(Adnkronos) – A new political star is born in New York from the divisions and tensions into which the Democratic party has fallen after the electoral defeat. The Dem establishment is in fact experiencing as a shock the fact that Democratic voters have chosen Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old city councilor from Queens, a socialist Democrat with a progressive economic agenda and a decidedly pro-Gaza position, as their next mayor.
And they turned their backs on Andrew Cuomo, the three-time governor of the state, exponent of a powerful Democratic political dynasty, convinced until the last of his easy return to politics, after being forced to resign as governor for accusations of sexual harassment by 11 women, in the mayor’s chair of New York, counting on excellent testimonials such as Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg.
Supported by the historical father of the American left, Bernie Sanders, and by his passionate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as young as him and elected in Queens like him, Mamdani won by gathering support in the different, from a racial and economic point of view, neighborhoods of New York, regaining above all the support of young people and minorities, two groups that from the Obama era onwards have become crucial to win and who turned their backs on the Dems in the last elections.
And there are those who do not hesitate to make comparisons between Mamdani’s victory and that of the then also unknown Barack Obama in 2008. “It truly represents the excitement I saw in the streets throughout New York, I haven’t seen it since Obama was elected president,” said Letitia James, the New York attorney general who in fact until the final stages of the campaign had supported other candidates from the New York nomenclature of the party.
Mamdani’s convincing victory, who obtained 43.5% against Cuomo’s 36.4%, in the New York primaries is not only creating enthusiasm, but also concern among those who believe that to win the Democrats also need the moderate vote and independents, who could be intimidated by agendas that are too left-wing. Like the one with which Mamdani won with positions that once could have been considered risky in a city like New York, such as talking about genocide in Gaza and asking for new taxes for Wall Street, and which could challenge the orthodoxy of the party and its national leaders.
Especially since Donald Trump and the Republicans will be able to exploit his positions to attack the Democrats, warns Donald Axelrod, the strategist who led Obama to victory, who however does not fail to appreciate the democratic socialist’s focus on economic equity, especially to deal with the housing crisis “which in New York is so bad that a socialist could become mayor” as the Wall Street Journal wrote. “The thing is, he appears both principled and agile and skilled enough to deal with these things,” adds the Dem strategist.
The doubt therefore remains, concludes the New York Times, is how the party will react at the national level, if it will welcome Mamdani’s electoral result as a resource, exponent of a new generation of leaders capable of conveying a message of economic equity for the disadvantaged classes, getting out of the populist trap in which Trump has tightened them by describing them as the party of the elites. Or if they will distance themselves from the socialist program of the possible new mayor, insisting on seeking votes in the center and among independents.
