With New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary only days away, voters in the Big Apple are considering electing a true socialist to run America’s largest city, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
While any politician elected to city-wide office in New York City will tilt leftward, none have pushed the expansive government control over private enterprise like Zohran Mamdani. A two-term state assemblyman from Astoria in Queens, Mamdani has experienced a dramatic rise in the polls the last two weeks and has put the city’s more centrist Democrats on edge.
A self labeled “democratic socialist,” Mamdani has proposed free bus rides, a $30 minimum wage and city owned grocery stores. Critics are concerned that if enacted, his policies would push the limits of what businesses can endure, noting the punishing results of California’s minimum wage increase on fast food workers; higher prices and fewer jobs.
Mamdani currently trails former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in all but one major poll. A recent survey by Public Policy Polling showed Mamdani with a 4-percentage point lead over Cuomo, 35% to 31%. Mamdani’s stock has risen substantially in June since receiving endorsements from far-left politicians Rep. Alexandira Occasion-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
New York City uses a ranked-choice primary system so if no candidate crosses the 50% threshold as the top vote getter the second-place choices of those who ranked the lowest vote-getting first are counted until one achieves a majority. In February, only 1% of registered voters had Mamdani ranked first, but as of last week nearly 1/3 of voters have him as their number one choice.
Mamdani has dialed back his previous rhetoric on defunding the NYPD but has indicated he wants to cap police expenditures at 2020 levels and hire more mental health professionals instead of cops. Old school New York Democrats are very concerned a Mamdani victory will force out even more of the city’s wealthy residents who have the option of conducting business elsewhere.
Last week former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $5 million to the super PAC supporting Cuomo’s campaign. It is the largest figure yet from a single donor and illustrates the concern mainstream Democrats have over the rising poll numbers for socialist challenger Mamdani.
Speaking with Bloomberg Surveillance earlier in the week, Cuomo lamented that some in his party feel they lost to Trump because they weren’t “left enough.” Calling out Mamdani’s policies of “dismantle the police, everything free, and tax the rich.”
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