After the general election of 2024, Democrats could probably see the writing on the wall, whether they chose to admit it or not. Things had to change, even though publicly most elected Democrats simply made excuses. The voters were at fault. They had failed to understand the party’s message; they were uneducated – even stupid. They were racist and sexist. But party insiders knew that the agenda was the problem. The sudden emergence of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as the far left’s new darling may have, for better or worse, solved the Democratic Party’s dilemma.
The party had two possible ways out of the doldrums. One was to tack toward the political center, if only far enough to bring back into the fold all those who abandoned it during the Joe Biden years. There doesn’t seem to be much of an appetite for that. The radical left, ultra-woke, feelings-over-facts wing of the party has become so loud and bullying that it appears few elected Democrats have the courage to stand against it. The other path leads further to the left, and on that road stands Mamdani.
At least for now, the Ugandan-born socialist is overshadowing even the likes of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Mamdani may well be the next mayor of New York – and that could shape the future of the Democratic Party for years or even decades to come.
A survey of 1,376 registered New York City voters taken on Aug. 11 by Gotham Polling shows Mamdani with a commanding lead in the gubernatorial race. He received the backing of almost 42% of respondents, with former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo coming in second with 23%. Current NYC Mayor Eric Adams got just 9%.
With less than three months to go until the Nov. 4 election, it seems increasingly unlikely that Cuomo, Mamdani’s only real electoral rival, can emerge as the winner.
The cynical argument is that perhaps the Big Apple and the country need a Mamdani win. With his offers of free everything to just about everyone, he is likely to break the city’s already struggling economy, which may finally serve as a wake-up call for those who believe it’s the government's job to provide all that they need.
A fiscal watchdog, the Citizen Budget Commission, has warned that the incoming mayor will face a $6 billion to $8 billion budget gap within less than three weeks of taking office. Mamdani is proposing $10 billion in new spending.
Although the bigwigs on Capitol Hill, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), party leaders in the Senate and House, respectively, have yet to endorse Mamdani, there is a sense that Democrats have resigned themselves to the prospect of the probable next NYC mayor becoming an influential force in Democratic Party politics – especially with the backing of Ocasio-Cortez, Warren, and Sanders.
This will almost certainly kill any hopes that the more moderate Democrats may have had of nudging the party back into the mainstream. At this point, it’s socialism or bust, and that’s not going to help Democrat fortunes in 2026 when the midterm elections roll around. It perhaps bodes even less well for the party’s chances of winning the White House in 2028.
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