Zohran’s Political Revolution
Mamdani’s win in the New York City Democratic primary shows that the old tricks of the political establishment are dying out—and something new is being born.
Miles Kampf-Lassin

When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2015, he called for a “political revolution” against “the billionaire class.” He didn’t win the presidency the next year, or in 2020, but he did plant seeds for a new kind of left electoral movement.
When Zohran Mamdani — a 33-year-old Muslim democratic socialist and state assemblymember — swept the Democratic primary for New York City mayor in late June, echoes of Sanders’ runs and the promise of a revived political revolution came with it.
Mamdani didn’t just upend conventional wisdom about who could win the race; he flung open the doors of mainstream U.S. politics and kicked the establishment to the curb. Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a conservative Democrat, was favored to win, but he conceded well before all of the votes had even been counted.
Running on an unapologetic, laser-focused agenda of material relief for the working class, Mamdani rejected the neoliberal centrist playbook long dominant in the Democratic Party, refusing to shy away from taking firm progressive positions on issues ranging from opposing Israel’s genocide and forced famine in Gaza to staunchly defending immigrants from raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
By teaming up with comptroller Brad Lander and other progressives in the race, Mamdani took advantage of the city’s ranked-choice voting system to build a winning left coalition. And the movement that galvanized behind Mamdani — led by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America—worked tirelessly to get him over the finish line.
Ten years after Sanders’ first presidential announcement, the Vermont socialist’s vision of a broad grassroots movement for left economic populism scored one of its most significant victories in the country’s largest city, where Mamdani was able to realize Sanders’ previously unfulfilled mission of expanding the electorate by bringing in droves of new voters under a banner of taxing the rich to fund social programs. A surge of young voters and new voters of color, including those in Hispanic, Muslim, Asian and South Asian communities, as well as younger Black voters, helped propel Mamdani to victory.
Mamdani also won 30% of the districts that voted for Donald Trump in 2024, and he performed well in areas of the city that had shifted right in last year’s presidential election.
Much like the strikingly popular Fight Oligarchy tour led by Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this year, Mamdani’s win suggests an unabashed, fighting left politics can gain the support of those hungry for an alternative to both MAGA and feckless Democrats, one that will directly take on Trump’s far-right, authoritarian rule.
In November, Mamdani will face off against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, as well as Cuomo; both are now in the race as independents. Already, billionaires and reactionary hardliners are training their sights on Mamdani, attempting to tar him with bogus charges of antisemitism, while elites in the Democratic Party and mainstream media fearmonger that his agenda is too extreme.
Still, the young, charismatic democratic socialist with social media prowess and a relentless focus on affordability appears to have what his opponents in the political establishment and corporate class don’t: backing from organized labor, the support of working people and an army of avid volunteers. Recent polls show him trouncing his opponents.
Whether Mamdani can win — and, if he does, how he governs — will ultimately determine the legacy of his stunning upset. The challenges of delivering on a platform of improving people’s lives will be steep in a city where the interests of Wall Street and finance capital have long reigned supreme.
But then, real political change often happens when and where it’s least expected.
Miles Kampf-Lassin is Senior Editor at In These Times. Follow him at @MilesKLassin