Latest news with #ZohranMamdani
Washington Post
36 minutes ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
New Yorkers might vote for a socialist mayor, but a Muslim?
When hijacked airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in 2001, New York's popular mayoral candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani was just 9 years old. On that otherwise bluebird day, he had been in the United States only two years, after moving to New York with his parents from Kampala, Uganda. Seventeen years later, he became an American citizen, after completing a degree in Africana studies at Bowdoin College.
Bloomberg
37 minutes ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
NYC's Zohran Mamdani Tries Selling Socialism to the Home of Wall Street
By Zohran Mamdani wants to give New Yorkers free buses and free childcare, and tax rich residents and corporations to pay for it. He has vowed to impose a rent freeze, lead a fight against Donald Trump's deportation campaign, and arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli Prime Minister sets foot in the city. It's unlikely Mamdani will be able to keep many of these promises even if he succeeds in his bid to become the mayor of New York City. But his proposals are nevertheless resonating with enough voters to achieve something that would've been unthinkable even six months ago: A democratic socialist who believes capitalism is theft has a shot at becoming the leader of capitalism's citadel. 'I am a democratic socialist, yes,' Mamdani said on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast last month. 'And I started to call myself that after Bernie Sanders' 2016 run for president when I finally had a language that described the way that I saw the world and the way that I believe the world should be, which is one where every person has the dignity they need to live a decent life.' The 33-year-old's campaign — fueled by a slew of viral social media posts, personal charisma and populist economic messaging — is designed to appeal to some of the city's poorest and most marginalized voters. One of his plans, for example, involves setting up government-owned grocery stores that will focus on 'keeping prices low, not making a profit.' But polls show Black voters, who typically turn out in high numbers for Democratic primary elections and live in relatively less-wealthy areas of the city, are more likely to back his chief rival: former Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67. Additionally, Mamdani's donors are concentrated in the relatively well-off and progressive enclaves of Brooklyn — more Park Slope Food Coop shoppers than CTown Supermarket fans in the Bronx or Queens district he represents in Albany. Cuomo's funders, meanwhile, are Manhattanites living in the moneyed world of the Upper East Side and Upper West Side. Manhattan v. Brooklyn Cuomo's donors are concentrated in Manhattan, while Mamdani's are in Brooklyn Those distinctions strike at the heart of not just the New York mayoral race, but also the future of the American Democratic party. After Kamala Harris' loss in the 2024 presidential election to Trump, Democrats have been convulsed by debate and indecision over how best to regain their mojo with voters. Superstar congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has endorsed Mamdani, is in a camp that believes populist economic policies and progressive cultural ideas channeled via young candidates is the way forward. The other cohort, including older members of the party establishment, is of the view that a more centrist approach will prove the winning strategy. 'Older voters are tied to traditional political institutions, Democratic clubs, unions, even churches where their pastors were very engaged in local organizing and electoral mobilization,' said Basil Smikle, a professor at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies and the former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. 'And that generation of voter has also viewed the Democratic party specifically, and voting, as a path to political and economic empowerment.' But younger voters who came of age in the era of the Obama administration and Bernie Sanders' campaigns practice 'a politics that eschewed traditional democratic pathways to power, for a more individualized politics,' Smikle said, referring to the divide among Black voters. 'I think a younger voter looks at the party and sees more compromise than they would like.' A Public Policy Polling survey conducted in the first week of June found 35% of voters favor Mamdani versus 31% for Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 over allegations of sexual harassment that he has denied. It's an outlier. All other polls have shown Cuomo coming ahead in the Democratic primary for the mayoral election, though the margin of his lead has narrowed in recent weeks. Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, has endorsed Cuomo, saying the former governor's 'management experience and government know-how stand above the others' in a crowded field. Incumbent Eric Adams isn't taking part in the June 24 primary after a corruption scandal and is running instead as an independent. On the Republican front, which has struggled in traditionally deep-blue New York, Guardian Angels Founder and radio host Curtis Sliwa is running unopposed. No matter who triumphs in the primary, Mamdani and Cuomo are likely to face off again in November's general election. If Cuomo doesn't win, he has vowed to run on a third party ballot line. If Mamdani loses, he could run on the Working Families Party ballot line. If Mamdani is elected mayor, he would be the first Muslim, South Asian mayor of the city in its 400-year history. The son of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani — a prominent scholar of colonialism at Columbia University — he was born in Kampala, Uganda, and immigrated to the US at age 7. He then attended some of New York's elite educational institutions before going to Bowdoin College in Maine, a small private liberal arts school from where he graduated in 2014. That educational pedigree and some of his proposals that particularly appeal to well-off progressives have prompted criticism that he is out of touch with regular New Yorkers. His relative inexperience — in his four years at Albany, Mamdani has sponsored just three bills that have been enacted into law — has also drawn the ire of skeptics. The New York Times Editorial Board this week wrote that it doesn't believe Mamdani ' deserves a spot on New Yorkers' ballots,' saying that his 'experience is too thin.' For all that criticism, Mamdani has still managed to draw thousands of small donors to his populist platform. To date, his campaign has more than 20,000 individual donors, the most of any Democratic mayoral primary candidate in the city since 2001, with the exception of Andrew Yang, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign in 2021. Mamdani's donors gave an average contribution of $62, the smallest amount of any candidate in the current race for mayor. Mamdani's policies have shifted in his short political career, but they remain firmly on the left of the spectrum. In 2020, when Mamdani first ran for office, he supported the 'defund the police' movement, but has repeatedly said during his mayoral campaign that he won't cut financing for law enforcement. Yet he does not support hiring more officers at the New York Police Department, which he has previously characterized as 'racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.' Instead, he has called for the creation of a new Department of Public Safety to handle mental health-related 911 calls, which he argues will free up police to solve more serious felony crimes. He wants the NYPD's headcount to remain at current levels, unlike several of his rivals, who have proposed hiring thousands of new police officers. Mamdani has called for some cuts to the NYPD's budget, including cutting back its communications department, $1 billion overtime budget, and the elimination of its strategic response group, a small unit created in 2015 that is involved in responding to protests. Mamdani's support for Palestine and a lengthy record of criticizing Israel is now proving to be another lightning rod, given New York is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel and as antisemitic incidents increase across the nation. At Bowdoin, Mamdani started the college's first chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. SJP was one of the groups behind the pro-Palestinian protests that swept college campuses across the US in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the Jewish state's retaliatory bombing campaign in Gaza. In his latest comments that have stirred controversy, Mamdani — during an appearance on The Bulwark podcast — defended the use of the phrase 'Globalize the Intifada,' a reference to the armed Palestinian uprisings against Israel. He has also refused to say that he supports Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, instead saying he supports its right to exist as a 'a state with equal rights.' And based on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction the US doesn't recognize, he has said he'd use the NYPD to arrest Israel's leader. 'Ultimately this is not a desire to have to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu,' Mamdani said in an interview with Bloomberg News on May 29. 'It is to make clear that if Benjamin Netanyahu chooses to visit the city, this is a city that stands with international law.' When asked about his stance on Israel and the reluctance of pro-Palestinian activists to denounce Hamas, Mamdani said he 'will be the mayor for each and every New Yorker, but that includes each and every Jewish New Yorker,' adding that his campaign's focus on affordability lines up with the focus of Jewish New Yorkers. Ultimately, Mamdani's biggest challenge may be enacting the economic proposals that he says will make New York more affordable and have resonated with his supporters. He wants New York to borrow $70 billion over the next 10 years in addition to the roughly $25 billion already targeted for affordable homes in the city's 10-year capital plan. New York law limits the amount of debt local governments can incur. As for Mamdani's plan to raise corporate taxes and impose a new 2% income tax on city residents who earn more than $1 million a year, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has repeatedly voiced opposition to increasing levies. 'You need to work with the state and ultimately the city is a creature of the state,' Mamdani said on the Odd Lots podcast. 'And any agenda you have as a mayor that seeks to match the scale of the crisis New Yorkers are living through will require Albany.' With assistance from Marie Patino Joe WeisenthalTracy Alloway Edited by Pratish Narayanan Katia Porzecanski Alex Newman
New York Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Clyburn Endorses Cuomo, Helping Him Broaden His Appeal to Black Voters
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, a veteran lawmaker who was once the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, will endorse former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday. Mr. Clyburn will make the case that Mr. Cuomo is the right candidate to help Democrats fend off the ill effects of the second Trump term, when the president is 'challenging the pillars of our democracy.' 'The mayor of New York is uniquely positioned to play an important role in the future of the national Democratic Party,' Mr. Clyburn said in a statement, adding that Mr. Cuomo had the 'experiences, credentials and character to not just serve New York, but also help save the nation.' The endorsement comes three days after Mr. Cuomo's main rival, Zohran Mamdani, was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the progressive wing's longtime standard-bearer. Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani have led in the polls, and the tenor of the race has become increasingly nasty ahead of the Democratic primary on Tuesday. Mr. Sanders has also placed the race in a national context, arguing that Mr. Mamdani represents a break from 'corporate-dominated politics driven by billionaires.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Candidates' Shift on Crime Turned the Mayor's Race Upside Down
With early voting having begun in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, the race looks to be between Andrew Cuomo, the freshly de-disgraced former governor, and Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist state assemblyman who is running to dispense expensive new entitlements. But it didn't have to be that way. As part of a journalist collective called the New York Editorial Board, I met with every major candidate over the past six months, except Mr. Cuomo, who declined to join us. The candidates who are struggling to capture the attention that Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani have gotten all expressed thoughtful ideas about the possibilities and limits of city government. (You can read the transcripts of the interviews here.) So it's a shame that the two candidates who could have given Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani more of a challenge — Comptroller Brad Lander and his predecessor Scott Stringer — put themselves in a no man's land by turning left during Bill de Blasio's mayoralty and the 'defund the police' movement and then following voters' shift to the middle when crime rose. When Mr. Lander and Mr. Stringer undercut their credibility on a vital issue to voters, their other smart proposals, which I get into below, got lost in the campaign. And as has proved true in other municipal elections over the past few years, public safety remains a dominant issue for voters, along with affordability. Though homicides have fallen to pre-2020 record lows, felonies remain 31.2 percent above 2019's level. Voters remain nearly as concerned about safety as they were in 2021, when they overlooked warning signs about ethics and management to elect Eric Adams, a former police captain who ran on restoring order, as mayor. (The still-disgraced Mr. Adams has skipped the primary to run as an independent in the general election.) These days no candidate talks about 'defund the police.' That makes the moves by Mr. Lander and Mr. Stringer from the left to the center on policing seem even more clumsy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
5 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Black Voters Take Center Stage as N.Y.C. Mayor's Race Enters Final Days
It had barely been two months since Adrienne Adams became the last Democrat to join the New York City mayoral primary race when she got a call from a number she did not recognize. It was Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assemblyman who had stormed to second place in the polls. He broached the idea of the two cross-endorsing each other. Ms. Adams, 64, the first Black person to lead the City Council, needed the help. She was working furiously to raise enough money to meet the threshold for public matching funds. She, in turn, had something Mr. Mamdani needed: support from the city's critical older Black electorate. It may have seemed like a perfect fit, but Ms. Adams did not see it that way. She and her advisers felt that Mr. Mamdani — a democratic socialist who has made campaign vows to make buses free, open city-owned grocery stores and freeze the rent for some apartment dwellers — was too far to the left and would alienate her base of moderate Democratic voters in southeast Queens. As the Democratic primary for mayor enters its final days, a familiar dispute is playing out between the left and the city's crucial Black electorate. Despite being pressured to cross-endorse Mr. Mamdani, Ms. Adams seems set on doing the opposite, criticizing him during the candidates' second debate. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
