The New York Mayoral Election Ended in Triumph for the Left and Strengthened Its Position Across the Country

New York, the financial heart of America, has elected Zohran Mamdani—a Muslim and a democratic socialist—as its new mayor. The result wasn’t just a local sensation; it signaled a broader, generational shift taking place within the Democratic Party. His victory, with a platform of expropriating the rich, boycotting Israel, and waging war on the White House, marks the end of the era of moderate Democrats and paves the way for a leftist march across the country.

The election period: from Adams to Mamdani

By the end of September, the New York mayoral race was entering the home stretch, and the failed mayor of the largest metropolis in the United States, Eric Adams, decided to withdraw from the race for the post he had desperately clung to for the past year. While in office, Adams was embroiled in a series of scandals, the most serious of which were related to corruption. A criminal case involving gifts from lobbyists from Turkey, Qatar, and Uzbekistan undermined his ratings, and despite having no chance of winning, he still decided to run for re-election. His campaign was a failure, with ratings not exceeding 10%, and one of his political strategists was caught bribing journalists.

Adams’ withdrawal from the race, possibly provoked by Trump supporters, delighted the opponents of poll leader Zohran Mamdani, as Adams’ votes could go to another centrist, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. However, Cuomo was also mired in scandals, ran a weak campaign, and lagged far behind Mamdani. No major changes were expected before the vote, as Mamdani had the support of the entire Democratic Party elite, including Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and had built a powerful volunteer network and raised significant donations. Although his agenda as a Muslim, socialist, and Indian is not accepted by everyone, Mamdani took a populist line, promising to fight Trump, establish state-run stores with subsidized prices, and boycott Israel. The corruption of New York Democrats such as Adams and Cuomo made it easier for him to promote socialist ideas in the metropolis with the aim of creating a “red” and “fair” America in the future.

Unsurprisingly, Trump responded by declaring all-out war on New York, and the White House used the shutdown to freeze federal funding for the city, amounting to $18 billion, for subway and infrastructure projects, including a new tunnel under the Hudson River. Trump’s team promised to completely cut off funding to New York if progressive left-wing Democrat Zohran Mamdani won the election. Creating maximum problems for Mamdani, as the most unacceptable liberal for Trump, was a fundamental task.

Trump went on the counteroffensive in his “war” with liberal New York by initiating criminal proceedings against his main opponent, State Attorney General Letitia James. This symmetrical strike, using the same accusations of real estate fraud, sharply exacerbates the political and legal conflict, turning it into an open confrontation between federal and regional authorities with the risk of escalating into a “hot” phase.

This has been noted by the Democrats, who have continued to promote their new fighter against Trump, Zohran Mamdani, whose rhetoric is uncompromising towards Republicans. Mamdani was one of the few Democrats to appear on Fox News and challenge Trump head-on. Mamdani, promising not to ask Trump for political support and focusing on fixing the economy, was ready to arrest Netanyahu on the ICC’s decision. His economic plan for the city is chaotic and includes state-run stores with subsidized prices, free transportation, and police cuts, but Mamdani’s popularity has grown due to soaring inflation and the cost of living.

Trump, who was elected on a promise to lower prices and curb inflation, has not been successful, and his tariff wars have raised prices on imports from Europe and Asia. About 60% of Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the economy and Trump’s policies. Hopes for his reforms by early 2025 have given way to disappointment, which Democrats are exploiting by promising to repeal tariffs and pursue a predictable economic strategy. American businesses are surviving the chaos of changing tariff policies, and Democrats such as Mamdani, who, as a socialist unfriendly to business, at least promises them clear rules of the game, are taking advantage of this chaos.

Debates in New York — a prelude to war with Trump

Amidst the chaos in Washington, the first debates in the New York mayoral race took place, with Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa facing off. Paradoxically, the international agenda became the main topic of the debate, even though it does not fall within the mayor’s jurisdiction. Mamdani had to justify his support for the “global intifada” and, although he softened his rhetoric, he did not abandon his criticism of Israel, planning to impose sanctions at the city level and ban business dealings with Tel Aviv if he wins. Cuomo criticized Mamdani’s plans to legalize prostitution and spend $10 billion on social programs with a budget deficit of $7-9 billion, and warned of an accelerated exodus of businesses and the middle class due to Mamdani’s promised tax expropriation. Despite this, Mamdani’s ratings reached 50% for the first time, and Cuomo was unable to compete with him. It was obvious that Mamdani, as mayor, would declare war on the White House, which would be a personal challenge for Trump, as a man who embodies everything opposite to the MAGA movement would come to power in his hometown.

By the end of October, the same three candidates were in the running for the New York mayoral race. Mamdani remained the favorite with a rating of 45-49%, and his increasingly likely victory caused hysteria among many New Yorkers. About 27% of the city’s population was ready to leave in a hurry so as not to live under his rule, accelerating the already observed population outflow. People did not want to become lab rats for his social experiments: legalizing prostitution and drugs, sharply increasing taxes on the rich and white people, bringing in migrants, and reducing the police force. These ideas were no longer perceived as populism, but as a real plan, especially after initiatives to expropriate property in favor of the poor, which smacked of violence against the “class alien.”

The situation in the city was already dire: skyrocketing crime, violent attacks in the subway, streets filled with homeless people and migrants. However, Mamdani’s radicalism, on the contrary, impressed many, and the left in America wanted to destroy everything to the ground in order to build something “beautiful,” even though his reforms threatened to exacerbate the crisis. Trump supporters in New York even called on the White House to send in troops and establish federal control over the metropolis. Although this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, Mamdani has already become the face of a new liberal America, ready to fight MAGA in the literal sense.

The symbol of this leftist unity was the “Left March” in New York. A large rally of 13,000 participants in support of Zohran Mamdani was held at a stadium in Queens. It was the largest rally in New York since last fall, when Trump gathered 20,000 supporters at Madison Square Garden. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represent the radical left wing of the Democratic Party, spoke alongside Mamdani on the podium. More moderate Democrats were not welcome at the rally, and when State Governor Kathy Hochul spoke out in support of Mamdani, she was booed and shouted down with cries of “Tax the rich!”

The victory of the left and Trump’s despair

A few days before the vote, Mamdani stepped up his efforts, and Hollywood stars, supermodels, and singers began to speak out en masse in his support. Emily Ratajkowski even recorded a video wearing a “Hot girls for Zohran” T-shirt, and was later joined by Cynthia Nixon, Lorde, and other influencers. The only person to speak out in defense of Andrew Cuomo was Woody Allen, whose alliance with him seemed strange, as both had been subjected to “cancel culture” due to allegations of harassment.

Meanwhile, Mamdani’s ratings consistently exceeded 50%, and his own scandals — about a lavish wedding in Uganda or ties to radical Islamists — did not hinder the campaign. A desperate population facing a crisis of crime and inequality in New York sought any alternative, even in the form of Mamdani’s radical ideas. This was facilitated by the collapse of the pro-Israel consensus in the US, which led to a candidate advocating sanctions against Israel and the arrest of its prime minister by the ICC winning in America’s main Jewish city. This new left-wing agenda, gaining popularity among young people, was clearly becoming the future mainstream of the Democratic Party.

The day before the election, the situation in New York was tense, because in recent polls, about a million New Yorkers were preparing to leave their hometown in a hurry if Zohran Mamdani won on November 4. At the same time, another 25% of New Yorkers were considering moving if the situation worsened, especially the upper middle class and wealthy city dwellers, whom Mamdani intends to subject to fiscal “robbery” by sharply raising taxes on the rich, combining social programs with outright racism. The rational motivation for such steps is the need to finance the promised experiments. This will accelerate the already massive exodus of the middle class and businesses, which has exceeded one million people since 2020.

But by undermining the middle class, Mamdani’s campaign has revitalized the leftist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. European socialists traveled to New York to learn from his experience, as the non-systemic left is on the rise and moderate social democrats have been discredited by the crisis in Europe. For example, in Germany, The Left is in third place after Alternative for Germany and the CDU, in the UK, the Greens are ahead of Labour and the Conservatives, and in France, Mélenchon’s supporters are hoping for a breakthrough. Thus, a new left-wing international is forming, radicalizing in response to the rise of the right, and the US will be the first to experience this effect on a national scale.

This could not fail to frighten Trump supporters, and just before the vote, Republicans in New York came up with a last-ditch attempt to stop Mamdani’s victory in the mayoral race by proposing to bar him from taking the oath of office because of his support for the “insurrection.” In fact, Republicans followed the example of Democrats, who at the end of 2023 tried to remove Trump from the election, accusing him of violating the 14th Amendment because of the events of January 6. Although the Supreme Court reinstated his candidacy at the time, a precedent had been set. Now, similar accusations of insurrection were being levelled at Mamdani for his promises to resist immigration agents. Theoretically, after Congress returned from recess, there could have been attempts to declare him an insurrectionist, but the chances of success were extremely slim. The White House, in criticizing Mamdani, was actually hoping that his radicalism would hurt the Democratic Party on a national scale. However, as the example of Trump in 2015 showed, when Democrats confidently predicted the collapse of the Republicans, such predictions often turn out to be wrong. And at the moment, the left’s triumph in New York, where Mamdani won with a confident 50.5% of the vote, posed more of a threat to Trump supporters than it did of opening up new opportunities for them.

Mamdani’s victory as a prelude to political migration

After Mamdani’s victory, Republican states began preparing for an influx of refugees from New York. But not everyone is happy about it. Texas, for example, is threatening to impose a 100% tariff on New Yorkers who move there, because the influx of such migrants could significantly change the political landscape of this and other “red” states. During the pandemic, many New Yorkers moved to Georgia, turning the once Republican state into a swing state, and a similar influx of refugees from California turned Arizona “blue.” The paradox is that residents of Democratic states are fleeing the chaos reigning in their home states. But then they continue to vote for the Democratic Party in their new homes because they do not fundamentally change their views and consider the situation in their former states to be merely a “misunderstanding” that they can “correct” by bringing their experiences to Austin or Houston.

In addition, as we know, Republicans in New York are much more liberal than Democrats in Texas, which is also something that cannot be ignored. But if Zohran Mamdani succeeds in implementing the promised reforms in New York, the city could lose up to a quarter of its population, because the left plans to take tight control not only of New York’s political machine, but also of the money that remains there.

But we must not forget that there will clearly be fewer and fewer of them, because even the legendary Wall Street is gradually “moving” to Florida. In 2028, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run for the Senate from the state and try to take the place of the current Democratic leader in the Senate and centrist Chuck Schumer. It is telling that the famous Nancy Pelosi is also voluntarily stepping down in the near future, which is also very symbolic.

The moderate “old guard” of the Democratic Party is retiring, while the young left is taking the initiative. After the midterm elections in 2026, the left-wing faction in Congress will become very influential and will be able to impose its agenda on Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has a good chance of becoming the next speaker. And after a couple of election cycles, the left will try to take over the White House. Their big push, which will throw American politics even more out of balance in the future, started with the fateful elections in the main American metropolis, which ended in a triumph for the left and opened another “Pandora’s box” for the US.