Zohran Mamdani’s election victory Nov. 4, becoming New York City’s first Muslim, South Asian, immigrant, Democratic Socialist — and youngest mayor in a century, is by most measures historic. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, was polling at 1 percent when he launched his campaign in October last year. But he gained support with his singular focus on the issue of affordability, pledging to freeze the rent for all stabilized apartments, provide free and fast bus service, city-run grocery stores and universal childcare paid for by increased taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents.
The 34-year-old candidate beat the well-funded independent campaign of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a steady stream of Islamophobic smears by running a brilliant social media campaign and never backing away from his identity as an outsider challenging a system that for decades has failed to deliver positive change for the city’s 8 million residents. The New York chapter of Democratic Socialists of America’s field operation essentially recruited an army of more than 100,000 volunteers who knocked on over 3 million doors across the city, delivering his victory.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of The Indypendent, New York City’s free progressive monthly newspaper, who reflects on Zohran Mamdani’s historic election victory, the challenges ahead for governing America’s largest city, and how his winning campaign could impact national politics.
JOHN TARLETON: Zohran’s a tremendously energetic politician and on Tuesday he was elected with more than 1 million votes, the most in more than 50 years here in New York City while running, as you said, explicitly as a democratic socialist. And his campaign was the largest electoral campaign waged by the left in the United States since Bernie’s two presidential runs. And by becoming the mayor-elect of a city of more than 8 million people with its outsized cultural and media influence, Zohran’s victory is probably the greatest electoral victory in the history of the American left.
As far as why Zohran was so successful, I mean, the corporate media likes to highlight his social media skills and he’s got a great smile and he’s a charismatic speaker and very energetic—and that’s all true—but I think it’s more than the style. There’s the substance. One, he directly connected with people’s concerns and frustrations with the high cost of living and proposed concrete solutions for how to address that.
Now, all of that was very appealing. And then the other thing he did is he really embraced the cosmopolitanism of the city. He’s an immigrant himself. He came here when he was 7, and he just showed tremendous love for the city and all the diversity of its people.
SCOTT HARRIS: John, as you just said, Mamdani focused like a laser beam on the issue of affordability that resonated with voters. Obviously he won. But what are the many obstacles standing in the way of Mamdani’s agenda of providing free bus transportation, universal childcare, a rent freeze and these city-run grocery stores? Certainly, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul up in Albany and the legislature will have a lot to do with what happens in New York, as well as Trump, who’s threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City, calling Mamdani a dangerous communist. There are a lot of obstacles there, but how do you think he’ll meet that challenge?
JOHN TARLETON: Yes, it’s going to be a challenge with the rent-free as he proposed. Mayors appoint something here in New York called a Rent Guidelines Board and then the guidelines board decides how much the rents on those million apartments go up each year. Zohran has made clear what kind of board he would appoint. It’s possible that Eric Adams, the outgoing mayor, may gum that up with some last-minute appointments. But in time, Zohran will gain control of that Rent Guidelines Board and I assume he would follow through on his promise with that.
With some of these other items, they will require higher taxes on the rich. That’s been the proposal from the beginning. New York has a lot of billionaires and multimillionaires who benefit tremendously from being here and for all their threats to leave, they never do. And our governor, Kathy Hochul, has been very protective of her super-rich constituents who donate very generously to her political campaigns.
But the thing is, she’s up for re-election next year and she’s facing a challenge from the left from her current lieutenant governor. And then she’ll have to run in the fall if she wins the primary against Republican Elise Stefanik. So she wants to make sure she wins the primary and then that she can mobilize support from here in New York City when she has to go up for election in the fall. She’s from Buffalo and there’s never been much enthusiasm for here in New York City. So she, by September, has kind of hitched her wagon to Zohran. She saw the movement behind him and wanted to try to glom onto that and it’s going to be a dance here in New York. The governor and the state legislature by law are supposed to hammer out the annual state budget by April 1st of each year. That budget is roughly $250 billion of taxes and expenditures.
So Zohran is calling for $10 billion in new taxes on the super-rich and on large profitable corporations and that would fund his universal childcare initiative, the fast and free buses. Is he going to get all of it? I’m not sure, but the interesting thing is New York City, DSA and other allied community and civic groups on the left here are preparing to wage an enormous public mobilization campaign early next year as that state budget moves through the legislature to try to prevail upon the governor and all the state legislators who are all up for re-election next year to get on board with as much of Zohran’s agenda as possible.
So we’ll see. Hochul has said, “Oh, you can’t pressure me.” Well, I’d say that’s her opening bid. I think she’ll have to come to the table. She’s indicated she wants to do something on the childcare in particular, which would be a huge win for both her and Zohran if they get it done.
For more information, visit The Indypendent at indypendent.org.
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