Two major New York City labor unions that previously supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in this year’s race for mayor have dropped him to endorse Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who won the Democratic primary.
The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and 32BJ SEIU, which represents building service workers in the city, intend to back Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, following his electrifying upset against Cuomo in the race for mayor, according to multiplereports.
The endorsements add another significant win for Mamdani: The hotel workers’ union represents 40,000 members in the city, while the building workers’ union represents an additional 85,000.
A third union, the New York State Nurses Association, also endorsed Mamdani. It represents 30,000 members in the city.
“We are confident that whenever we’re in a fight, Zohran will be on our side standing up for hospitality workers,” Rich Maroko, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council’s president, told The New York Times. “That’s why we are genuinely excited to endorse Zohran and ready to help him win in November.”
While Cuomo conceded the Democratic primary to Mamdani on Tuesday, the former governor hasn’t ruled out continuing his campaign for mayor.
“We appreciated and valued their support during the primary,” Rich Azzopardi, a campaign spokesman for Cuomo, told The Times when asked about the unions dropping Cuomo.
Mamdani, who has faced racist and Islamophobic attacks since his primary win, said he was “honored” to have the new support.
“This is a campaign for the working people of this city who deserve dignity on the job and neighborhoods they can afford,” Mamdani said in a statement. “That’s exactly who HTC, 32BJ and NYSNA fight and deliver for every single day, and I am honored to have their support.”
Can Democratic Socialist Mamdani become Mayor of New York?
Sunday 29 June 2025, by Dan La Botz
The election campaign and stunning victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary election on June 24 is having an enormous impact on American politics. Mamdani, a 33-year-old Muslim immigrant, state representative, and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), defeated Andrew Cuomo, a powerful 67-year-old politician who ran a multi-million-dollar election campaign.
Cuomo had to resign from the office of governor after accusations by 13 women that he had sexually harassed them. Nevertheless, he had the backing of many major unions and financial and real estate interests. Mamdani, on the other hand, ran on a campaign platform that called for a rent freeze, for free buses, and free childcare, all to be paid for by taxing rich New Yorkers and corporations, and he criticized Israel’s genocide in Gaza. His message inspired young people and brought thousands of new voters to the polls. He could win the general election on November 4.
The New York mayoral election is important deciding the future of the largest city in the country with 8.26 million inhabitants, and a metropolitan area of 22 million. It is a port of entry for immigrants and one of the most diverse cities in the country. It is the home of the New York Stock Exchange and many of the most important banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, making it the country’s financial capital. It is the seat of the United Nations. And with its theaters, museum, galleries, and concert halls it is also the country’s cultural capital. The mayor of New York has a political profile and weight comparable to a governor.
Mamdani and the DSA organized an army of 50,000 volunteers who knocked on the doors of one million New Yorkers. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez endorsed him. In New York, 68% of voters are Democrats and only 30% Republicans, so the winner of the Democratic primary usually wins the election. This time, the situation is more complicated.
Andrew Cuomo, despite his defeat in the primary, plans to run as an independent, and he will have the backing of finance and real estate again, though some of the unions have abandoned him for Mamdani.
The sitting mayor Eric Adams, will also be a candidate. He ran for office as a Democrat on a conservative, law-and-order program and filled city positions with friends and family. When Joe Biden was president, in September 2024, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Adams on charges of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, and two counts of soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and he was set to go to trial. But after the election of Donald Trump, the Justice Department dismissed the charges, allegedly because of Adams’ promise to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) free rein in the city. Adams’ deal with Trump turned many Democrats against him. Like Cuomo, however, he has the backing of many in the worlds of finance and real estate. Cuomo or Adams could build a coalition of conservative Democrats and Republican voters.
The Republican candidate for mayor, Curtis Silwa, head of the Guardian Angeles, a volunteer, unarmed police organization, has been asked by some in his party to drop out to help Adams. But he says he’s staying in the race.
Mamdani is a Muslim, so there’s the question of the Jewish vote. Jews make up only 2.4% of the U.S. population, but they are 18% of New York City’s. Mamdani is anti-Zionist, but Jewish organizations and leaders attack him as anti-Semitic. The Jewish vote was divided with many younger Jews voting for Mamdani. Republicans accuse him of being linked to 9/11, to Hamas, to terrorism. Republican Congressman Andy Ogles, called for Mamdani’s deportation.
Mamdani’s campaign, platform, and victory point a possible new direction for the Democrats and for the left. But it will be hard to beat the billionaires.
28 June 2025
Attached documentscan-democratic-socialist-mamdani-become-mayor-of-new-york_a9068.pdf (PDF - 905.4 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9068]
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
TERRY TANG and MARIAM FAM
Fri, June 27, 2025
Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks at his primary election party, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
The success of Zohran Mamdani in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor is euphoric for Hari Kondabolu, a stand-up comedian who's been friends with the candidate for 15 years.
Mamdani stunned the political establishment when he declared victory in the primary on Tuesday, a ranked choice election in which his strongest competition, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat.
When he launched his campaign, the unabashed democratic socialist ranked near the bottom of the pack. Now, the 33-year-old state assemblyman has a chance to be New York City's first Asian American and Muslim mayor. Mamdani's family came to the United States when he was 7, and he became a citizen in 2018. He was born to Indian parents in Kampala, Uganda.
For Kondabolu, this moment is not just exciting, but emotional.
“I think so many of us have had those experiences in New York of being brown and in a city that has always been really diverse and feels like ours. But after 9/11, like you start to question it like, is this our city too,” Kondabolu said. “And 25 years later ... it’s surreal, like this is the same city but it’s not because we’ve elected this person.”
Mamdani's campaign has piqued the interest of many Indian, Pakistani and other South Asian Americans, as well as Muslims — even those who may not agree with Mamdani on every issue. Despite that opposition, some still see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and xenophobia erupted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
South Asians and Muslims riveted by primary in New York, and beyond
Many of New York City's over 300,000 South Asian residents have been inspired by Mamdani’s extraordinary trajectory.
“My mom was texting her friends to vote for him. I’ve never seen my mother do that before,” Kondabolu said. “So the idea that it’s gotten our whole family activated in this way — this is, like, personal.”
Snigdha Sur, founder and CEO of The Juggernaut, an online publication reporting on South Asians, has been fascinated by the response from some people in India and the diaspora.
“So many global South Asians ... they’re like, ‘Oh, this guy is my mayor and I don’t live in New York City,’” Sur said.
At the same time, some are also concerned or angered by Mamdani's past remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he publicly called a “war criminal.”
In 2005, the U.S. revoked Modi’s visa to the U.S., citing concerns that, as chief minister of the state of Gujarat, he did not act to stop communal violence during 2002 anti-Muslim riots that left more than 1,000 people dead. An investigation approved by the Indian Supreme Court later absolved Modi. Rights groups have accused Modi's government of widespread attacks and discrimination against India’s Muslims and other minorities.
In Michigan, Thasin Sardar has been following Mamdani’s ascent online. When he first heard him, he struck him as “genuine” and he felt “an instant connection,” he said.
“As a Muslim American, this victory puts my trust back in the people,” said Sardar, who was born and raised in India. “I am happy that there are people who value the candidate and his policies more than his personal religious beliefs and didn’t vote him down because of the color of his skin, or the fact that he was an immigrant with an uncommon name.”
New York voter Zainab Shabbir said family members in California, and beyond, have also excitedly taken note.
“My family in California, they were very much like, ‘Oh, it’s so nice to see a South Asian Muslim candidate be a mayor of a major city,’” she said. A brother told her Mamdani’s rise is a great example for his kids, she said.
But the 34-year-old — who donated, voted and canvassed for Mamdani — said it was his vision for New York City that was the draw for her. She and her husband briefly chatted with Mamdani at a fundraiser and she found him to be “very friendly and genuine.”
She suspects that for some who aren’t very politically active, Mamdani’s political ascent could make a difference.
“There’s a lot of Muslim communities like my parents’ generation who are focused a lot more on the politics back home and less on the politics here in America,” said Shabbir. “Seeing people like Zohran Mamdani be in office, it’ll really change that perspective in a lot of people.”
Embracing Indian and Muslim roots
Supporters and pundits agree that Mamdani's campaign has demonstrated social media savvy and authenticity. He visited multiple mosques. In videos, he speaks in Hindi or gives a touch of Bollywood. Other South Asian American politicians such as Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna praised that.
“I love that he didn’t run away from his heritage. I mean, he did video clips with Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi movies,” Khanna said, referencing the Indian actor. “He shows that one can embrace their roots and their heritage and yet succeed in American politics.”
But his triumph also reflects “the urgency of the economic message, the challenge that people are facing in terms of rent, in terms of the cost of living, and how speaking to that is so powerful,” the progressive California Democrat added.
Tanzeela Rahman, a daughter of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, said she grew up “very low income” in New York.
“I felt seen by him in a way politicians have not seen me ever,” the 29-year-old financial systems analyst said. “I think very few people in government understand … how hard it is to survive in New York City.”
She found Mamdani to be “unabashedly Muslim” and also “a voice, who, literally, to me sounds like a New Yorker who’s stepping in and saying, hey, let’s reclaim our power,” she said.
While Mamdani has been speaking to the working class, he had a somewhat privileged upbringing. His mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia University.
He lived in Queens but attended The Bronx High School of Science. Even as a teen, he cared about social justice, Kondabolu, the comedian, recalled.
His campaign messaging on issues such as affordable housing and free bus rides might not resonate with South Asian households in New York City who have income levels above the median. But, the irony is that his campaign and “great kind of soundbites” earned support from that demographic, too, according to Sur.
“It was, I think, a surprise that he did so well among the wealthiest, including his own community,” Sur said.
Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian causes and criticism of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza resonated with pro-Palestinian residents, including Muslims, but caused tension in the mayor’s race. Some of his positions and remarks on the charged issue have drawn recriminations from opponents and some Jewish groups, though he’s also been endorsed by some Jewish politicians and activists.
Racism and xenophobia
Mamdani's success immediately elicited strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric from some high-profile conservatives on social media, including conservative media personality Charlie Kirk who posted that “legal immigration can ruin your country.” In response, Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, tweeted “For years they sold people the lie of ‘we have no problem if you come the right way!’”
His supporters aren't concerned that racism and Islamophobia will distract from Mamdani's campaign. Those feelings clearly weren't “enough for him to lose” the primary, Kondabolu said.
“There’s a new generation that wants their voice heard and that generation came out in full force, not just by voting, but by, like, getting all these other people to be emotionally invested in this candidate,” Kondabolu said. “That’s extraordinary.”
___
Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content
The Political World’s Five-Alarm Mamdani Meltdown
Hunter Walker, John Light, Layla A. Jones and Emine Yücel
Sat, June 28, 2025
Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
We have a stage five political freakout on our hands.
In the four days since Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic Party’s nominee in the New York City mayoral election, a lot of people have completely lost it. The reactions have ranged from predictable to deeply disturbing Islamophobia.
Some of the reaction to Mamdani stems from the fact the 33-year-old relatively junior lawmaker entered the race as an upstart before defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which puts him firmly on the left wing of the city and state Democratic Party spectrum. That helps explain why congressional leadership didn’t rush to embrace Mamdani and why the powerful real estate industry — which has enjoyed developer-friendly “City of Yes” policies backed by the current mayor, Eric Adams, and other Democrats — entered into what the Wall Street Journal described as “hysteria.”
Progressives are notably more critical of the Israeli government than establishment Democrats and Mamdani has a history of pro-Palestine activism. These policy differences have helped contribute to what veteran strategist Lis Smith dubbed a “full-on freakout” about Mamdani from the Democratic establishment. And, while Jewish voters are increasingly divided on Israel’s War in Gaza (and around 20 percent were supportive of Mamdani) the Republican Jewish Coalition declared “Evacuate NYC immediately” as the votes were coming in.
Other reactions included the billionaire Bill Ackman, who made a last-ditch attempt to find a candidate to save him before realizing that the rules mean there’s no room for a new dark horse on the ballot. Ackman ultimately decided to back Adams, who, after scandals, legal trouble, and a save from President Trump, is running as an independent in November’s general election. Another Influential Rich Person in New York City politics, hedge funder Dan Loeb, seemed to use a 1980’s movie reference to suggest the five boroughs have become a crime-filled hellscape where he will be forced to fight for his life. Others on the center, in business, and on the right seem set to throw their hats in with Cuomo, who has indicated he is going to keep hope alive and run it back as an independent.
Outside the city, Trump turned to — where else — Truth Social to blast Mamdani as a “a 100% Communist Lunatic.” As is her custom, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went the even-more-apoplectic route with a seemingly AI-generated rendition of the Statue of Liberty covered in a mourning shroud.
Some of the meltdown seemed more about the fact Mamdani could become New York’s first Muslim mayor than any of his policies. Following his victory, Mamdani faced what the Guardian called a “barrage” from some who baselessly painted him as a terrorist threat. The most unhinged and purely racist attack of them all came from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), a right-wing lawmaker whose own colorful history has included ethical questions, parading with faux Confederate soldiers, and calling for Trump to have a third term. On Thursday, Ogles fired off a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for Mamdani to be denaturalized and “DEPORTED.”
The DOJ confirmed receipt of the letter to TPM but declined to comment further. Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Ogles’ letter relied on Mamdani’s past critiques of Israeli policy to brand the mayoral candidate “an antisemitic, socialist, communist.” Mamdani has previously emphasized that he abhors antisemitism. Opting for a megaphone rather than a dog whistle, Ogles also called Mamdani “little muhammad” in his X post about the letter. It’s impossible to read that as anything other than an attempt to denigrate Mamdani’s religion. Ogles did not respond to a request for comment.
While Mamdani weathered these attacks, even some staunchly pro-Israel Democrats came to his defense. However, others, notably Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), tested the wheels on the bandwagon and took the opportunity to echo the idea Mamdani was a bridge too far.
There are now over four months to go until the general election, which is going to be a four- to five-way race. Mamdani is the obvious favorite, but it is clearly going to be quite chaotic.
Perhaps in some ways Dan Loeb and the other hysterics are right. New York is becoming a (political) warzone. Fight for your lives.
— Hunter Walker
Democrats Hope They Can Replicate Zohran Mamdani, Just Without The Socialism
Kevin Robillard
Fri, June 27, 2025
Democrats, nationally and in New York City, were almost uniformly impressed with how Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani delivered a stunning primary upset against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, zeroing in on the cost of living, creating moments that went viral, winning over young people increasingly disenchanted with the Democratic Party, and even doing surprisingly well among working-class Latino and Asian voters who shifted to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), not a man known for praising left-wing politicians, summed up the consensus in a social media post: “Assemblyman Mamdani ran a strong campaign that relentlessly focused on the economy and bringing down the high cost of living in New York City.”
Democrats had just one (often unspoken) question: Could you do it without, you know, all the socialism?
Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and more generally on the far left end of the Democratic Party’s wide ideological spectrum. He supports a yearlong freeze on rent for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, a $30 minimum wage, the elimination of bus fares, and the creation of city-owned grocery stores. In the past, he supported defunding the police, and his willingness to call Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide has been a constant source of controversy during his campaign. All of these positions might scare a less progressive electorate, to say nothing of the party’s donor class.
Zohran Mamdani speaks during his victory party in the Queens borough of New York City early Wednesday.
Ultimately, enacting his agenda will require both actually winning the mayoralty in November — something he’s heavily favored to do but not guaranteed to accomplish — and earning the consent of a considerably more moderate state legislature in Albany and city council in New York. But to the extent Mamdani created a playbook for other insurgent candidates, will others need to share his ideological formation?
The answer, according to interviews with Democrats from across the aforementioned ideological spectrum: probably not exactly, but it might help. Candidates will need to be willing to get into real specifics about how their policies will help an electorate still struggling with high costs years after inflation peaked, and be willing to relentlessly focus on and prioritize those issues, even if it makes their donors uncomfortable or irritates interest groups.
“You don’t have to share that rigid ideology. But you have to give people something to vote for,” said Joe Calvello, a progressive who is a former aide to Sens. John Fetterman and Bernie Sanders. “Zohran wouldn’t have won if his platform was debt relief for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities.”
Moderates, at least those not in the relatively small minority trying to convince Cuomo to run in the general election, seemed to agree.
“He did not win because he is a democratic socialist,” former Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday on CNN. Rose, a moderate who represented Staten Island, instead credited Mamdani’s focus on affordability, which he said members of the party across the ideological spectrum could copy. “I would have talked about many of those things like free transportation, universal child care. These are things that can certainly unite the national party.”
Nonetheless, among the relatively short list of Democrats who have managed to catch fire online and off — then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke and now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg at different points in the 2020 presidential primary, Sanders in 2016 and 2020 — the left wing of the party at least seems overrepresented.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Mamdani did not focus on socialism or ideology when discussing his win. While he credited Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for their endorsements, he mostly focused on how his postelection conversations with Democratic voters who backed Trump in New York City led him to focus on economics to the exclusion of almost every other issue.
“One of the hopes that we had from the very beginning of this campaign was to move our political instinct from lecturing to listening,” he told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “Too often in politics, there’s a desire to impose what you think the debate is upon the people that you are seeking to represent.”
He went on to say he thought other politicians could follow his lead, but did not zero in on policy specifics: “Ultimately, this is a campaign about inequality. And you don’t have to live in the most expensive city in the country to have experienced that inequality, because it’s a national issue. And what Americans coast to coast are looking for are people who will fight for them.”
But Mamdani’s focus on making New York City a more affordable place to live is not the only thing some Democrats hope to imitate. The candidate himself became a social media icon in the final days and weeks of the race, both because of campaign-made videos (like one where he complains about the price of halal cart meals) and because of memes made by his supporters. And it’s possible a non-socialist’s meme army would be less skilled.
“The challenge may be that you need the ideology to get the best meme-ers on your side,” said one Democratic strategist focused on youth voters who was granted anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. “The fact that the best cultural influencers on the left are actually pretty ideological matters.”
Caitlin Legacki, a moderate Democratic strategist, said a major lesson from the primary is to give candidates the permission to take risks and try new things, so they have the chances to find their halal cart video or march across Manhattan. “If you take more shots, then each miss matters less. We have to let our candidates take more shots,” she said.
In the final sprint leading up to Zohran Mamdani’s historic win on Tuesday, the New York City mayoral primary took on an unusually refreshing tone: one of cooperation.
Shortly before early voting started, Mamdani, a state assemblymember and unabashed democratic socialist, cross-endorsed with City Comptroller Brad Lander. It was a good match. In spots where 33-year-old Mamdani’s political resume was thin, Lander, a longtime local progressive leader, could add gravitas. What Lander lacked in innovation and charisma, polling in a distant third place, Mamdani had in spades. And by appearing side-by-side at rallies, in social media videos, and on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the two could work to dispel the lie that Muslim and Jewish New Yorkers need be divided. Their overarching message was clear: Vote for both of us, but keep disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo off your ballot.
This collaborative approach to campaigning was enabled by New York City’s ranked choice voting system, which voters overwhelmingly adopted for primaries and special elections in a 2019 ballot referendum. New York’s system allows voters to rank their top five candidates rather than choose just one. If no candidate receives the majority of votes, ballot tabulation continues in rounds, with the last-place candidate eliminated each round. When a voter’s top candidate is eliminated, their second-choice candidate gets their vote, and so on.
Advocates began pushing for ranked choice voting after the 2013 Democratic primaries for city council, when multiple candidates were elected with less than 40 percent of the vote. Those results hardly felt democratic. And proponents argued that, by eliminating the winner-takes-all approach, ranked choice voting could help lesser-known progressives band together to box out corporate-backed establishment candidates.
That vision was dealt a blow during the city’s first test of ranked choice voting, when Eric Adams notched the 2021 Democratic nomination for mayor during the eighth round of counting. During that election, it was two moderates, former city Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and businessman Andrew Yang, who formed a failed last-minute alliance in the hopes of keeping Adams out of city hall. But Garcia ultimately finished second, and Maya Wiley, a progressive candidate endorsed by the Working Families Party, trailed in third.
Ranked choice voting might not seem relevant to this year’s primary. After all, while ballot tabulation is still continuing in rounds, Mamdani’s incredible grassroots campaign earned him a clear plurality of the vote right off the bat. Before election night was over, Cuomo had already conceded.
It’s a remarkable feat for Mamdani — a young socialist loudly opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza — to beat out Cuomo’s multimillion-dollar, super PAC-funded campaign, which fought tooth and nail to paint Mamdani as a radical antisemite. The vast majority of polls had it wrong; it wasn’t even a close race. And Mamdani’s victory isn’t attributable to just one thing: He mobilized 50,000 volunteers to knock on more than 1 million doors; he had a clear, compelling pitch to New Yorkers for how he plans to make life in the city more affordable; and his media team ran an infectious social video campaign that will likely be studied for years to come.
Cuomo is also, well, a scumbag centrist. He largely ran on his track record as New York governor, but his tenure was marked by scandals. His administration hid the true toll of nursing home deaths at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he eventually resigned in disgrace after more than a dozen women credibly accused him of sexual harassment. Lander shared his explicit feelings about Cuomo during a triumphant speech following Mamdani’s victory, “Andrew Cuomo is in the past. He is not the present or future of New York City. Good fucking riddance.”
So, no, ranked choice voting didn’t hand Mamdani his victory. Still, it’s exciting to see how the system can galvanize parts of the left into coalition rather than infighting. It wasn’t just Lander: Michael Blake, a former New York state assemblymember, also cross-endorsed with Mamdani and ramped up television ads in the days before the primary, urging his supporters not to rank Cuomo. The Working Families Party, a progressive group, encouraged its supporters to rank its slate of endorsed candidates and leave Cuomo off their ballot. Perhaps even more than “Vote For Me,” the message to New Yorkers before Election Day became “Don’t Rank Cuomo.”
“People were really excited about a politics that doesn’t feel so selfish,” Lander told New York Magazine in an election postmortem on June 25. “I thought it was interesting yesterday that both Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo went out of their way to say, ‘I’m only voting for myself.’ And in contrast, the cross endorsement reflects a shared belief in the future of the city.”
This collaborative approach made possible by ranked choice voting is not only ideologically aligned with the progressive left, but it also presents a materially different opportunity for candidates. Those who fall behind in — increasingly unreliable — polls aren’t pressured to drop out to avoid splitting the vote, leaving their supporters to decide between whoever remains. Since the candidates never stopped running their campaigns, they could, in a way, pool their resources — and each reach their respective voting blocs with messaging they knew would ultimately help propel Mamdani, the clear progressive frontrunner, to victory. As Susan Lerner, one of the architects of ranked choice voting in New York City and the executive director of Common Cause New York, told the New York Times, the system also requires candidates to work harder to reach a broader swath of potential voters, knocking on more doors in the hopes of receiving second- and third-place rankings. Plus, if ranked choice voting wasn’t a threat to the status quo, then the Republican National Committee probably wouldn’t have adopted a formal resolution calling to ban it.
Ranked choice voting presents an exciting and underexplored opportunity for a more deeply democratic process. It is only, however, the tip of the iceberg for building a movement on the left. While Lander has a serious track record of policy wins for New York City’s working class, he is also a self-described liberal Zionist who opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. And, contrary to right-wing fearmongering, Mamdani is not going to single-handedly bring about the fall of capitalism in New York City (bummer!), because that is not something that the mayor of New York City has the power to do. His role, should he be elected in the November general election, will be to better the quality of life for working-class New Yorkers through social democratic policy-making.
After decades of defeats for working people and the Left, it almost felt like a dream to witness Zohran Mamdani make history last night. Sometimes the good guys win. As David Hogg wrote last night, “BREAKING: Not everything has to suck.”
Absorbing the key lessons of this campaign is essential for the fights ahead, not just in New York City, but across the United States. Here’s an initial list of the biggest takeaways.
1) Zohran’s victory is a nationwide political earthquake. Huge numbers of voters are sick of the Democratic establishment, and there’s no good reason why his playbook can’t be widely repeated elsewhere. The party’s decrepit old guard is vulnerable, its unpopularity delivered us Trumpism, and it deserves to be displaced everywhere.
2) By stubbornly hammering on proposals to make the city affordable, Zohran was able to break beyond the Left’s college-educated base. He won all across the city, including in neighborhoods like Sunset Park and Woodhaven that swung rightwards towards Trump in 2024. Economic populism is our best weapon to win back working people and to overcome Trumpism. Blame the billionaires, not immigrants or transgender people.
3) We should always ignore the pundits and political hacks who try to convince us that transformative change is impossible — or that the best we can do is chase after a mythical political center, rather than winning the battle of ideas and ambitiously raising voters’ expectations.
4) Billionaires tried to buy this election and they lost badly. It turns out that the oligarchy is not invincible.
5) Pundits will try to spin this as purely the result of Cuomo’s unpopularity or Zohran’s charisma. That’s part of the story, but only part. In addition to the resonance of his policies and crystal-clear message on affordability, there’s no way he could have won without the tireless ground game of 50,000 volunteers and the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and other allied organizations. Knocking 1.5 million doors is an astounding feat.
6) Young people were the heart of this campaign. Last night, tens of thousands of them got to experience the ecstatic feeling of making history through collective organizing. Feeling that even once is enough to make you an organizer for life. This youthful social movement has the energy and ambition to make New York social democratic again.
7) Social media is extremely important for capturing the attention of wide layers of voters, and Zohran’s media team was amazing. But the secret sauce for good comms is not primarily technical — it’s political: you need an authentic messenger armed with a compelling platform. Hack Democrats can’t post themselves back into relevance.
8) It’s a very big deal — with nationwide and international implications — that Cuomo’s cynical smears about anti-Semitism fell flat. It turns out that opposing genocide and acknowledging the humanity of Palestinians is not necessarily an electoral dealbreaker. AIPAC should be very worried.
9) Despite what his opponents claim, Zohran is not a dogmatic extremist, but a radical pragmatist. He could not have gotten this far had he not focused on bread-and-butter economic issues, spoken in a commonsense language, ran as a Democrat, dropped his support for defunding the police, and endorsed Brad Lander. Zohran refused to drop his support for democratic socialism or his opposition to Zionist apartheid, but performative ultra-leftism was anathema to this campaign.
10) It took a liberal-Left alliance to defeat Cuomo. A huge amount of credit is due to Brad Lander for being a man of principle who refused to punch Left. At the same time, Zohran smartly rejected a widespread leftist tendency to treat liberals and liberalism only as ideological competitors to be fought. Look at how he adopted the best parts of the “abundance agenda,” how he cross-endorsed Lander, and how he framed his criticisms of Israel in the language of liberal equal rights. Leftists can’t defeat the old establishment — let alone overcome the Right — on their own. And mutuality cuts both ways: we can’t ally with liberals only when we’re in the lead.
11) Zohran’s inroads within organized labor were crucial steps towards legitimizing his campaign. The unions who took a risk and stood by working people by endorsing Zohran include AFSCME DC 37, UAW Region 9a, Doctors Council SEIU, CIR/SEIU, UNITE HERE Local 100, IATSE Local 161, PSC-CUNY, OPEIU Local 153, and Teamsters Local 804.
Every union that endorsed Cuomo should be embarrassed by their narrow-mindedness. The good news is now they have a chance to make things right by endorsing Zohran in the general election.
12) The fight has really just begun. Establishment Democrats, Trump, and their billionaire funders are going to do everything possible to prevent Zohran from taking office in November or, if that fails, from implementing his agenda. Expect an unprecedented, billionaire-funded scaremongering onslaught to convince New Yorkers that a Mamdani City Hall will bankrupt the city, unleash crime sprees, and persecute Jews.
13) Faced with claims that his project will lead to urban ruin and chaos, Zohran can lean on the progressive, technocratic competence of Lander’s crew and point to thriving social-democratic cities across Europe as well as strong historical precedents of success in the US. Before they named an airport after him, as Waleed Shahid notes, New York City’s wildly successful socialist mayor Fiorello La Guardia was also first denounced as an impractical radical.
14) The experience of La Guardia, like Milwaukee’s “sewer socialists,” shows that winning office is not enough. When you’re up against such powerful opponents, you need lots of organized grassroots power outside the state to actually implement your agenda. The most challenging obstacle on the road ahead is that Zohran’s electoral success has significantly outpaced the scale of working-class and socialist organization in New York City. Building widespread organization in workplaces and neighborhoods is hard, essential, and urgently needed. So join DSA. Unionize your workplace through EWOC. Reform your union. Salt a strategic company. Or build a tenant union in your building.
15) DSA’s membership is about to surge. And the organization is going to come under intense scrutiny from Fox News, Trump, and the Democratic establishment. It’s time to tighten our ship and to make a concerted nationwide turn away from self-marginalizing leftism. Members should study and emulate NYC DSA’s mass politics orientation. If this campaign didn’t fit all of your ideological priors, maybe those priors are wrong.
16) There are going to be all sorts of major setbacks in the months and years ahead. But after yesterday, it’s so much easier to see — and so much easier to feel — that a better world actually is possible if we fight like hell for it. The future is unwritten. Let’s write it together.
So, much of the work of building power on the left will still have to be done at the grassroots level, in communities and outside of electoralism. But within the political machine, let’s think of this election as a first step — an example of how our democratic processes can more adequately represent the will of the people — and take what lessons we can to strategize for more solidarity in action.
Eric Blanc is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big (University of California Press, 2025), and an organizer trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.
