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EXCLUSIVE – Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning Democratic Party primary victory in the nation’s most populous city appears to be the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans aiming to paint Democrats as extreme radicals.
When asked if Mamdani is giving the GOP extra ammunition in their messaging battle, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley answered “absolutely.”
“I mean, this is the face of the new Democratic Party,” Whatley said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
Whatley argued that “everybody who wants to lead that party wants to lead it to the left….they’re moving away from the American public right now at a pretty rapid clip.”
REPUBLICANS RELENTLESSLY USE MAMDANI AS ‘SOCIALIST’ CUDGEL TO BASH VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS
Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates last month to capture the New York City Democratic mayoral nomination and take a big step toward becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, is giving Republicans plenty of fodder.
He’s proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age 5 and setting up government-run grocery stores.
TRUMP ARGUES NYC FACES DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF ‘COMMUNIST’ MAMDANI BECOMES MAYOR
Also fueling the Republican attacks are recent news items that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent comments in a cable news interview that “I have many critiques of capitalism.”
Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year’s midterms.
“He certainly is going to fit right into that upper echelon of Democrats who are vying for a lead in that party,” Whatley said of Mamdani. He claimed that “they’re just unabashedly in that radical woke part of the party.”
Pointing to last year’s elections, when the Republicans won back the White House and Senate and held onto their razor-thin House majority, Whatley argued that “every single candidate right now on the Democratic side of the aisle is buying into the same failed agenda that they lost with in 2024.”
‘IN IT TO WIN IT’: CUOMO REFUSES TO BACK DOWN IN HEATED NYC MAYORAL RACE AGAINST ZOHRAN MAMDANI
Additionally, Democrats question the effectiveness of the GOP push.
They argue that there’s a world of difference between heavily blue New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin, and some key battleground states and swing districts across the country.
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, a Democrat, told reporters the day after Mamdani’s victory that “I love New York, but it’s a very liberal place, and I don’t know that you can necessarily apply that to the rest of the country.”
In the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up last week with a digital ad that edits a picture of Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic candidate in the race, alongside photos of Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star who backed Mamdani.
Pappas, speaking with Fox News Digital last week, said, “Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars running attack ads against me through the years trying to paint me as someone that I’m not.”
“People know me. They know the work that I’ve been doing. They know that I’m one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives because I believe in solving problems and getting things done,” Pappas said. “I’m a New Hampshire Democrat. I’m proud of my track record in Congress.”
Pappas was joined on the campaign trail by longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who spent plenty of time in New Hampshire ahead of her third-place finish in the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
“It’s about New Hampshire. They’re going to do this in all these races across the country. They try to attach people. People have never even met some of these people. And they keep doing it,” Klobuchar told Fox News when asked about the Republican ad anchoring Mamdani to Pappas. “To me this is about what’s going on for the people of this state.”
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