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 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!
Part of the indignity of the Adams administration has been the NYPD doing a lot of the dirty work. In a city with a $5.8B budget (by comparison, the entire North Korean military apparatus runs on $4B/year adjusted) that’s an enormous force multiplier. Mamdani’s pledged to pull the plug on this relationship in his first 100 days. And that’s going to provoke an ugly backlash without a doubt, both inside the NYPD and from DC.
Hard truths. Far better to have a guy like Mamdani at the wheel than a Kapo like Cuomo or Adams.