Progressive Perspectives on Zohran Mamdani’s Win in New York City

Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York City is not simply a local upset. It is a breach in the ideological dam that has kept American politics safely contained for generations.

This victory is historic not because one office suddenly overturns entrenched power, but because it demonstrates that such power can be overturned at all.

For decades, political life in the United States has functioned as a managed marketplace in which both parties advertise different brands, yet deliver the same fundamental product: deference to private wealth, hostility to social investment, and a belief that the public should expect very little from its government beyond punishment and surveillance.

Tonight, that spell cracked.

Mamdani won not by courting the wealthy, not by flattering real-estate interests, not by running a campaign tailored to the comfort of cable-news pundits.

He won by naming the obvious: that the city belongs to its people, not to absentee landlords; that housing, transit, childcare, food, and dignity are fundamental rights, not privileges; that a budget is a statement of who matters in society – and it’s long past time a city as wealthy as New York put working people first instead of billionaires and real-estate developers. The bipartisan establishment will attempt to minimize this moment. They will continue to fund hysterical hit pieces designed to make people afraid of those challenging their rule. But their real fear is that this victory might prove contagious.

If New Yorkers can elect someone who openly challenges concentrated power, asks the wealthy to pay their share, and speaks in plain moral terms about economic justice, then perhaps Chicago can. Perhaps Los Angeles can. Perhaps Cleveland, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Kansas City.

The danger, from the perspective of those who currently command the political economy, is that people elsewhere may decide to stop begging for crumbs and begin organizing for a real seat at the table.

Power relies on a population convinced of its own helplessness. The most consistent project of elite politics is to cultivate resignation: nothing can change, no one like you can win, best not to try. When that illusion breaks, even in a single city, it sends tremors outward.

Across the country, millions watching tonight saw something rare in American politics: proof that a campaign rooted in solidarity can beat one rooted in capital.

They saw a future in which the public is not a spectator to its own dispossession.

They saw permission to believe in their own power.

They saw that politics need not be reduced to a stage-managed rivalry between corporations wearing different campaign colors.

As someone who saw this possibility in the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders, who saw our movement defeated by this same bipartisan establishment, tonight gives me a renewed faith in America's capacity to fight back against oligarchy.

Zohran’s win feels like the beginning of the first meaningful challenge to the neoliberal consensus in a generation.

And that is why this victory matters. Not because one candidate triumphed, but because a barrier was crossed.

The belief that the public must endure austerity while wealth accumulates above it has lost its inevitability.

The idea that the mass media can manufacture consent for a Wall Street-approved candidate every time has shattered. The attacks on Mamdani were relentless these past few months. But their hollow and desperate efforts failed. The majority didn't buy it and they went to the polls to send Cuomo packing.

For the first time in a long time, the message is simple and electrifying:

The people can win. And if they can win here, they can win anywhere.

– Tim Hjersted
via Films for Action
November 4, 2025

The socialist left has won power in New York.

Zohran Mamdani won a majority – the first candidate to win more than one million votes since 1969. He did so despite an unrelenting racist smear campaign, vast sums spent by billionaires, and threats from Trump to strangle New York.

You’re seeing, in part, the political consequences of the Iraq war, the financial crash, and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. All helped forge new politicised generations. And the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign reforged the U.S. left – which made Mamdani possible.

That Mamdani owes his victory to a broken economic system is undeniable. But fury at Israel’s genocide played a key role in him securing the Democratic nomination. The dramatic political consequences of the genocide have only just begun to be felt

. In his victory speech, Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs, the U.S. socialist pioneer, because he firmly places himself in that historic tradition of the left.

He addressed Jewish people, Muslims, trans people – because the left is the antidote to a right embracing racism and hate. In an age of Islamophobia – which is mainstream, acceptable, respectable, normalised – for a Muslim candidate to triumph in New York matters. That an unapologetically socialist Muslim opposed to racism and bigotry in all its forms triumphed matters even more.

Donald Trump and the Democratic establishment want Mamdani to fail, and will do all they can to achieve their goal. How the huge numbers inspired by Mamdani’s campaign are mobilised will matter a lot in the coming fight. But we saw how Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign re-energised the U.S. left. Mamdani’s campaign will have an even bigger impact. So many leftist politicians and campaigns are going to emerge all over the U.S. because of his triumph.

In an age of darkness, Mamdani’s campaign offers hope.

The socialist left has now triumphed in New York. In New York!

Let’s hope that’s the beginning of the socialist left triumphing everywhere – and driving back the forces of fascism.

– Owen Jones
via social media
November 5, 2025

I’m levitating. This is such an incredible proof of concept of how to fight fascism. You know, Zohran, immediately after Trump’s election, went out and talked to Trump voters, people who had never voted for Trump before, Black and Brown people in working-class neighborhoods, didn’t vilify them, just listened to them.

I talked to Zohran for the first time a week after Trump’s election. And what he said to me was everything is broken for people. Like, the elevator in their public housing hasn’t been fixed for 10 months. Nothing is working. So it’s so easy for someone like Trump to come along and be like, “Blame the immigrant. Blame the unhoused person.” And his entire campaign was about proving that if you actually meet people’s real needs and raise the floor and say, “Okay, let’s freeze the rent. Let’s have free and fast buses. Let’s have universal child care. Let’s address that sense of scarcity and insecurity at its root,” that it can pull people back from the fascist abyss. And he won tonight. He proved that that is – that works. That message works.

This movement, this is anti-fascism, and it is also the antithesis of fascism, because fascists want everybody to be the same. They celebrate conformity, uniformity, sameness, hierarchy. Look in – New York is the most unruly city. The entire campaign was a love letter to the diversity, linguistic, faith, cultural diversity of the city, at a time when the Republicans never stop pouring hate onto cities and make people afraid of each other, right?

– Naomi Klein
Quoted in “This Is How to Fight Fascism:
Naomi Klein, AOC & Brad Lander on Mamdani Victory”
Democracy Now!
November 5, 2025

Since young men across the U.S. shifted right in the 2024 elections, with former Vice President Kamala Harris losing to President Donald Trump among men ages 18-29, the Democratic Party has searched for ways to win back the voting bloc – and on Tuesday night, progressives urged leaders to simply look to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s resounding success.

Exit polls showed Mamdani, a progressive state Assembly member who remained laser-focused on making the city more affordable for working people during his campaign, winning the support of 68% of male voters ages 18-29, while Cuomo won just 26% of them – a margin of 42 points.

The democratic socialist’s support among men under the age of 45 was also notable, with a margin of 39 points.

Young male voters swung left in other closely watched races as well, with Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger winning the group by 15 points and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill winning by 12 points – but observers said Democratic leaders should pay special attention to the “blowout” in New York City as they seek answers about how to win over young men nationwide.

Housing campaigner Matthew Torbitt suggested that Mamdani appealed to young male New Yorkers by speaking clearly and emphatically about the need to make life for all working people more affordable – by establishing a network of city-run grocery stores to compete with private corporations, freezing the rent on rent-stabilized units, and expanding across the city’s bus system the pilot program he championed that made one bus line fare-free.

“Young men just need to feel like there is someone on their side,” Torbitt said.

– Julia Conley
Excerpted from “42-Point Blowout With Young Men
Helped Fuel Mamdani’s Victory”
Common Dreams
November 5, 2025

This is how you run. This is how you win. This is the politics we need right now. Democratic socialist candidates can inspire people again, and fight the right effectively. . . . The history of socialist mayors in the United States shows that they can actually succeed. Socialist Daniel Hoan is considered one of the best mayors in the history of Milwaukee, having focused on rooting out corruption, establishing public buses, and keeping up the quality of city parks and public schools. He didn’t exactly overturn the basic economic order, but he did show that socialist principles are compatible with competent, honest government. Likewise, Bernie Sanders is regarded as having been a capable and effective mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

Mamdani faces an immense challenge now. After ten years of insisting that if handed power, the left can deliver for people, we don’t want to be like “the dog who caught the car.” Many eyes are on Mamdani to see what he will do next, whether he will crash and burn, sell out, or provide evidence that democratic socialism is the politics America needs. If he defies the skeptics and haters, and is the best mayor in the history of New York, delivering on his agenda, Mamdani may massively improve the political fortunes of the American left. If, on the other hand, he disappoints, he may discredit the left, and make it impossible to get socialists elected to office in the future. I hope he and his team know what they are doing—but if they govern as well as they campaigned, New York City is in good hands.

For the last ten years, Current Affairs has been relentlessly making the argument that democratic socialist politics can win, and need to be given a chance. We now have that chance, and it is probably the most exciting moment in the history of the U.S. left. The pressure is on. The fight is just beginning. But this is an incredible victory, and the hard-working New Yorkers who made it possible have a lot to be proud of.

– Nathan J. Robinson
Excerpted from “Follow Mamdani’s Example”
Current Affairs
November 5, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Zohran Mamdani’s Win Shows the Promise of Economic Populism – David Sirota (Jacobin, November 5, 2025).
Mamdani Beats Cuomo and the Press Hacks (Again) – Ari Paul (FAIR, November 5, 2025).
The Socialist Movement Is Bringing Democracy Back – Grace Mausser (Jacobin, November 5, 2025).
Zohran Mamdani: A Victory for the Global Left – Owen Jones (Battlelines, November 5, 2025).
They Tried to Smear Zohran Mamdani as an Antisemite. Voters Saw Right Through It – Owen Jones (The Intercept, November 4, 2025).
Zohran Mamdani Provoked a Bipartisan Meltdown – Luke Savage (Jacobin, November 4, 2025).
Republicans Implode After Stunning Democratic Victories – Sophia Tesfaye (Salon, November 5, 2025).
Dems Won. Cue the Far-Right Crash-Out – Kiera Butler (Mother Jones, November 5, 2025).
How Zohran Mamdani Triumphed Over a Decrepit Establishment – Michael Kinnucan (Jacobin, November 4, 2025).
When Palestine Was on the Ballot: The Meaning of Zohran Mamdani’s Victory – Zainab Chaudry (Common Dreams, November 5, 2025).
“New York City Has Fallen”: MAGA Erupts After Mamdani’s Victory – Blaise Malley (Salon, November 5, 2025).
The Z Factor: Why New York Zohran and Green Party U.K. Zack Polanski Need to Be Taken Seriously – Sean O’Grady (Independent, November 5, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

ZOHRAN MAMDANI
• Dorothy Lennon: Quote of the Day – June 26, 2025
• A Timely and Important Conversation
• The Rational National’s Take on Zohran Mamdani
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Mike Figueredo on the “Political Malpractice” of the Democratic Party
• Memes of the Times – September 2025
• Zohran Mamdani and the Future of the Democratic Party


DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Democratic Socialism
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – June 12, 2019
• “Hopeful and Grounded”: Omar Fateh’s Vision of Democratic Socialism
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Origin of the American Obsession with “Socialism”
• The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”
• Something to Think About – December 14, 2011
• Jonty Langley: Quote of the Day – August 17, 2011
• A Socialist Perspective on the “Democratic Debacle” in Massachusetts
• Obama a Socialist? Hardly
• Obama, Ayers, the “S” Word, and the “Most Politically Backward Layers in America”
• A Socialist Response to the 2008 Financial Crisis
• Capitalism on Trial
• No, Hitler and the Nazis Weren’t Socialists
• What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025
• Ted Rall: “Democrats Are Not the Left”
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”


Opening image: Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks at his election night watch party at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater on November 4, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)