NEW YORK — Democratic voters in America’s largest city are ready to elect socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor because they think socialism and communism have gotten a bad rap but are now the future of their city and party.
In a series of on-the-street interviews, New Yorkers told The Washington Times that Mr. Mamdani’s socialist-style agenda comes “from the heart” and will help regular Americans, especially racial minorities.
“I think he has strong ethics. When he speaks, he seems to speak from the heart. I think he is thinking very hard about what he’s saying,” said Corey Griswold, 43, a transgender New York City public school teacher.
The teacher also cited racism, saying, “It’s not easy for a politician of Muslim descent to run for public office” in the U.S., but Mr. Mamdani “hasn’t taken the bait” and “hasn’t been negative at all.”
Mr. Mamdani is known to flash a toothy grin on the campaign trail while batting away criticism about being a socialist. He has run on the promise of free bus rides, rent-stabilized housing, eliminating the police department’s gang database, phasing out the gifted and talented programs for kindergartners, pushing for a $30 minimum wage, and opening city-owned grocery stores.
Mr. Mamdani faced pressure during a debate last week to explain how his socialist policies would comport with New York’s reputation as the home of financial markets and capitalism.
“I would be the mayor of this entire city, and that means ensuring that the wealth that we generate in this city is also wealth that every single New Yorker can feel in their pockets,” Mr. Mamdani said.
The 34-year-old assemblyman also has faced questions about his support of a global intifada.
Late last week, Mr. Mamdani was photographed arm in arm with Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who has been tied to other terrorist activity in the U.S., including urging “jihad” in New York City.
The imam has disputed claims of ties to terrorism.
“Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,” Mr. Mamdani wrote on X of the Friday meeting.
Mr. Wahhaj condemned the U.S. government as “controlled by Shaitan,” the Arabic word for the devil, called on Muslims not to befriend “nonbelievers,” described homosexuality as “a disease of this society,” and supported Islamic laws that punish sex outside of marriage with 100 lashes and stoning.
Mr. Mamdani’s supporters, however, see the candidate as the answer to affordability in a high-cost city.
“I’m looking at government funding being cut. I’ve seen a few of my friends recently graduate and struggle to find career paths when they’re pursuing the fields, for example, like sustainability,” said Freddie, 23, a Parsons University employee who did not give his last name.
Freddie said socialists such as Mr. Mamdani are “definitely trying to push” the Democratic Party to “more of what people believe is a genuine democracy as well as what I feel is like some of those socialist beliefs fall in line.”
Liz, 19, a student at the City University of New York who also didn’t give her last name, said Mr. Mamdani represents young New York voters and has a “relentless commitment to affordability.”
“I admire that a lot. I feel like the Democratic Party has really lost their direction, and he’s really refocusing it on what the Democratic Party should be about, which is addressing the needs of regular Americans,” she said.
President Trump calls Mr. Mamdani a “communist” and has threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City if Mr. Mamdani is elected and pushes his policies.
Some of Mr. Mamdani’s language goes beyond what is typical of Scandinavian and other European democratic socialist parties and into territory usually occupied by revolutionary communists and Marxists.
He has called for “seizing the means of production” and said, “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”
When asked whether Mr. Mamdani’s style of democratic socialism was edging too close to communism, his supporters demurred.
“I feel like that’s just a very big misinterpretation of how people have been educated about these social systems, and it’s like we haven’t even given ourselves the opportunity to indulge and engage what these other philosophies have to offer,” Freddie said.
Mr. Griswold said, “Most people have no idea what communism is and are dealing mostly from fear and worry than anything else.”
“We’ve got cops on the street stealing people and throwing them in the back of vans right now. There are people who, just because they look a certain way, are disappeared and thrown into countries they’re not from,” the transgender teacher said.
“I’m sorry that sounds a lot like communism to me. We have gulags. We have prisons where we’re just people go without trials, without anything, without no wrongdoing, like we’re already here.”
