- The Republicans attack Mamdani, seeking to injure the democrats halfway through.
- The Mamdani campaign focused on affordability and young voters energized.
- Socialist Democrat Auto-written being the first Muslim mayor of the city.
The self -proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani was unexpected in the Democratic Primary Democrat Mayor of New York Tuesday exhilarating exhilarating activists, who had gathered to prevent the former New York Governor, more moderate Andrew Cuomo from triumphant.
But the surprise result also generated the excitement of a very different group of people: national republicans.
Shortly after, it has become clear that Mamdani, a 33-year-old legislator, was likely to prevail, the republican vice-president JD Vance sent congratulations on social networks to the “new leader of the Democratic Party”. The campaign arm of the Republican Congress called him “anti-Semitic socialist radical” and promised to link it to each vulnerable democrat in the mid-term elections of next year.
And Wednesday, Republican President Donald Trump – a native New Yorker – stacked, writing on social networks, “it was finally happening, the Democrats crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% communist madman, has just won the primary DEM and is about to become mayor.”
The reactions underline both the risks and the awards for the Democratic Party – always trying to find its place for five months in Trump’s mandate – having a shameless candidate on the left in the largest city in the country this fall.
Mamdani’s campaign, which attracted applause for its joyful tone and intelligent viral videos, could help boost young voters, a demographic group that Democrats are desperate to reach in 2026 and beyond. His ascent of a virtual unknown was fueled by an implacable accent on affordability, a problem that the Democrats had trouble approaching in the presidential race last year.
“The cost of living is the question of our time,” wrote Neera Tanden, Director General of Democratic Think Tank Center for American Progress on X in response to Mamdani’s victory. “This is the line throughout politics. Intelligent political leaders respond to it.”
His candidacy for history – Mamdani, born in Uganda of Indian parents, would be the first Muslim and Indian mayor of the city – could also stimulate the commitment among Asian and in particular Muslims, some of whom have embittered the party after the administration of Biden supported the War of Israel in Gaza.
“These elections are not almost on the left, right or in the center, it is a question of knowing if you are a change in the status quo. People do not want the same thing, they want someone who plays a different game,” said Democrat Stratège Jesse Ferguson.
But Mamdani’s criticism with regard to Israel and his democratic socialism is also likely to appear frequently in the announcements of republican attacks. A large part of the Democratic establishment had aligned itself behind Cuomo, including former president Bill Clinton, partly by discomfort at the Mamdani platform. Mamdani said on several occasions that he was not anti -Semitic.
“I think it is an easy target for the Republicans who want to use scary tactics to talk about the Muslim mayor of New York who is Uber-Left,” said Patrick Egan, professor of political science at New York University. But Egan noted that Mamdani also turned out to be a follower politician.
“When people are exposed to this type, they tend to love it,” he said.
No apology
Basil Smikle, political analyst and professor at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, said that heavy attacks on Mamdani could turn against him by energizing “many democratic voters to want to push more against Trump”.
“I don’t think that hurts the long-term democrats,” he said. “I actually think it helps them.”
For his part, Mamdani seemed ready to adopt his role as a party leader, saying to the supporters of his victory speech that he would govern the city “as a model for the Democratic Party – a party where we are fighting for workers without excuses”. He swore to use his mayor power to “reject the fascism of Donald Trump”.
Democratic voters say they want a new generation of leaders and a party that focuses on economic issues, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll earlier this month.
“The Democratic Party is trying to understand each other,” said Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University in New York.
While Mamdani enters the general elections as the favorite of a city dominated by Democrats, the race is more unstable than usual.
Mayor Eric Adams, a democrat, presents himself as independent after his popularity has dropped following his accusation act on the accusations of corruption and the subsequent decision of the Ministry of Justice of Trump to suppress the case. Cuomo also retains the ability to present himself as an independent, although he has not yet decided to do so.
The republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels. Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor, also presents himself as independent.
The primary had become a race of two people on the poll between Mamdani and Cuomo, echoing other Democratic appointment competitions in which the party establishment and the liberal wings fought for power. But it was also a generational confrontation between Mamdani and Cuomo, the 67 -year -old scion of a New York political family.
That said, Cuomo transported many personal luggage, four years after having resigned from the governor in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment, which he denied.
“Some people voted for Mamdani to express their dissatisfaction for Cuomo,” said Greer.
Mamdani’s improbable ascent bore some of the same characteristics of similar increases for two other democratic socialists, American senator Bernie Sanders and American representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both approved his campaign.
Sanders, an independent, became a leading Democrat presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, whileocasio-Cortez succeeded in 2018 by beating a long-standing democrat.
