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Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning Democratic Party primary victory in the nation’s most populous city proved to be a gift for Republicans aiming to paint Democrats as extreme radicals.
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.
One of the latest examples comes from New Hampshire, in the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up this 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.
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The caption on the ad reads “Comrade Chris.”
Responding, the Pappas campaign told Fox News that “Scott Brown is so desperate to make this election about anything other than the issues because he knows he embraces an agenda of higher costs and health care cuts that’s deeply unpopular in New Hampshire.”
And Pappas campaign communications adviser Collin Gately added that “Chris is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and has a demonstrated record of working across the aisle to deliver results for New Hampshire.”
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The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was one of the first out of the gate to capitalize on Mamdani’s leftward lurch, firing off an email release minutes after his victory that claimed, “the new face of the Democrat Party just dropped, and it’s straight out of a socialist nightmare.”
Aiming to tie House Democrats to Mamdani, NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued that “every vulnerable House Democrat will own him, and every Democrat running in a primary will fear him.”
The National Republican Senatorial Campaign (NRSC) also quickly got into the game, tying Pappas and Abdul El-Sayed – one of the contenders for the Democratic Senate nomination in battleground Michigan – to Mamdani.
No surprise – the Republican attacks have even come from President Donald Trump, who, since Mamdani’s victory two weeks ago, has repeatedly claimed that the 33-year-old Ugandan-born state assemblyman from the New York City borough of Queens is a “communist.”
Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates to capture the Democratic mayoral nomination and take a big step towards becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, is giving Republicans plenty of ammunition.
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.
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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.”
“The Democratic Party’s trying to convince people that the tail is not wagging the dog, and they don’t answer to the more extreme elements of their party,” veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News. “Now, that entire effort is undercut by a socialist winning handily in a bellwether election to determine who’s going to run America’s largest city.”
“It’s a messaging nightmare that’s going to unfold in real time from now until the midterms,” said Reed, who is a top political adviser to Brown.
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Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance told Fox News that “the primary challenge for Democrats regarding Mamdani’s candidacy is not his policy approach. The challenge is his party identification as a democratic socialist.”
“If there’s any doubt about the negative implications of adding the word socialist to Mamdani’s party affiliation, one need only peruse the national coverage whose focus has been on his party and the absence of party leadership to rush to his defense or offer endorsements,” Lesperance, the president of New England College, said.
But 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 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.”
Gately, the Pappas campaign communications adviser, pointed to the ad from the Brown campaign and said that “Granite Staters trust Chris and will see through these attacks.”
And veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo cautioned, “I wouldn’t read too much into this.”
Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, argued that “Republicans are making too much out of this.”
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