NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani has surged so much in his upstart New York City mayoral campaign, he stands to win one of the biggest political prizes in America. With that victory comes a major test for his socialist movement.
Mamdani still trails Andrew Cuomo in most polls but has significantly closed the gap heading into Tuesday’s Democratic primary. A win would shock the Democratic Party, as it grapples with its national 2024 losses, and inspire like-minded lefties to challenge establishment figures.
It would also shine a spotlight on Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, forcing them to answer one of the most pressing questions of their movement: Can leftist ideologues effectively govern a major metropolis?
As mayor, Mamdani would wield power over a $115 billion budget and more than 300,000 employees, run the nation’s largest police force and immediately be tasked with plowing snow and filling potholes. He would also occupy the greatest bully pulpit in the economic capital of the world’s largest economy, something he highlighted as the chief role of a mayor in a recent interview. That split, which at times frustrated Bill de Blasio when he became mayor, represents the tension between extreme ideology and mundane municipal tasks.
“It would be seismic,” said Grace Mausser, co-chair of the city’s chapter of the DSA, which plays a key role in Mamdani’s bid. “Having the largest city in the country have a socialist mayor would send an extremely powerful and hopefully empowering message to other socialists and politicians and groups fighting for working class interests across the country.”
A New York City mayor, one of the most complicated executive jobs in the country, also demands a high degree of political compromise.
Mamdani would follow in the footsteps of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was backed by socialists when he defeated incumbent Lori Lightfoot two years ago. Since then, Johnson’s administration has been beset by policy proposals that were rejected by the City Council and at the ballot box, and just this week the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board penned a blistering piece titled, “Want to know how a socialist mayor would govern New York City? Ask Chicago”
“What sounded good in theory has translated into dysfunction, driven by fiscal missteps and political inexperience,” the board wrote of Johnson, arguing Mamdani “inarguably, is yet more radical.”
That presents a risk for the 33-year-old state lawmaker, who has the backing of movement leaders Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but has been pummeled by millions of dollars in ads from a pro-Cuomo super PAC eviscerating his lack of experience. Even some of his endorsers and allies privately question his ability to manage a sprawling bureaucracy.
“Bernie one time quite famously said, ‘If we don’t plow the streets and fix the roads, the people aren’t going to put up with this socialism shit,’” said John Franco, who served in Sanders’ mayoral administration in Burlington, Vermont in the 1980s. “You have a lot of persuasion to do to say, ‘Look we’re not crazy. We have good ideas, and we can run things well.’”
For Mamdani and the DSA, the prize of City Hall would present another significance: beating a former governor with decades of political experience, universal name ID, the backing of the New York Democratic establishment and a super PAC that raised $25 million from billionaires like Bill Ackman and Michael Bloomberg.
Mamdani, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2020, has promised to freeze rents on 1 million regulated apartments, push for higher taxes on the rich to make buses free and create city-owned grocery stores.
He may be hoping his mayoralty looks more like Sanders’ time presiding over Burlington’s then-37,712 residents — which launched him into the halls of Congress — than the DSA-aligned Johnson’s, where some 2.7 million Chicagoans and its City Council have cemented him as one of the most unpopular politicians in the U.S. with an approval rating that has slumped to 14 percent.
As POLITICO has reported, Mamdani would face an uphill battle persuading Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise taxes for his policy platform. The moderate Democratic governor flatly rejected his proposed tax hike on the wealthy. Making city buses free would also require approval in the state Capitol.
“The governing will be hard. It will be a challenge, but I think it’s one we can tackle,” Mausser said.
Mamdani’s campaign pointed POLITICO to private meetings he’s held with former municipal officials who boast deep City Hall experience and operate far away from the purity tests of the DSA. Among those with whom he’s talked about governance are Maria Torres-Springer, Mayor Eric Adams’ former first deputy mayor; Patrick Gaspard, an aide to former Mayor David Dinkins and an ambassador to South Africa in the Obama administration; and Steven Banks, social services commissioner under de Blasio.
The meetings, the campaign contends, show he’s eager to learn from past administrations as he makes preparations to lead the city. They also say his push in Albany for a limited free bus pilot program — which Mamdani reportedly let die so he could cast a protest vote against the state budget that year — demonstrates his ability to operate outside the walls of the DSA to get things done.
“Zohran has worked with and built broad coalitions with ideologically diverse members in order to win material change,” Mamdani’s campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church, said in a statement. Of his free bus pilot, she added, “Zohran met with a range of organizations including the (conservative) Manhattan Institute and built support with a diversity of elected officials including Eric Adams.”
The political circumstances around Mamdani’s campaign mirror Johnson’s: An insurgent candidate rivaling a business-class-backed Democratic moderate and looking to take on a wildly unpopular incumbent. In his mayoral campaign and as mayor, Johnson pushed for many of the policies Mamdani vouches for on the trail.
Before Mamdani talked about “city-owned grocery stores,” Johnson looked to do the same as mayor. Like Mamdani’s bid to tax the 1 percent, Johnson called for a “mansion tax” on sales of city homes worth more than $1 million. And similar to Mamdani’s catchy call for “free and fast buses,” Johnson promised to eliminate fares for all seniors, public school students and people with disabilities, and further reduce fares for low-income residents.
Halfway into his mayoralty, a referendum to institute the so-called mansion tax failed, his $300 million property tax hike proposal was voted down unanimously, 50-0, by the City Council, and his plan for government-funded grocery stores was ultimately scrapped and swapped out with city-organized farmers markets, which also seem far from completion.
As for public transit, most Chicago seniors still pay the full fare, and the system is so strapped for cash that state lawmakers want it to be absorbed into a regional transit authority the mayor won’t have any control over.
Johnson’s team declined an interview request for this story.
“The mayor was successful in Chicago in energizing the youth because of the fact that he was talking about free everything, and how he was going to try to right the wrongs, and really demonizing other Chicagoans that live in this city,” said Gilbert Villegas, a Democrat who serves in Chicago’s City Council and is a foe of Johnson’s.
Villegas then offered a “warning” for New York.
“The DSA has always had to find a villain so they can put on the white hat and come in as the hero,” he said. “But what we’re seeing, it doesn’t work. Take it from Chicago. We’ve been going through it for two years. There’s such an energy for 2027 to get here so fast so they can change leadership out.”
Johnson’s critics say his troubles actually stem, not from his ideology, but his decision to stack his administration with members of the teachers union that heavily funded his campaign. Mamdani’s team said the progressive mayoralties of Brandon Scott in Baltimore and Michelle Wu in Boston more accurately portend how he’d govern.
Sanders, on the other hand, found success working with Burlington’s City Council by building a coalition with Republicans in the body. (Democrats, sour that the socialist had ousted them from power, had unified against Sanders, Franco said).
“A democratic socialist mayor cannot exclusively hire democratic socialists, and I think that’s a practical point,” said one New York Democratic lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about a leading mayoral candidate. “It’s also actually about forming a functional coalition of sorts.”
Even if they face challenges, Mamdani’s organizers say his legislative pushes would be buoyed by the excitement and political engagement that has met his campaign.
“He has brought a tremendous amount of energy to a race that was pretty depressing, honestly,” said Cea Weaver, a Mamdani supporter who leads the NYS Tenant Bloc, a group advocating for tenants’ rights. Weaver says the group has secured 20,000 votes canvassing for the mayoral hopeful. In total, Mamdani’s campaign says it’s enlisted over 45,000 volunteers.
“If Zohran becomes mayor, there’s going to be tons of extraordinarily talented people who are brilliant, the top of their field, who are going to want to work for him,” Weaver said.
Mausser noted a democratic socialist mayor would have to contend with even more scrutiny than what’s normally afforded the person holding down what’s often considered the second-toughest job in America.
“We’ve seen that when any mayor kind of deemed left or progressive ascends to office, they’re held to quite a high standard,” she said. “It is going to be a serious challenge, not only for DSA, but for the broader left coalition that Zohran has brought together.”
On Monday, Mamdani was asked by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer if he thought his campaign platform would eventually let his supporters down “because it’s not based in political reality.”
“You know, Brian, many people would have said the same thing about the chances of this campaign when we began,” Mamdani said. “And here we are, just one day away from toppling a political dynasty.”
Shia Kapos and Jeff Coltin contributed reporting.
