Zohran Can Win
How America’s Richest City Can Elect a Democratic Socialist
There are many cities where it is easier to be rich. (Think of all the athletes who leave New York to live in states with less taxes.) But New York is the only New York, and it is, arguably, the most exciting place to be rich. Even the New York Post can’t deny that rich people love NYC: “NYC retains title of world’s wealthiest city — despite CEO warnings of high crime, filth.”
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who didn’t need to work and refused to live at Gracie Mansion, loved running New York so much that he alienated almost everyone by having the New York City Council change the law so he could win a third term. I moved from Long Island to NYC at the end of 2013 for the tail end of the Bloomberg administration and then, in 2015, began working in the New York City Council where I stayed as a Legislative Director until 2022.
Working in city government, especially during that time period under the shadow of the stress and the chaos of national politics, taught me so much about government and exposed the inner workings of the lives of politicians. I worked for only Democrats, but I saw a range of behavior and learned a lot about elections, even when I only wanted to focus on policy issues.
When Bernie Sanders announced his run for the presidency, I remember feeling like I had to keep my support private, even though my boss was a Democrat. My then-boss, like virtually all of his colleagues, was a Hillary person. But Bernie forever changed politics and showed the true power of a grassroots campaign—and he brought the idea being a Democratic Socialist into the New York political lexicon in a serious way.
There are, of course, some enclaves of the city that can’t imagine a Democratic Socialist, whose catchphrase is Roti and Roses, as the next mayor of New York. But if any Democratic Socialist is primed to win in this era, it’s Zohran Mamdani.
To be clear, I’m not an unbiased observer. I first met Zohran in 2017 when he was the campaign manager for Ross Barkan’s State Senate campaign in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Zohran had previously worked on Father Khader El-Yateem’s campaign for New York City Council. Father K, as he’s known, lost to Council Member Justin Brannan by a slight margin, but received a tremendous amount of support from DSA. (Zohran worked alongside Father K’s campaign manager Kayla Santosuosso who is now running to replace her boss, term-limited Brannan, while Brannan is running for Comptroller.)
I canvassed for him in March, collecting petition signatures to get him on the ballot, and also donated $35 to Zohran for a fundraiser for his Assembly seat in November of 2019. But even without this personal knowledge of him, I still think he has a chance at winning this very tough election.
Zohran’s history is a part of his narrative and values. He was born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent and moved to New York when he was seven years old.
Zohran’s start in politics came after his career as a rapper as Young Cardamom. His song “#1 Spice” was featured in the movie Queen of Katwe, which his mother directed.
His mother is the renowned film and theatre director Mira Nair. His father is the esteemed academic Mahmood Mamdani. It goes without saying that he comes from an educated and creative household.
Since his appearance on Subway Takes, which operated seemingly as a soft launch last summer before his official announcement on his birthday in October of 2024, Zohran has shown he’s miles ahead of all the other candidates.
Zohran is very savvy on social media. He’s able to use humor and good editing to connect with voters. The New York Times even called him a “TikTok Savant” in March.
But he’s also very substantive. His campaign focuses on working class issues, and his platform includes a push for free buses and rent freezes for rent stabilized units. (For people who say that this is “too far,” Bill de Blasio also fought to freeze rent stabilized units and it was mostly unnoticed in that it didn’t seem to hurt anyone and, instead, greatly helped the more than two million people in this city who desperately relied on this freeze to keep living in the city they call home. Nearly half of apartments in the city are rent stabilized. Adams, on the other hand, is a landlord who won’t commit to rent freezes.)
He’s great with social media in a way that embodies the strengths of AOC’s campaign against Joe Crowley, whom she defeated in 2018. AOC’s ad was, while still negative against Crowley, heartfelt, philosophical, and artistic. It was the best political ad I’ve ever seen, with nearly 2 million views on YouTube alone. Zohran’s ad was more traditional. It highlighted Zohran’s strengths but also went negative in a classic political way. It felt like a tried-and-true political ad—but one that ran during the Knicks playoff run, which is very impressive for a TV drop.
Ads are important. De Blasio’s “Dante” ad, featuring his son, was also a memorable ad that helped lead him to victory
But where Zohran’s creativity shines is in his humorous online persona. He is able to incorporate humor in a way that amplifies his impact and reach, especially to younger voters, but doesn’t undermine his serious political talking points.
He’s able to be multi-dimensional in a way the majority of politicians are not. The 33-year-old has a cool factor and an innate knowledge of social media, marketing, and reach.
He’s telegenic, charismatic, intelligent, and calculated. He has star power. He seems destined to be a star, in a way that politics, paradoxically, allows more than his past career as a rapper. (He still gets royalties from being a performer, albeit a small amount at $1,267 as reported in his taxes.) But he’s able to perform, entertain, and yet still reach people on the issues.
When the New York Post attacks him, he uses it as a type of endorsement. He also does this when he’s attacked by other right-wing detractors, like Trump donors, with this caption: “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have.”
The New York Post tries to push this narrative that Democrats are destroying the city. But its fear mongering is often based in downright lies. Rich people, even during Covid, only temporarily left. The real danger is that middle- and working-class New Yorkers can’t afford to live in the place that is their home.
Eric Adams’ corruption created an opportunity for Zohran, and he took it.
Ranked Choice Voting, which passed in 2019 and was first used in an election in 2021, could also help Zohran. There’s still a lot of uncertainty around RCV’s outcomes but that uncertainty could end up working out in his favor. Currently working in his favor is the D.R.E.A.M. campaign, which is “Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor.” This is reminiscent of the “Anyone But Quinn” campaign in 2013 that worked to support anyone other than Christine Quinn, the former City Council speaker, for mayor in part because of her support for third terms for Bloomberg and herself and other Council Members.
But it’s still an uphill battle. As of now, polls show Andrew Cuomo leading by a large margin. Zohran is second.
However, Cuomo’s camp has fumbled at inopportune times. Last month, Cuomo’s campaign was denied $2 million in matching funds. Zohran maxed out campaign donations months ago, and was the first candidate to do so. He raised over $8 million and put out an ad at the end of March asking people to stop donating their money and, instead, start donating their time.
In the ad, he cheekily says, “I’m about to say something to you you’ve never heard a politician say: Please stop sending us money.”
Since November, I thought Zohran could win. Of course there were always whispers about Cuomo jumping into the race even then, many months before he actually entered. He has the name recognition. Some people don’t care about his scandals.
There are other candidates that have a small chance. New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (no relation to Eric) is running. Former Comptroller Scott Stringer is running again. New York State Senators Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos are running.
Adams, too, is still a possibility in the general election since he announced last month that he’s running as an independent.
But while these individuals have had, for the most part, respectable careers, campaigning requires a whole different skill set.
When Zohran first announced, another serious candidate at the time was Comptroller Brad Lander. But Brad’s campaign hasn’t made waves. He’s polling in the single-digits at 8%, after Zohran’s 15% and Cuomo’s 39%. I remember when I mentioned him as a hopeful in November 2024 to a Democrat in Manhattan and the person, who was intelligent and civically engaged enough to post voting selfies, responded with, “I don’t know who that is.” It shocked me at the time, but I think it is proof of how much things have changed.
Michael Lange wrote a great piece on Substack this month: “Are New York Liberals a Dying Breed?” The subhead was this: “Brad Lander is running out of time.”
I think Brad had more potential four years ago. He was waiting for “his” time, as Democrats often do—and this, as I’ve written about before, is a problem for Democrats nationally that translates to losing key elections—and now, it seems his moment has passed. Time waits for no one. That is true in life. It is an accelerated truth in politics.
Of course, four years ago, Brad did the thing that was politically savvy, perhaps, at the time. The safe thing. Brad moved from the City Council to citywide office as the Comptroller. Brad was using the old strategy of incremental movements. But that could have been his time. People clung to Kathryn Garcia at the time, desperate for substance. Her policy background drew people in. (Ultimately, Garcia and Andrew Yang did a co-endorsement, a packed event that I attended, but it wasn’t enough to take down Eric Adams.)
Though he lacked a citywide office then, more people seemed to be aware of Brad. Or perhaps it only seemed that way because I was working in the New York City Council then. I saw him take his own notes and formulate his own questions. (Perhaps that is a low bar, but it’s not uncommon for Council Members to rely on prewritten questions provided from their offices or committee while their staff take notes.)
But Brad’s campaign has turned away from substance and progressive values. I got an ad just this morning on Instagram for his campaign and what did he emphasize first? Safety. “Brad Lander: For A Safer More Affordable New York.”
The safety component, which helped win Eric Adams the mayoral election after Covid, reads like a dog whistle for conservative voters who won’t want to vote for Brad anyway. He’s also relied on his daughter to post on social media in a way that makes him seem like he’s striving for relatability while moving further away from policy platforms. His recent “fit check” video with his daughter felt very gimmicky.
Zohran’s able to use social media in a fun and clever way while also packing substance into it.
Zohran being first on the ballot also feels like a strong sign. The ballot order in New York is based on a lottery system. While its electoral advantage is debated—some studies say there is an advantage to being listed number one on the ballot and others say there isn’t—it certainly signals good luck. (Again, while some scholars disagree with ballot order advantages, from an intuitive perspective, having your candidate first just feels special, serendipitous, especially if there’s a victory. It’s always a welcome sign for campaign staffers and I don’t know any staffer who has every felt otherwise.)
The primary is next month. Our city could soon be very different, regardless of the outcome. I’m hoping we move away from the instability of Covid and recession talk and work towards a fairer, more progressive city that actually cares about the working-class residents who make this city run.
The traditional media may be late like it so often is if Zohran wins. But one thing is clear. If Zohran wins, the signs were there. The only part of the victory that I would dread is if traditional media writes this as an underdog story. I’m not saying he has it easy. I’m not saying he is destined to win. Cuomo has name recognition. Cuomo polls well with adults over 40. But Zohran has run a truly wonderful campaign.
Why shouldn’t the handsome, intelligent, 33-year-old Assemblyman with respected, brilliant and well-connected parents, win? This is not to say that Zohran hasn’t had hardships. He has faced a barrage of hate from some on the right and, sometimes, those on the left who criticize his support of Palestinians. But Andrew Cuomo is a troubled candidate with many scandals. Is it so wrong to hope that people will want something new?
Will the people of the city vote to return to its tumultuous past with an older candidate who has faced many scandals or will the people of the city vote for optimism, working class values, and intelligence that seems to always strive for compassion and reason? We’ll see soon.
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Great analysis of the election and Zohran!
The city government owned grocery stores are by far the most brilliant idea from Zohran. This will go really well!