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President Donald Trump is reiterating his claim that the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor in the nation’s most populous city is a “communist.”
“If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same,” the president argued this week as he spoke to reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Trump was referring to Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic-socialist assemblyman from Queens whose convincing victory two weeks ago over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary sent political shock waves across the country.
For Republicans, the strategy in reacting to Mamdani’s victory is clear-cut – relentlessly paint Mamdani – who took a big step toward becoming New York City’s first Muslim mayor – as an extremist and anchor him to Democrats across the country ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
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For Democrats, it’s more complicated.
Mamdani surged to a primary victory thanks to an energetic campaign that put a major focus on affordability and New York City’s high cost of living.
He made smart use of social media platforms, including TikTok, as he engaged low-propensity voters. He 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.
RESURFACED MAMDANI PHOTO SPARKS SOCIAL MEDIA FIRESTORM
Thanks in part to the efforts of a massive grassroots army of volunteers, Mamdani rode a wave of support from younger and progressive voters to catapult into first place over Cuomo, who had been the primary frontrunner.
“I think it’s clear that voters are prioritizing action over inaction, and not just incremental change but broad sweeping change,” veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital, when asked about what Mamdani’s victory means for the party.
And Caiazzo, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, said one reason for Mamdani’s victory was that he tirelessly met “voters where they are.”
But the Mamdani political earthquake seems to have exacerbated tensions between the party’s moderate and progressive wings. It’s also fueled the existing debate over whether the Democratic Party’s policy, or messaging, was to blame for last November’s election setbacks, when Democrats lost control of the White House and Senate, and failed to win back the House majority.
“Democrats continue to have a fissure in their own party, which has been made worse by Mamdani’s candidacy,” said Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and the president of New England College.
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In New York, top Democratic Party leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have praised Mamdani’s campaign. And while they’ve defended him from Trump’s attacks, they have refrained, as of now, from endorsing the mayoral nominee.
Democratic strategist Lauren Hitt worked for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and served on the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign. This year, she helped a super PAC boost Mamdani, and told Fox News that his primary victory was a “clear rejection of the old guard.”
Even Matt Bennett, executive vice president for the moderate Democratic-aligned group the Third Way, acknowledged that Mamdani “focused on affordability,” which he said is “great.”
Bennett added that Mamdani is “young, charismatic, a great communicator. All that is great. We want to see that.”
But Bennett told Fox News “the problem is he has the wrong prescription.”
Without a singular leader steering Democrats as the party works to escape the political wilderness, the internal debates will continue.
But Caiazzo cautioned “not to read too much into” what Mamdani’s victory means to the party as a whole, and argued that “Republicans are making too much out of this.”
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