicans who say fuck all those things except businesses.
I pray to the god that does not exist that he does not get assassinated, and if they try I want them to fail so hard that the assassins kill one another instead.
I’ve seen a persistent theory of politics within liberal circles that conservatives want Mamdani as mayor, because they see it as an excuse to send hordes of ICE / National Guard into the city at the first hint of defiance. Also, a lot of speculation that the NYPD is going to preemptively hate on this guy so much that they’ll practically roll out the red carpet for far-right radicals to terrorize the city. Given the degree to which people seem to have zero hope for the future, its certainly tempting to indulge in “There’s no way to win!” bleak prophecies.
But my expectations are significantly more muted. I think he’s going to get into office, run into a massive wall of bureaucratic intransigence, and lose his popular momentum when he’s not able to spin municipal straw into socialist gold overnight.
I guess only time will tell. But the worst thing for a progressive candidate’s image in the US is getting what they asked for and being expected to deliver. Just look at AOC, Keith Ellison, and Bernie Sanders.
The ICE gestapo is going to terrorize NYC no matter who’s mayor. I don’t think even Curtis Sliwa in office would discourage Trump.
But yeah, Mamdani has high expectations just like Obama did. Luckily, he has a lot of councilpeople on his side. The DSA has grown a lot in the past decade.
Bernie had a lot of resistance when he was first elected mayor too, but that didn’t stop him from making a difference there and getting elected over and over again.
The struggle doesn’t end on election day!
The young desperately want someone, anyone, to actually believe in… and it isn’t Chuck “strongly worded letter” Schumer or some other limp and ineffectual bureaucrat trying to do damage control for the Democrat party.
I met a waitress in Paris who reminded me to vote for him. I was syrprised someone overseas cared that much.
Lol I’m in Estonia and I care more about this than our own municipal government elections that was… I think 2 weeks ago? I mean I voted, I just don’t remember when it was. The folks who got in were mostly OK and we’re keeping the previous mayor who was OK.
Mamdani could be the leading force behind change in what is arguably the most influential nation to most of the western world. And it’s all starting off in one of the most iconic cities in the world, that desperately needs all the help it can get.
I love this post. You are on the other side of the world yet you’ve envisioned an optimistic and plausible path for this country to start not just rebuilding but to find some redemption and even inspire people again. Eventually.
I’m not in NY, but am in the US within a several hour drive of there.
Well I’m hoping that what Mamdani can prove to the democratic party is that charismatic young leaders with progressive ideas are the way forward. Maybe then a certain monitor brand can get the 2028 presidential election nomination.
Part of me still wants to live and work in the US, NYC in particular. Ain’t gonna happen in this current state of things though. First you guys need a new president, then a huge lack of software engineers and then the country would be ready to receive me lol
But even that aside - some European conservative parties are just mirroring the republican party. I think if they lose power, our conservatives will also lose confidence and pull a bit to the left.
I honestly dont think he is going to get all of that stuff done, but im ok with that because intent is more important to me
Sometimes bringing people hope is more important than whether you get everything done or even just half. When people have hope, more progressive politicians may get their chances.
I mean, he’s a mayor—not city council. People ascribe far too much power to the executive branch to get things done as opposed to the legislative branch which holds all the actual power in a representative democracy
Was screwing around with IPTV last night, so the Cuomo ad against him.
“DANGEROUS PLANS” ohhhhh
the ad was infuriating. the guy wants to be a half decent human and they need to brand that as danger. seriously fuck these guys.
If he wins, I wonder how soon will some crazed redcap attempt assassination.
I hope they fail so badly that they kill themselves as a result.
Watching establishment Democrats freak out over him has been very satisfying.
This is arguably the biggest threat to his administration if he wins. The establishment dems DO NOT want someone to their left succeeding because it is a threat to their donation pipeline. The GOP dont need to do anything because the dems will eat him alive before anyone else.
I hope it cleans house.
I’m an old dude, and it isn’t just young people who feel hopeless about our elected representaives, and want new, dynamic leadership. I may not have as long a future as they do, but I’d like what time I have left to not be terrifying.
I’m a young dude and biased I may be, I believe socialism is the ideological result of a capitalist society. It’s not a competition the way I see it. It’s as natural an evolution as how containerization arose from the era of virtual machines. Change is slow, but we’re having 5% more debate about the merits of democratic socialism than we were 5 years ago. It’s something that won’t go away, dominos are falling. Trump having destabilized things only helps broadcast issues that have always existed within this society and usher in new ideology that aims to address those issues. Modern politics is becoming more and more like progressives versus traditionalists, with each passing day. That evolution, away from left versus right, is evidence that capitalism is on the defensive.
Growing up on the 60s and 70s, we constantly heard about how we had to prop up terrible dictators, because the Communist/ Socialist system that would replace him would be worse.
But like you, I always thought that Communism/ Socialism was the natural bridge between a Dictatorship and a true Democracy. The Dictator goes to far in abusing the citizens, they rise up and take the country back for themselves.
Unfortunately, that usually means another dictator - Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. At that point, the citizens start to get behind the idea of electing their leaders.
That is, if they don’t get taken over by ANOTHER dictator.
There’s a 3rd type of socialism that was more rarely spoken of in the 60’s and 70’s, because it didn’t have the drawbacks of centralized soviet style communism and therefor was more difficult to demonize: Anarchism. This ideology was successfully implemented for a few years in parts of Spain during their civil war, and its success in creating a non-hierarchical decentralized and free society even attracted George Orwell to visit it, and join their cause to fight for what they were building.
It was eventually crushed by both fascists and communists, as both sides were terrified of that concept spreading. If we’re able to implement it again someday, possibly in a spot where it would be much harder to crush militarily, then it would be a genie impossible to put back in the bottle, as it would be so self-evident in how superior of a way of life it provides to everyone, without the downsides of a centralized dictator.
You raise valid points, yet I think we’re talking about different kinds of Socialism in a way. Your form of socialism here is like a Cold War era form of the ism. That form is often thought of as something which needs be imposed in a top-down fashion unto society — an inherently vulnerable approach. Look to history, a lot of 20th-century “socialisms” were really authoritarian states using socialist language to justify centralized control, and they did often end up as new dictatorships.
I think what I am aiming for, though, is not socialism as a bridge from dictatorship to democracy, but as a result of capitalism evolving beyond its own contradictions. More like democratic socialism: cooperative ownership, strong social infrastructure, but still open markets and innovation. It’s less about revolution or replacement, and more about integration. A phase where capitalist systems start to internalize social equity and worker participation as competitive advantages rather than ideological opposites. The socialism Id advocate for can (and maybe should) rise organically from the bottom up.
I’m in my middle aged years, whatever I’ve read of him seems hopeful if he’s the future. Also not from the US but if they can vote in someone like that for, what is considered one the the top cities in the world’s, mayor that is encouraging. If elected I hope he proves what is better for people.
Seriously we always have someone okay vs someone that wants to take away benefits from the less well off of our neighbors and friends (I will say I’m luckier but not exactly out of that group). It’s refreshing to see someone to least state he wants to make a better balance.
Heaven forbid billionaires make a few less dollars that they only use to influence things to their preferences. No one is perfect but his ideals have merit it seems.
I’m 35, I live in North Carolina, and the only TikTok videos I watch are Zohran Momdani’s… Just give me something to hope for, people. And I’m not unique. There are a Fuck Ton of me.
Crazy to think people want representatives who actually put forth ideas to HELP THEM…
Almost like there is a large, unmet demand for leftist politicians at the national level. Hmm, no, couldn’t possibly be it.
I don’t even know if it’s that. I wonder how much of it is just “shit is clearly bad… Let’s please just try something different and see if it helps.”
We’ve been doing the exact same stuff for so long and everything gets worse. The current administration’s solution is to just go backwards and try the old stuff that didn’t work again and see if it will work now somehow.
the current one, is trying to not release epstein files, plus they want democrats to cave so the republicans can have thier sound bytes on fox to blame the shutdown on them, knowing thier supporters wont research past the headlines they will believe it.
wonder how much of it is just “shit is clearly bad… Let’s please just try something different and see if it helps.”
It’s kinda both from how I see things. When Bernie wasn’t given a chance by the DNC in the primaries in 2016, the Bernie supporters flocked to vote Trump. The Sanders to Trump pipeline is real. Slavoj Zizek made a great point that people want someone outside of the neoliberal status quo, and Americans got that, but with Trump. Americans are kind of at the crossroads of what they really want.
When Bernie wasn’t given a chance by the DNC in the primaries in 2016, the Bernie supporters flocked to vote Trump. The Sanders to Trump pipeline is real.
clinton supporters formed a literal PAC to get mccain elected because they hated the idea of a black president that much.
its beause bernie pretty much has the same loud mouth charisma as trump, bernie was more palatable, when that dint happen they went to next best things, these are “undecided republicans”
Yeah, it seems like the left and right agree that shit needs to change, but the right has been convinced it’s the left’s fault instead of it being the mega-rich.
Historically they make noise but don’t actually come out to vote though.
Republicans don’t vote for democrats either, but the party keeps courting them anyway.
I’m well beyond my youth and I’ve been following his campaign since early this year despite living very far away.
This is why establishment dems are as opposed to him as the republicans.
We’re seeing in real time how the system does NOT want things to get better for us, and the people who are supposed to represent us are representing their own agendas and preservation of the system that lets the administration dine in gilded ballrooms while we literally starve.
Mamdani got to the national stage through grassroots campaigning and involvement from people who care. You CAN make a difference if you get involved on a local level and get active in your community.
You CAN make a difference if you get involved on a local level and get active in your community.
And this is the VERY key part. Local organizing almost always makes larger impacts, because most people, to be perfectly honest, don’t give a shit about any form of organizing in their local community. It’s easier to cast a ballot for a federal candidate, “chip in” (as all political fundraising emails love to overuse so fucking much while setting the default for every donation to like $50 or some bullshit after asking 20 times a week) a few bucks, and be done with it, than it is to walk down to every house over a few block radius and have a chat with any person who answers the door about a local candidate or policy.
To use Zohran as an example, he’s already gotten hundreds of thousands of votes, but as of one of his campaign’s emails yesterday, got just 1,000 people to canvass today (a day they were trying to break the record for most doors knocked in a single day, which is meant to attract a large swath of anyone who wants to canvass for him).
One person in a thousand canvassing for him is infinitely more impactful to the end result than one person voting by ballot.
walk down to every house over a few block radius and have a chat with any person who answers the door about a local candidate or policy.
I can’t say enough about how effective this is. You will learn a goddamn SUPER POWER if you do this, you will learn how to get people to listen to you, how to be heard, how to be social and involved. It might not seem like much, but a lot of the world is becoming very isolated and sheltered, the people who can go talk to a stranger about politics are literally going to dominate the power structure of the future.
Learning emotional intelligence, learning how to make someone feel heard and use their feelings to guide them to better ideas, these seem like far-off skills but you can do it, you can influence people so much easier than you think just by making them feel listened-to and involved with something bigger than themselves.
When someone visits your home to talk to you about a controversial topic and they are polite, respectful and ready to defend their ideas, you will remember the interaction. You will think about it, you will think about the topic. It goes from an abstract “read it on the internet” narrative to a real-life thing that impacts people and this makes you take the idea more seriously and give it more nuanced thought.
There are organizations that help coordinate these kinds of efforts, I recommend https://www.progressivevictory.win/ as a great starting point for getting more involved with your local efforts.
I also recommend Progressive Victory!
They were the ones who initially got me to phonebank for Zohran, and they’ve got good communities of people who can help you out in a number of different ways.
schumer and hakeem made that clear, to support israel, which also supporting the gop. so a UNIPARTY.
This has been a problem since Obama was elected, and before. The d’s do not want progressives. That’s what happened to Sanders. We need a new party.
We need a new party.
That would be ideal, and maybe it can happen, but we can also do what some of the actual progressive democrats in the party want, which is overhaul the party, eject the elderly old liches who don’t want change, build an actual progressive foundation of local leaders and state representatives so that we’re no longer propping up these worthless, geriatric, out-of-touch democrat leaders.
Again, we have to stop attacking the top of the pyramid, we have to start carving out the base so it collapses. It’s not as fun and exciting as starting a new club with new rules and hoping it takes off, but it takes advantage of existing power structures and political investment, it just takes doing that hard thing nobody wants to do which is getting far more involved than just ranting on social media every four years.
Also a better voting system where you just rank at which place you want each candidate and it doesn’t divide the votes. At least for local voting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
https://youtu.be/l8XOZJkozfIWe need a new party, or we need to renew the party. Since there is no path to the former that doesn’t go through the latter, let’s renew the party.
Definitely. Because where else are we going to find leaders? Not in congress. Bernie’s cool and all, but also old as shit. Would’ve been pretty great if his nomination wasn’t stolen. The only other heroes we have are dead. I watched a video by CerosTV about it yesterday. I recommend it.
I’m afraid to ask, but is there a reason you don’t mention AOC?
she said she would do more in congress than in the presidency.
That’s fair, and still a leadership role imo, as is any ellected official from a mayor or DA to the highest office in the land.
She voted wrong on a single bill amendment that wasn’t going to pass regardless of her vote. It’s the stupid purity test bullshit.
So if it wasn’t going to pass regardless of her vote, doesn’t that make it symbolically worse? Her vote had no real effect either way, despite that she chose to give ‘defensive weapons’ to a nation committing genocide.
Furthermore she barely does or says anything using her incredible momentum, especially since Pelosi gave her the talking to.
I’m not saying I dislike her, definitely a respectable figure, but don’t pretend it’s all purity test bullshit.
She folded her ambitions to the Democratic party elite, like most entryist candidates end up doing.
I don’t blame her, I blame the party elites and donors, but she isn’t immune from criticism… This isn’t a fucking sports team
Not really. I don’t have any problems with her lol
I think it’s worth propping her up as a leader with an actual constituency beyond the 1%. Bless Bernie for holding true and setting an example. He knows his star is fading but we will remember him.
He 's been going for such a long time, he honestly deserved to have been nominated over so many different people. Think of how much better the country would’ve been if he was nominated over Obama, Hillary, or Biden. He would’ve done better than any one of them. Our country could’ve existed without the influence of Trump on our everyday lives. We would have a politician that’s willing to improve our country.
I suspect she got a demotion after failing to stand against genocide.
She takes zero money from AIPAC.
that may be true. I never said she did. IIRC it’s her voting record on weapons shipments to Israel.
