While the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are busy lamenting the fact that their party’s national convention later this summer has eased its mask mandate, their brother in the Big Apple did something actually extraordinary on Tuesday and won the New York City Democrat mayoral primary — putting him, a pro-Palestinian anti-capitalist, in spitting distance of running America’s biggest city after the November election.
“Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night, and he put together a great campaign,” Democrat rival Andrew Cuomo said. “He touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote. He deserved it. He won,” the former New York governor added.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Mamdani had garnered 44 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 36 percent in what until Tuesday had been a nail-bitingly close race.
New York City uses a Ranked Choice Voting system in its mayoral elections, and Mamdani has struck a pre-primary deal with third place finisher, City Controller Brad Lander by which the winner of the plurality would take the votes of the other. As Lander, who managed to get himself detained last week for resisting ICE, took 11 percent, those votes put Mamdani comfortably over the 50 percent threshold, cinching his win.
Last week, The New York Times urged city Democrats not to elect Mamdani:
“We do not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots,” the NYT editorial read. “His experience is too thin, and his agenda reads like a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio’s dismaying mayoralty. As for Mr. Cuomo, we have serious objections to his ethics and conduct, even if he would be better for New York’s future than Mr. Mamdani.”
Apparently voters took little heed.
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A Bowdoin College alum, Mamdani honed his leftist thinking in Brunswick before launching into the hurly-burly of New York City politics.
During his campaign, Mamdani called for reducing the size of New York City’s police force and inveighed against Israel and capitalism, making him a curious choice to lead a city that has America’s highest Jewish population and is the home to the country’s key financial markets.
In the fall, he will face off against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who will likely run as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, founder of the city’s famous Guardian Angels, a voluntary crime-fighting group. Cuomo has also already floated the prospect of running, like Rick Bennett, as an independent.
