- Republicans attack Mamdani and try to harm the Democrats in mid -terms.
- Mamdani’s campaign focused on affordable prices, energetic young voters.
- Self -described Democratic Socialist to be the city’s first Muslim mayor.
Self-described Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s unexpected rebellion in New York’s Democratic mayor’s primmer on Tuesday, progressive activists who had come together to prevent the more moderate former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from prevailing.
But the surprise result also created excitement from a very different group of people: national Republicans.
Shortly after it became clear that Mamdani, a 33-year-old state legislator, was likely to prevail, the Republican Vice President JD Vance sent congratulations to social media to the “new leader of the Democratic Party.” The Republican Congress campaign arm called him an “anti -Semitic socialist radical” and promised to bind him to any vulnerable Democrat in next year’s midterm elections.
And on Wednesday, Republican President Donald Trump – a native New Yorker – has stacked on, written on social media, “It has finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% communist lunatically, just won them – the primeger and is on its way to becoming mayor.”
The reactions emphasize both the risks and the benefits of the Democratic Party – still trying to find its foot for five months on Trump’s period – by having an effortless leftist nominee that runs in the country’s largest city in the fall.
Mamdani’s campaign, which drew plaudits for its cheerful tone and smart viral videos, could help give energy to young voters, a demographic that Democrats are desperate to reach out to 2026 and beyond. His increase from a virtually unknown was driven by a relentless focus on affordable prices, a question that Democrats struggled to tackle during last year’s presidential race.
“Living costs are the question of our time,” the NEAa tooth, CEO of Democratic Think Tank Center for American Progress on X, wrote in Mamdani’s victory. “It’s the overall line that animates all politics. Smart political leaders respond to it.”
His history-making candidature-Mamdani, born in Uganda for Indian parents, would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor-Kunne also engaged in Asian and especially Muslim voters, some of whom were bought on the party after the Biden administration supported Israeli war in Gaza.
“These choices are not about the left, right or center, they are about whether you are a change of status quo. People don’t want more of the same, they want someone to play another game,” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson.
But Mamdani’s criticism of Israel and his democratic socialism is also likely to emerge often in Republican attack ads. Much of the democratic establishment had been behind Cuomo, including former President Bill Clinton, partly of unrest over Mamdani’s platform. Mamdani has repeatedly said he is not anti -Semitic.
“I think he’s an easy target for Republicans who want to use scary tactics to talk about the Muslim mayor of New York City, who is Uber-Left,” said Patrick Egan, a political science professor at New York University. But Egan noted, Mamdani has also proved to be a good politician.
“When people are exposed to this guy, they tend to like him,” he said.
No aplology
Basil Smikle, a political analyst and professor at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, said heavy hand attacks on Mamdani could beat back by giving energy “many of the democratic voters to want to push more against Trump.”
“I don’t think it hurts Democrats in the long run,” he said. “I actually think it helps them.”
In turn, Mamdani seemed ready to embrace his role as party leader and told supporters in his victory speech that he would rule the city “as a model for the Democratic Party – a party where we fight for working people without apology.” He promised to use his Mayoral power to “reject Donald Trump’s fascism.”
Democratic voters say they will have a new generation of leaders and a party concentrating on economic issues, according to a Reuters/Ipsos vote earlier this month.
“The Democratic Party is trying to figure out itself,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York.
While Mamdani enters the ordinary election as the favorite of a city dominated by Democrats, the run has more troubled than usual.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, runs as independent after his popularity fell following his indictment of corruption taxes and the subsequent decision of Trump’s Ministry of Justice to drop the case. Cuomo also preserves the ability to drive as independent, though he has not yet decided whether to do it.
The Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels. Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor, also runs as independent.
Primary had become a two-man race on election day between Mamdani and Cuomo, who repeated other democratic nomination competitions, where the party’s establishment and liberal wings have fought for power. But it was also a generational match between Mamdani and Cuomo, the 67-year-old scion of a political family in New York.
That said, Cuomo wore plenty of personal luggage, four years after he retired to the government in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment he has denied.
“Some people voted for Mamdani to express their dissatisfaction with Cuomo,” Greer said.
Mamdani’s unlikely ascent was some of the same characteristics of similar increases for two other democratic socialists, US Senator Bernie Sanders and American representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both approved his campaign.
Sanders, an independent, emerged as a leading democratic presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, while Ocasio-Cortez raised a rebellion in 2018 by defeating a long-term current Democrat.
