Is America about to be hit with a Mamdani-style socialist tidal wave?
That’s what more than a few Americans are thinking as the dust settles on the unnerving election of socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani in New York City.
Make no mistake, his faction of the Democratic Party absolutely has momentum after the win. So right now, much of the national political discourse is focused on the “meaning of Mamdani.”
I grew up in California, the Bay Area, and got used to “fringy” leftists in local government. But to see an American city as massive and iconic as New York fall under the sway of a man fond of quoting Karl Marx is certainly a significant event. How did this happen? Will his playbook truly be replicated elsewhere? Is this style of politics truly the future of the Democratic Party?
To answer those questions we have to first diagnose how Mamdani pulled off this victory
How Mamdani Won
Was it just Mamdani’s consistent message of “affordability” and his endless promises of free things that won the day? Was it all because of the arrival of hordes of young, college educated “wokes” to the city? This graph certainly paints a dramatic picture. New York, the old New York, would almost certainly not have voted for him.
Did Mamdani win because of the massive surge in Muslim voters in the city? There are now more Muslims than Jews in the Big Apple. Are the politics of the city simply becoming like London?
Or perhaps at the end of the day, Mamdani just got “lucky.”
The son of a Bollywood producer ran a slick campaign, focused on a few issues that were important to a large cross section of voters, and defeated not one but two flawed candidates, one of whom literally left the governor’s office in disgrace and ran a particularly low-energy campaign. That translated into a low voter turnout, where nearly 60% of registered voters stayed home. Mamdani captured the majority of those who did vote and probably would have won had he only been facing one opponent, but the race was still surprisingly quite close given the success of other Democrats on Election Day.
The answer to Mamdani’s victory may truly be a combination of all these things. But what’s notable is that some of these elements have been in place in other cities where Democratic Socialists of America and other leftist radicals have already successfully infiltrated the Democratic Party establishment and elected far-Left mayors and other officials.
This is mostly about the collapse of the old ruling order in the Democratic Party that can no longer contain its most radical elements.
A Playbook Used Before
I asked Fox News columnist David Marcus, who has done a masterful job covering elections across America if he thought Mamdani’s playbook could be used elsewhere. He gave an interesting answer.
“It may be the other way around,” Marcus wrote to me. “Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, for example all saw the [Democratic Socialists of America], or similar groups, seize the low hanging fruit of local politics to eventually get far left mayors. That process has taken longer in NYC because power was more entrenched, but today the old political machine in NYC not only couldn’t stop Mamdani, many endorsed him.”
Excellent point.
As Marcus said, we’ve already seen radicals take over other cities. They have typically done this by either co-opting or sidestepping the traditional Democratic Party apparatus. In the end, once the leftwing candidate secures victory, the party rallies around in support as they are doing so now with Mamdani.
Seattle’s Katie Wilson, a leftwing community organizer, is locked in an extremely tight race with incumbent Democrat Bruce Harrell for mayor. Votes are still being counted, and the race is still too close to call. What’s remarkable is she is on the left flank of Harrell who recently argued that a person who was arrested seven or eight times might be committing crimes because he is “hungry.”
This movement is about purity and faith as much as it is about gaining power.
Portland rejected one leftwing mayor who sided with radicals before they turned on him, but ended up going back to an even further leftwing one in 2024.
Hopeless times there in the Emerald City.
And of course, perhaps the biggest coup of all for the socialist Left is Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson who was elected in 2023. At the time, Al Jazeera said that Johnson’s victory “electrified” the Left. These days, having electricity at an affordable price in Chicago is a serious problem for a mayor whose approval rating is by many measures the lowest in the entire country.
And that should be a sign of what is to come if these candidates keep winning.
‘True’ Socialism Tried Again
Mamdani and Johnson-style leftists are definitely on the rise and have a real shot at taking over cities with favorable political dynamics. But their disastrous mismanagement leaves behind yet another pathetic example of “real” socialism being tried.
This somewhat amusing profile of Johnson in Vital City comparing him to Mamdani touches on the reality of socialist rule.
“Johnson’s tenure has been, by nearly every measure, a disaster,” the publication noted. “ … Johnson’s unwillingness to reform spending has led to the most severe urban debt crisis in the country. It’d be one thing if current levels of government largesse produced top-notch city services. Unfortunately, few believe the city delivers competently on core responsibilities like transportation infrastructure or affordable housing, and half of city voters list taxes as a top concern. The result is a Johnson approval rating that sits between 14% and 25%.”
Oof.
In big cities with extremely favorable demographic and political conditions, the Johnson and Mamdani pitch may be a success. But how is their message and clear examples of failure going to appeal to Americans elsewhere?
President Donald Trump said it best about this new, old movement on the Left.
“Look, for a thousand years, communism has not worked,” Trump said on Fox News Wednesday. “It’s just communism, or the concept of communism, has not worked. I tend to doubt it’s going to work this time. … It’s literally never worked.”
And that’s the truth.
What Mamdani and his ilk represent is certainly dangerous and shouldn’t be underestimated. There is a much better chance they take over the Democrat national machinery now that they have had some major successes. It would not be a surpise if they made a serious play to take the Democrat presidential nomination in 2028.
But ultimately, if they stay the course on policy, they are doomed to fail. And we will now, sadly, have more test cases to prove that point. For many leftists, being mugged doesn’t necessarily mean they will come to reality. And once they gain power they are rarely willingly let it go. Chicago and New York are likely in for a rough future.
But are Americans writ large willing to accept that failure? That’s the bigger question to be answered. We shall see.
