In fact, there is nothing strange about this victory, it can hardly be called a surprise. Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old socialist born in Kampala, the son of a professor of anthropology at Columbia University and a famous director, author of “Monsoon Wedding” and winner of awards at the most important film festivals, had no chance of losing the mayoral vote.
New York is perhaps even more so than other US metropolises a bastion of progressivism, a liberal island in an increasingly large sea of conservative constituencies. In addition, it has a very ethnically and racially mixed population, which has a normalizing effect. Enough generations have grown up in diverse communities for a mayor with a foreign-sounding name to not arouse much emotion in New Yorkers.
Even considering the fact that Republicans (or what's left of them after the takeover by the MAGA movement) rule everywhere at the federal level – from the president, to both houses of Congress, to the Supreme Court – a victory for a right-wing candidate in New York was an impossible fantasy from the beginning. Although Curtis Sliwa, a descendant of Polish immigrants, entered the competition, presenting himself quite grotesque in public in a red beret with a militaristic aesthetic, but in these elections he played rather the role of an oddity. His support was also strange – he did not win in any district, in the city he was supported by 7.1 percent. voters.
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What is Donald Trump going to do with New York?
What are the plans of the new mayor Zohran Mamdani?
Who was Mamdani's main rival in the elections?
What were the New York election results for Curtis Sliwa?
The city won't collapse
Quite quickly, the campaign took on a referendum character. It was not a choice between Mamdani and his main rival Andrew Cuomo, a former governor burdened with allegations of harassment and concealing some deaths during the coronavirus pandemic. only voting for or against the final winner.
This was confirmed by Cuomo himself, who was supported by President Donald Trump at the end of the campaign. When asked about unsolicited support from the White House, Cuomo explained that Trump “doesn't support it at all,” he only advises “vote against Mamdani, whom he considers a communist and an existential threat to New York”. The former New York governor immediately added that for him his rival “is not a communist, but only a socialist.” However, he agreed with the president on the existential nature of the threat posed by a possible victory of the opponent.
Well, some time has passed since the official results were announced and this text was submitted to the editor, and New York remains as it was. And there is no indication that it will collapse spectacularly. Of course, various factions operating under the broad umbrella that has been the MAGA movement for months have been pumping out propaganda about the city's inevitable decline — for very different reasons.
Economic commentators who rationalize the reality point out that Mamdani's flagship ideas, i.e introduction of municipal grocery stores, free public transport and raising the corporate tax rate to 12.5%. (which would simply be leveling the playing field with New Jersey on the other side of the Hudson River), they will bring the city to the brink of bankruptcy, scare the rich, trigger an exodus of investors, not to mention the fear of communism (often confused with public services) that is part of the American national identity.
Yes, these are program items that will require changes to the tax ordinance, an increase in some expenses and a reorganization of the city's finances, but because New York is becoming an unlivable place, too expensive for native New Yorkers to live there, something had to be done. Cuomo, and previously outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, not to mention Sliwa, offered nothing more than a sugar coat of the status quo when it came to economic issues. Apart from the fact that since Mamdani won the primaries for the Democratic candidate for mayor, there have been as many analyzes predicting the city's bankruptcy as texts saying that these ideas are economically realistic.
In addition, of course, there is a wave of online racism, gathered under the collective thesis that “New York has already fallen.” Shortly after the election, Wired magazine published an article summarizing the reactions of the more fanatical figures from the MAGA universe to Mamdani's triumph.
Laura Loomer, a popular supporter of conspiracy theories on the American right, who even has considerable influence on the White House's personnel policy, wrote on the X website that “Mamdani will encourage other Muslims to commit politically motivated crimes.” Matt Walsh, a well-known right-wing podcaster and apologist for fascism and anti-Semitism, even went as far as to say that “a communist from the Third World became mayor of New York because New York is a Third World city.”
A generational changing of the guard
And yet Mamdani won, and without any major problems. However, the electoral victory was the easier part of the political battle. It may be difficult to survive in office when Trump openly announces that he will do everything to make life worse for New Yorkers. The White House has already announced a review of all infrastructure investments in the city, that are supported at least in part by the federal government.
Zohran MamdaniSARAH YENESEL / PAP
The US president doesn't even hide that he wants to turn his own city into hell on earth. and then say it's all Mamdani's fault. What's more, the new mayor is aware of this. In a recent conversation with David Remnick, editor-in-chief of “The New Yorker”, when asked about the likelihood of repression from Washington, including sending the National Guard to the city, he replied that in his opinion “it is not so much possible, but inevitable.”
This will probably be the case. For Trump, the cost of punishing New York is essentially zero — politically and materially. Since becoming president for the second time, he has proven that he serves no one's interests but his own. His policy is contrary to the American raison d'état, his actions harm primarily his own voters, and yet he implements the policy that Prof. Adam Przeworski from New York University called it “electorally suicidal”. Trump won't mind if he reduces the quality of life of another few million people.
Besides, Mamdani is not a real opponent for him because he was born outside the United States, so he cannot run for president. For this reason alone, it is difficult to expect him to become the single savior of the Democratic Party at the national level. And we need someone like that right away.
There are, of course, those, such as long-time advisor and campaign strategist Jonathan Matthew Smucker, now associated with the University of California at Berkeley, who believe that some form of parricide or war is necessary. That's exactly what happened a decade ago on the Republican side. Maybe this method makes sense, because since then the right has won two presidential elections and many smaller elections, but on the other hand, this war brought Trump to power. Therefore, it is better to carry out generational exchange while maintaining at least rudimentary filtration mechanisms.
However, the 34-year-old's triumph should be read in precisely these terms – as the beginning of a generational changing of the guard. On the one hand, there are widespread opinions about its campaign effectiveness in social media. He used TikTok perfectly, proving that he understood its algorithm. Contrary to what is often said about the algorithms of social media platforms, they are not favorable to political content, and TikTok likes them the least.
Therefore, as a politician, you have to hide your true intentions as long as possible so that the algorithm does not punish their political nature. Mamdani did just that, starting his campaign the day after Trump's triumph last year. The key to success? Just regular short videos of people being asked who they voted for and what is important to them. It was only in the last seconds that the question was raised: “My name is Zohran Mamdani and I'm running for mayor.”
Interestingly, a similar tactic was used by far-right candidate Călin Georgescu in the presidential elections in Romania. He published recordings of himself taking a bath in icy water or riding a horse in traditional folk costume. Only at the end of the campaign did he tell millions of supporters that this media offensive was about fighting for the presidency. And it turned out to be effective, although only possible thanks to illegal financing from Russia. So there is no need to be upset that Mamdani played the same game.
Călin GeorgescuROBERT GHEMENT / PAP
A spurt, but not too much
On the other hand, Mamdani's greatest success was not his online image, it was cutting himself off from the culture wars that are omnipresent in America. Although Trump immediately targeted him, the new mayor managed to focus his opponents' attention on economic issuesnot identity ones.
Mamdani wants to fight the growing American authoritarianism not by preserving the status quo, but by hastening its end, which is not supported by the old elites of the Democratic Party. He expressed this in a fiery speech on election night, when he said that “there is no better way to defeat a despot than to destroy the structure that brought him to power. Thanks to this, we will defeat not only the current autocrat, but also all subsequent ones.”
What is he talking about? Of course, about late capitalism, which is raging and tearing American society apart. About corporate privileges, the government keeping private companies captive, technology billionaires getting rich on an artificially inflated stock market, while at the same time increasing class inequality not seen since the 1920s.
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It's clear that Mamdani doesn't think of himself solely as the mayor of New York, even if he doesn't achieve much more. He wants Americans to sign a new social contract with their own country. And this is something that 70-year-olds and older, such as Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi, will not achieve.
So Mamdani has what most liberal politicians lack today – hope and imagination. Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, wrote on social media that he reminded him of Gabriel Boric, the outgoing president of Chile, also young at the time of his election, a progressive, Havilian-Platonic “intellectual on the throne” who abandoned most of his more radical views already at the campaign stage. This is an interesting comparison, but detached from the context, after all, Boric did not come to power at a time when the future of democracy in his country was in question.
In turn, David Wallace-Wells from the New York Times noted that Mamdani may be the first representative politician the so-called the emerging coalition of the new precariat. Who is part of it? Virtually everyone except millionaires, that is, the working class, the middle class, and even the upper middle class, writes Wallace-Wells. Everyone is fed up with the high cost of living, everyone wants better public services, everyone supports higher tax burdens on corporations to some extent.
Additionally, notes a New York Times columnist, this is a coalition with the potential for significant demographic growth, as it may soon be joined by young college graduates for whom the labor market is simply hell on earth due to the shrinking economy and technological changes.
It is difficult to expect that this victory will trigger any great uprising in politics at the federal level. After all, this was just a local election, and New York is representative of absolutely nothing in the US. However, this does not change the fact that Zohran Mamdani returned to the basic nature of politics, i.e. trying to solve the problems of everyday life of ordinary people. All successful progressive movements in the 20th century were based on this: from the suffragettes to social democracy and even modern socialism. Americans have never tried such things. Mamdani is forcing them to do just that. And that's good, because at the moment they have little other choice. The alternative is pure fascism.
