Moderate opponents of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, are beginning to panic. His initial primary win was, of course, a shock to the Democratic Party establishment and the Cuomo political dynasty, after they had confidently predicted his support would melt away on polling day. But it also sent conservatives into crisis management mode. Mamdani’s critics have been firing on all cylinders ever since to warn against his radical ideas.
No matter how many times the nickname “Mamdani the Commie” is uttered, however, his star hasn’t dimmed. He leads Andrew Cuomo by 19 percentage points, according to a recent Siena Institute poll. In fact, Mamdani’s support is equal to that of the next three most popular candidates combined – Cuomo, independent mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
To be sure, a large part of Mamdani’s popularity stems from the fact that he is untainted by any suggestion of scandal. For example, nearly half of New Yorkers opposed the Trump Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Adams, according to a poll from February. For them, “champagne socialist who had armed guards at his lavish Ugandan wedding” doesn’t pack the same punch as “alleged fraudster”.
But such an overwhelming lead for Mamdani can’t just be a rebuke to Adams for allegedly mixing pleasure with business on Turkish Airlines, or Cuomo for allegedly sexually harassing his staff or for overseeing a crisis in New York’s nursing homes during the Covid pandemic.
As the old guard of the Democratic Party struggles to prove its relevance, the new guard is also offering something deceptively positive for young people: financial relief. Mamdani’s prescriptions will centralise more power in government and send us further down the road to serfdom, but young people don’t see the big deal. They appear to be more concerned about what they could gain from a socialist system.
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