You’ve likely come across some recent buzz about Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat gaining notable MOMENTUM. Mamdani, a 33-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, hails from Uganda with Muslim Indian heritage and has faced accusations of antisemitism. Charismatic and telegenic, he captures attention with dynamic commercials promising free benefits to voters and the notion of upending traditional economic principles. Naturally, this has won him favor among the more progressive segments of Democrats both in the city and across the nation.
However, prospects look dim for Mamdani as he faces the potential of a substantial defeat on Tuesday, a scenario partly of his own making.
Here’s why.
Contending in NYC as a socialist with controversial views presents challenges. In the 2021 mayoral race, over 900,000 participated in the Democratic primary. Eric Adams emerged victorious in the first round with 289,000 votes, campaigning as a moderate, crime-focused, establishment-friendly black candidate. Both Adams and two other top contenders, Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang, leaned towards moderation, despite Yang’s occasional unconventional proposals. Notably, none of them shared Mamdani’s contentious stances.
And being an antisemite is a huge problem for Mamdani – NYC has some 1.5 million Jews, which is about 12 percent of the city’s residents. Virtually all of them, including the Orthodox who are DINOs, vote in the Democrat primary.
For Mamdani to win this race, he needed a very low turnout, so his very guaranteed to vote left-wing base would make up a larger share of that low turnout. But the Mamdani forces, and the MSM that supports him, got too excited, and they greatly played up his chances to win, based largely on a suspect poll.
Which was exactly what the other main Democrat candidate, Andrew Cuomo, wanted. Cuomo, who had earlier had to resign from the New York governorship in scandal, had his own weaknesses, and they would have been a major problem for him if he was not faced with such a problematic opponent. But he had a strategy. Cuomo used the boomlet for Mamdani to drive up the election interest in moderate voters, and especially in Jewish voters, who might otherwise have not voted, or not voted for him. These voters will now come out, and they will vote for Cuomo, as the main candidate standing in the way of Mamdani. Orthodox Jewish voters, who tend to vote as a bloc, have endorsed Cuomo despite their anger at his COVID actions. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed Cuomo, despite their past differences, because he is both Jewish and a businessman. Former President Bill Clinton, the leading moderate Democrat in the nation, has also endorsed Cuomo.
