Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-three-year-old left-wing state assemblyman from Queens, on Tuesday night, seemingly defeated the better-known Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City. That doesn’t mean that Cuomo can’t run as an Independent in the actual election against the scandal-plagued incumbent (Eric Adams); only time will tell. Most of Mamdani’s opponents were more established and better known. Mamdani was born October 18, 1991. Take note.
Mamdani’s campaign said it knocked on a million and a half doors across the city—not unprecedented in the annals of municipal politics but probably essential for an unknown. The candidate himself appeared in every conceivable media venue, from the TikTok series “Subway Takes” to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” earning him the sobriquet “Nonstop Mamdani.” In the mid-June heat, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, from Inwood to the Battery. He beat Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, in the first round of ranked-choice voting by about seven percentage points. In campaign buttons and other merch visible across the five boroughs, it was a landslide. Mamdani’s win makes him the first Muslim candidate to be selected as the Democratic candidate for Mayor; he is dubbed a Democratic Socialist.
Mamdani’s central issue of affordability in the city got it right, especially with voters under forty-five. His easy smile and ubiquity fueled a steady rise in the polls. His campaign’s essential theme was that life in New York doesn’t have to be so hard. His campaign platform includes support for free city buses, public child care, city-owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, and building affordable social housing units. He is a critic of Israel.
So far, the experiments in explicitly left-wing governance—as opposed to the principled back-benching of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have gone badly for the Democratic Party. Mamdani’s proposal of a rent freeze proved popular in the campaign, but Bill de Blasio froze the rent in NYC three times. It has not made New York housing much cheaper. Other ideas like the establishment of five city-run grocery stores seem either a little fanciful or politically difficult, like tax hikes.
During the campaign, Mamdani sometimes appeared a little more flexible than his socialist image. Mamdani has been interested in ideas about how to build more housing, ideas that have germinated in the abundance movement and in attempting to cut red tape for small businesses.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
On another Progressive front, in Chicago, Brandon Johnson’s year and a half as mayor has been semi- disastrous, measured both by the city’s mounting budget crisis and his own plummeting popularity. Chesa Boudin as the avowedly progressive district attorney in San Francisco ended with his removal by voter referendum. That contributed to backlash against Silicone Valley tech that helped power Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. So stay tuned for what this unexpected victory might mean if it leads to Mamdani’s election. Michelle Wu, the young Boston mayor and Elizabeth Warren’s former protégé, has been a more successful model of governance by the left.
Even if Mamdani’s victory was built on hustle in local politics, it also carries an unmistakable message for his beleaguered national party: BE NEW. The Baby Boomers are (finally) giving way to the younger generation. For the first time, Millennials born between 1981 and 1996 comprised 21.81% of the nation’s population.
Generation Z (1997-2012) stood at 20.81%.
Baby Boomers (1946-1964) stood at 19.6% and are dropping like flies.
Generation X born between 1965 and 1980 stand at 19.27%. Only the Silent Generation (1928-1945) and Alpha (2013-2023) stand at only 4.48% and 13.85%, respectively, with the children born during WWII or earlier rapidly losing members, and the present lower birth rate reflected in Alpha.
The younger generation would like to see some reasonable, middle-of-the-road newbies elected. They’d like to see the “passing of the torch” that Joe Biden promised (but did not willingly deliver.) So, BE NEW is the message that the Democratic party should embrace, since so many of its leaders and leadership resemble television’s Crypt Keeper. Watching Chuck Schumer (age 75) talk about drafting a letter of protest against Trump’s many illegal moves, or Dick Durbin (Nov. 21, 1944) pontificating about same, does not inspire confidence. Both sides need some new blood, but the Democrats seem to need it the most.
Vice President J.D. Vance.
The GOP already has the eyeliner-wearing J.D. Vance warming up in the bull-pen. Unless you want 4 more years of marching backwards and telling women to STFU, stay in the kitchen, and procreate, be afraid. Be very afraid.
During the long and often difficult years since Obama’s election, the Party’s past three Presidential nominees have been Obama’s Secretary of State, Obama’s Vice-President, and Obama’s Vice-President’s Vice-President. Joe Biden’s precipitous decline defined last year’s election. Biden’s disastrous debate performance may threaten to define the Party for a generation. This past spring, Democrats in the House lost a vote they might have won, for passage of a budget-reconciliation bill, except too many Democratic congressman died and couldn’t be replaced in time to vote. For those decrying the idea of dying in office, like San Francisco representative Diane Feinstein, even the indomitable Nancy Pelosi looked her age after she tumbled downstairs while overseas, breaking her hip.
Of course, the Republicans conveniently try to downplay their own fossils, like 92-year-old Chuck Grassley, currently the oldest Senator serving. Who can forget Mitch McConnell (Feb. 20, 1942) freezing in the Capitol halls and falling. (The mighty, how they have fallen.) Republicans had several Senators who overstayed their welcome, including John Stennis (R, MI), who served over 41 years and Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) who served from 1977 until 2019.
Trump is seventy-nine years old and has been President twice. He and his party can’t run as the outsiders forever. Democrats: be new.
