Zohran Mamdani Wins New York City Primary
In a stunning upset, the young socialist candidate came out of nowhere to upset the Democratic Party establishment’s candidate and begin a major shift in U.S., and ultimately global, politics
American politics is usually little more than a TV show. Unfortunately, what the lead characters do sometimes impacts Canada. Each week, Tripwire takes a look at the headlines coming out of Washington to find the stories that matter most to Canadians.
On the night of Tuesday, June 24, Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic Party primary for mayor of New York City. The full election is being held Nov. 4, but the Democratic candidate is seen as highly likely to be elected in the generally liberal city. New York has been represented by the Democratic Party since Bill de Blasio was elected in 2013. Mamdani is seen as the favourite in the general election.
Mamdani, a self-described socialist, is running on a campaign focussed on economic issues like affordability. He is promising to freeze rent, make buses free, and operate city grocery stores to keep food prices low and address the needs of areas without food stores. He is proposing building 200,000 units of affordable housing and providing free childcare for New Yorkers between 6 weeks and five years old, including providing free baby baskets full of essentials. He is also pitching a 2 per cent wealth tax on New Yorkers making over $1 million, and proposing raising another $1 billion through changes to government contracts and procurements, tax audits, and collecting fines from “corrupt landlords”.
Mamdani ran in the Democratic Party primary against former governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo served as governor for a decade before resigning in 2021 amidst four simultaneous scandals. Cuomo famously mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic response and his lax policies related to nursing homes led to more than 6,000 deaths in those facilities by mid-2020. At the same time, he signed a $5 million deal to publish a book about his success managing the pandemic, which was written with taxpayer money. Cuomo gave his family priority access to COVID-19 test kits when supplies were severely limited.
At the same time, Cuomo was facing numerous sexual harassment allegations from members of his staff. New York attorney general Letitia James produced a report in August 2021 that said Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women during his time in office. Cuomo denied the allegations, but resigned later that month.
In the primary, Mamdani won 43.51 per cent of the vote to Cuomo’s 36.42 per cent. Mamdani won the broadest range of the middle class in New York, with only the richest and poorest supporting Cuomo. Mamdani also won most demographic groups in the city. Cuomo is running in the mayoral election in November as an independent, and will decide this week whether he plans to actively campaign in that contest.
Stunning Win Upsets New York Politics
Mamdani’s win came as a shock to almost all political observers. The 33-year-old New York state assemblyman began the race with less than one per cent support from the electorate, and was widely seen as being too young and unknown to win. The Cuomo campaign targeted Mamdani for his youth and lack of political experience, saying he was a bad choice to tackle New York City’s many challenges.
Mamdani’s politics and identity were also seen as issues. Mamdani ran as an unapologetic socialist at a time when many people are saying the Democratic Party lost the 2024 presidential election because it had moved “too far left”, especially on social issues. However, Mamdani’s campaign focussed mainly on economics and the affordability crisis, and these issues resonated heavily with New Yorkers. By contrast, the Cuomo campaign largely relied on the difference in experience; Cuomo was governor for a decade and a cabinet member under Bill Clinton while Mamdani was a state assemblyman for five years.
Mamdani is also a Muslim immigrant who moved to New York from Uganda when he was seven. Many on the right are fixated on this issue, including members of the Trump administration. For example, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, who is running Trump’s deportation program, wrote on X that “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.” A Republican member of the federal House of Representatives, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, called for Mamdani to have his citizenship revoked and be deported.
Trump attacked the Democratic nominee as well, saying that if Mamdani won, New York would become “a communistic city”.
“I can’t believe that’s happening,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “That’s a terrible thing for our country, by the way.”
Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of Palestine and has said Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza. This became a central issue in the primary as he was repeatedly asked about his position on Israel instead of issues related to New York City. Mamdani was able to navigate the issue well, saying he was focussed on issues facing New Yorkers and that he would represent everyone in the city equally. He was also endorsed by New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish and repudiated accusations of anti-Semitism against Mamdani. Lander also ran for nominee as mayor and he and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other, which is possible due to New York’s ranked voting system. Lander’s support overall was seen as crucial for Mamdani’s victory.
Given that Mamdani’s politics are far to the left of the Democratic Party, there were, and still are, major questions about whether the party would embrace him. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the federal House of Representatives and standard bearer of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, endorsed Mamdani, as well as several ideologically aligned politicians. The party establishment, including people like Bill Clinton, backed Cuomo. However, when the results were in and Mamdani had easily defeated Cuomo, major members of the party like Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Senator who leads the Democrats in the Senate, congratulated Mamdani on his win.
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
The business elite of New York are in panic mode over the possibility of an avowed socialist taking over governance of the global financial capital. Billionaire Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and a staunch Trump supporter, has become the focal point of opposition to Mamdani in the business community. Ackman wrote a lengthy post on X where he described being “gravely concerned” about Mamdani’s candidacy and what it would mean for the city and saying he was prepared to financially support anyone opposing Mamdani.
“Importantly, there are hundreds of million of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight (believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups) so that a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time raising funds. So, if the right candidate would raise his or her hand tomorrow, the funds will pour in,” Ackman posted.
Ackman said that he believes Mamdani’s policies will make the city’s challenges, including affordability, worse, and drive the wealthy from New York. He said he believes Mamdani won because he is a good politician facing weak competition rather than because New Yorkers genuinely support his policies.
Ackman is pitching a write-in campaign for a new mayor since he says the remaining candidates are unlikely to defeat Mamdani. He also suggested another New York billionaire, former mayor Michael Bloomberg and owner of Bloomberg L.P., would lend his media empire and vast resources to any challenger to Mamdani. However, while write-in campaigns are legal in New York, they have no history of being competitive. This means that for the anybody-but-Mamdani camp, their best hope may be the disgraced incumbent mayor, Eric Adams.
Zohran Mamdani vs. Eric Adams
Mamdani’s main challenger is incumbent mayor Eric Adams. Adams won as a Democrat in 2021, but is not running with the party due to numerous corruption scandals. Despite being a Democrat, Adams has embraced Trump, praising him on many occasions during his second term. Under Trump, the U.S. Justice Department dropped its cases against Adams.
Eric Adams faced several legal investigations over the course of his four-year term, with the most serious being fraud charges related to his relationship with the Turkish government. Adams was accused of receiving thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations from Turkey and receiving gifts like free plane tickets and hotel rooms. Adams travelled all over the world as mayor and frequently flew via Turkey in order to receive the tickets for free. Adams accepted over $35,000 in gifts from Turkey which prosecutors said was part of a coordinated campaign by the Turkish government to curry favour with Adams. In return, Adams did favours for Turkey like allegedly pressuring the New York Fire Department into allowing them to occupy Turkish House, a 36-storey skyscraper near the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, without completing a fire inspection.
.jpg){kind=link}
With just 20 per cent approval, Adams is the least popular mayor in New York City. Despite running as a Democrat, he has embraced Donald Trump in a move generally seen as a way to get out of his legal trouble. Adams was accused of making a deal with Trump in order to get the Justice Department to drop its charges, which the department did in February, saying the investigation was politically motivated to interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement work in New York City. Several members of the Justice Department resigned in protest of the charges being dropped. Adams denied the existence of a deal to drop the “bogus charges” on CNN.
Also in the race is Republican Curtis Sliwa, a radio host and CEO of the non-profit crime prevention group Guardian Angels. Sliwa was the Republican candidate in 2021, in which he won 27.76 per cent of the vote to Adams’ 66.99 per cent. Sliwa is not considered a likely winner of the election and now says he is considering dropping out of the race to support Adams.
A New Political Trend, Or Just the Right Candidate at the Right Time
One of the most important questions about the Mamdani campaign is whether it signals a larger shift in U.S. politics and what kind of ramifications it could have, including in Canada. In a country that just elected a hardline right-wing Trump administration, the election of a brown Muslim immigrant socialist in New York City could be seen as a total rebuke of Trumpism and right-wing politics in general. It could also be a rebuke of the centrist policies of the Democrats and its instinctual move further to the right to address the Trump effect.
It could also be, as Ackman describes, a talented politician running against a weak field. Cuomo is very unpopular for his governance and conduct, especially the sexual harassment cases. Adams is similarly disliked, and Sliwa has little support. No other major candidate has been able to break through in the city, leaving Mamdani as the prospective winner.
Regardless, many Democrats will almost certainly try and copy Mamdani’s strategy if he does win in November. Politicians in Canada are likely to copy him as well, especially with both Toronto and Vancouver having municipal elections in 2026. If Mamdani is successful in implementing his policies as mayor, that would further bolster copycat campaigns.
Tripwire will continue to cover the Mamdani campaign and the political ramifications of the coming election.