Zohran Mamdani: A Ticket to Redemption (if Democrats want it)
Laying the foundation for how Democrats can earn back the working-class vote.
The Democrats’ Downfall
On his final day of office, Joe Biden had a staggeringly low 37% approval rating, just 3 points higher than Donald Trump at the end of his first term. With Democratic Congressmembers polling slightly higher at 46% and the staggering blow the DNC suffered with the loss of Kamala Harris, it might be time for the Democratic party to try a different strategy. Assuming they actually care about winning the next election, Democrats should probably be looking to reevaluate their game plan.
In a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) from November, Zohran Mamdani – an NYC Mayoral Candidate and assemblymember of New York's 36th assembly district – wandered around asking local New Yorkers from neighborhoods in Queens and the Bronx why they voted for Donald Trump (or didn’t vote at all). Both historically working-class neighborhoods saw massive shifts toward Donald Trump and away from Kamala Harris with many voting for a candidate who ostensibly refuses to help them. This has left many Democrats and liberals scratching their heads, wondering why working-class voters would vote against their own interests. In the video posted by Zohran, locals cited the rising cost of energy, food, and housing as key issues in their voting decision. Childcare cost, transportation, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Gaza were also cited as issues pushing people away from voting for Kamala Harris – although a few voters acknowledged that some of these issues may not improve under Trump regardless.
So why are people who historically have voted Democrat either not voting or voting for the other party? A materialist analysis would suggest that when people go four years without much improvement to their quality of life, they’ll examine their current leadership and find an alternative. This isn’t an analysis that many liberals are fond of: they often ignore material conditions as a reason to vote a certain way, when asked to analyze voter behavior, and opt for social conditions for explanation, such as racism, misogyny, or a general lack of care for others. While this may be true for parts of the MAGA crowd, this parody video done by a Trump supporter is filled with comments of liberals agreeing with its premise. When pointed to people's real world conditions as a reason to why they voted a certain way, many Democrats would sooner shame or demean the intelligence of a voter than seek to understand further. But here’s the reality: Joe Biden was in charge for four years and working-class people’s lives did not improve a whole lot – whether Donald Trump will improve their lives (although I don’t believe so) or not is irrelevant. They feel as though they have no choice but to try their luck with the other guy, after getting very little out of the previous administration.
Would Harris have been different?
Joe Biden may not have helped change the realities of working-class people, but he wasn’t running. So why did working-class voters turn away from Kamala Harris? For one, when Harris says there’s not much she’d have done differently than Biden over the last 4 years, it does not instill confidence in voters who were on the fence and looking for change. Another key blunder of the Harris campaign included the lack of a great economic plan. Proponents of Harris may be quick to point out her proposed $50,000 tax deduction for new small businesses, or her $25,000 down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers as components of an incredibly valuable economic policy. But when Americans are worried about groceries, rent, and transportation, we cannot delude ourselves into thinking these same Americans are in the financial position to start their own business or buy a home. Further, the policies that would help the working-class were ineffectively communicated to the public. Kamala Harris did have some great ideas like expanding the child tax credit and enlarging the earned income tax credit, but she didn’t make the economic aspects that benefit the working-class a focal point of her campaign. Instead, she spent the tail end of her campaign opting to parade around Liz Cheney, promising to appoint Republicans to her cabinet. Harris’s messaging failed to make the working-class a priority, focusing more on attacking Trump and intangible goals of unity than what she would accomplish for the everyday American.
Trump talked about topics like bringing down the cost of eggs and everyday groceries. A specific problem that many Americans have been facing. While he did not provide any substance for how he planned to do that, it was enticing for voters, though they should have been able to identify him as the con-man he is. But, whether we want to admit it or not, the average voter is going to choose a candidate based on what they hear and if it aligns with their interests. It doesn’t matter if the candidate is being sincere or not. Donald Trump positioned the ails of the working-class at the forefront of his campaign and it paid off with scores of working-class Americans voting for him. With egg prices hitting a historical all time high of $8.03 in earlier this month, time will tell if voters will begin to demand concrete plans over empty platitudes.
Zohran
Zohran Mamdani is running for Mayor in New York City. He is a Millennial who immigrated from Uganda to New York at the age of 7 and is an active member of his community, participating in multiple forms of local organizing. But what is Mamdani doing differently than other Democrats? For starters, he’s running on a populist platform: freezing rent, free bus fares, providing no-cost childcare, and creating city-owned grocery stores to combat rising food costs. He wants to directly tackle the housing crisis in the city and protect renters by building 200,000 new, permanently affordable and rent-stabilized homes over the next ten years and holding bad landlords accountable. These are all things that directly impact the everyday person in New York.
Additionally, he is actively campaigning on the ground, with the goal of going to every NYC borough on a regular basis to hear the real needs of the people living there. Mamdani doesn’t want to speak with them about “values or ideas” but about “tangible deliverable policies” that he can enact as soon as he takes office.
Lina Khan took a similar approach to Mamdani, being one of the few bright spots in Biden’s administration. As Commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission, she took the fight to large corporations and went to war for the average American. If Democrats want to stop looking like the party of elites and the rich, they need to show -- through their actions, not words -- that they want to improve the lives of the working-class. We need more Lina Khans. Combine Lina Khan’s anti-corporate, pro-consumer strategy with Zohran’s populist platform and the Democrats may well reclaim the working-class.
A Change is Needed
Eric Adams, the current Mayor of New York City, was indicted on federal corruption charges in September of 2024 for taking bribes and campaign donations from Turkish nationals seeking to influence his decisions. His case has recently been indefinitely delayed after the Department of Justice called to immediately dismiss the case, but charges have not yet been dropped. Astoundingly, Eric Adams is still committed to running for re-election next year. New York City Democratic primary voters will give their verdict on June 24, 2025 – do New Yorkers want a mayor desperately clinging onto power, who aims to please his wealthy donors, or are they ready to try something new? Mamdani is offering a fresh perspective, striving to solve the problems directly impacting working people with no loyalty to rich donors. He wants to make housing, food, and transportation, all constant concerns for everyday people, less of a burden. We have normalized our politicians not doing anything productive for the general population, but with Zohran raising more money from more individual donors than any other campaign, it looks like New York City is ready to support someone who will.