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Zohran Mamdani stuns Democratic establishment in New York mayor race
Early results point to upset win for the leftwing candidate over former governor Andrew Cuomo
From the Financial Times :
Zohran Mamdani, the leftwing Democrat feared by Wall Street, is on course to win the party’s mayoral primary for New York City, sending shockwaves across US politics. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has called for higher taxes on the rich and assailed US support for Israel in Gaza, stunned Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York state, in the Democratic primary race on Tuesday. His success will reverberate across Wall Street and among the billionaire donors, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who backed his rival. It will also intensify the debate among Democrats as they seek a convincing political strategy to take on Donald Trump.
“Tonight, we made history,” Mamdani told hundreds of jubilant supporters in Queens on Tuesday night. “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. “When we no longer believe in our democracy, it only becomes easier for people like Donald Trump to convince us of his worth, for billionaires to convince us that they must always lead,” he said. New York leans towards Democrats, and Mamdani’s victory gives the 33-year-old a major advantage in the election this year to replace Eric Adams as the city’s mayor — one of the most powerful positions in US domestic politics. Cuomo conceded defeat late on Tuesday in a contest that was widely seen as a referendum on the future of the party. “Tonight was not our night, tonight. It was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night,” Cuomo told supporters at a post-election party, adding that he had called Mamdani to congratulate him. Unofficial results on Tuesday night showed Mamdani with a seven-point lead over Cuomo, with more than 90 per cent of the vote counted.
The final result will depend on the tally in the city’s ranked-choice system, which allows people to pick up to five candidates in order of preference. The winner will be officially declared on July 1, at the earliest, after all other candidates’ votes have been reallocated.
Following Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election, the Democrats have been riven between a progressive wing exemplified by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and moderates such as Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has praised Trump. Mamdani ran his campaign on a pledge to make life more affordable for New Yorkers, whose cost of living has soared since the Covid-19 pandemic. If elected, he says he will raise taxes on the rich to fund free buses and childcare, as well as city-owned grocery stores. The progressive candidate tapped into a groundswell of support among younger voters — an electoral strategy that will be studied by Democrats nationally as they try to win back youthful voters who backed Trump in November. “In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done,” Mamdani said on X following the result. Ocasio-Cortez, who has tapped into a similar voter base, congratulated Mamdani on Tuesday night, saying in a social media post, “billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won.”
Link :
Zohran Mamdani likely to be 2025 New York mayor
Left-wing activists in the USA respond :
Sherry J Wolf :
Zohran’s win is a rebuke to the Democratic Party’s disastrous and reactionary playbook since Clinton ‘92: in the face of the Right, move to the center which disgusts everyone and has led to further rightward drift. My comrades who’ve worked tirelessly to get Zohran elected are wary of the Dems, but believe—wrongly, in my opinion—that the Dem ballot line can be used by the Left to burrow from within. The NYC left is not yet prepared for how viciously and relentlessly the wealthy and powerful of that party will go after Zohran to co-opt and undermine him—whatever works. The left in NYC is not yet building the movement infrastructure to hold any left candidate accountable to resist pulls to the right and cooptation, as we’ve seen with AOC locally and Bernie nationally. We have a lot to learn from Chicago’s experience where the left also elected its mayor with a stronger labor left but similar movement and political deficits.
I’m happy Zohran won because of what it says about the possibility for building support for a progressive vision, but we’re surrounded by land mines without a map out or broad acknowledgement that there won’t be heroes to save us, that without organizing and mass movements and democratic structures of dissent to create pressure and accountability, the electoral wins will be elusive.
Ashley Smith :
In the face of an all out attack by the NYC ruling class and the worst Zionist slanders, racism, and anti communism, a Muslim pro-Palestine socialist just won the Democratic Primary and is now frontrunner for Mayor of New York. Whatever happens next, this is a sign of the profound radicalization to the left among the multiracial working class of this country on every single issue, including and especially Palestine. Our task now is to build the mass class and social struggles to push back against the rulers of the system that will pull out every trick in the book to block, neutralize, and co-opt Mamdani. We also must hold him accountable to the movements that made his victory possible. Celebrate, understand the powerful forces arrayed against us, and prepare to organize, demonstrate, and strike to overcome those obstacles and make Mamdani’s promises a reality.
Tania Vyhovsky, State Senator, Vermont :
Zohran ran a brilliant campaign and truly acknowledged the suffering of the many. His win is not only a referendum on the elitist dem establishment but a testament that a better world is possible and when you give people something to vote for they will vote. Turnout was huge in this election by US standards. People are sick and tired of being shamed and fear mongered into voting for the lesser of two evils. Mamdani gave New Yorkers something to believe in and he gave them and all of us hope for a better future. The democratic establishment will likely learn nothing from this but like Bernie in 2016 this may galvanize a whole wave of people who again believe in the power of a movement for a better tomorrow. This is governing from the ground up, governing for the people and it has to be the future if the United States is going to defeat fascism.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 