Zohran Mamdani’s triumph has given socialists huge power in New York City. Now they must use it well—or see the ruling class crush them.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press conference at the Unisphere in Queens, on November 5, 2025.
(Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty Images)
Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City has thrust the US democratic socialist movement into the national spotlight. If Mamdani’s triumphant affordability platform—which includes plans to provide universal childcare by increasing taxes on high-income earners—is implemented, it could lead to a significant transfer of wealth from the wealthy elite to the working class and provide a blueprint for socialist leaders across the country. Equally, if Mamdani’s mission is stymied, the forces banking on his failure will use it as a weapon to try and banish the left everywhere. In other words, the stakes of a Mamdani mayoralty could not be higher. That’s why it’s so crucial for the left and progressive movements to adopt a mass politics orientation during Mamdani’s tenure, the 2026 midterms, and beyond.
Mamdani’s rise is partly due to the corporate elite’s failure to defend working-class New Yorkers against the city’s cost-of-living crisis. It’s also because corporate Democrats lacked a strategy to counter Mamdani’s left-wing populist economic message, which resonated with many New Yorkers who came to see themselves as renters and working people struggling with affordability because of the billionaire class.
Now, the movement behind Mamdani’s election is poised to stand up against the chaos fueled by Donald Trump’s policies, particularly those that have exacerbated economic inequality. The same strategy and message that worked so well for Mamdani can be used to challenge corporate Democrats in the midterms, holding them accountable for their inaction on the cost-of-living crisis and their failure to build a diverse coalition against authoritarianism.
Here’s how.
Win the Affordability Agenda
The Mamdani campaign transformed the New York City electorate, tapping into long-ignored Muslim and Southeast Asian communities while shoring up support among younger Black and Latino working-class voters—many of whom were being lured rightward by Trump. If it lasts beyond Mamdani’s win, this realignment presents an opportunity for progressive forces to become rooted in New York City’s multiracial working class and build an organized and combative political base. By doing so, they can leverage the electorate’s power to implement Mamdani’s affordability agenda.
Current Issue
The incoming Mamdani administration is well-positioned to build institutional working-class power by empowering unions with stronger contracts, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour, standardizing and improving working conditions for informal workers, exploring sectoral bargaining legislation, increasing access to affordable housing, promoting public power in utilities, and encouraging community participation and civic engagement among working-class New Yorkers.
The more than 100,000 volunteers the Mamdani campaign was able to mobilize can turn their attention to the work of sustaining the movement they helped build—for instance, by training volunteers to become community organizers in support of Mamdani’s political program. A key task will involve exposing the purposefully opaque and baroque channels through which the governor and state legislature in Albany might try to stifle Mamdani’s agenda. Having organizers on the ground who can demystify the state budget process and connect working-class New Yorkers to campaigns that pressure their state representatives—for example, to tax the rich in order to fund Mamdani’s plan for free universal childcare— will be key.
This organization can help create the mass working-class movement this city desperately needs and serve as a national model for other successful grassroots electoral campaigns. By institutionalizing the Mamdani coalition, we can popularize the narrative that his campaign rode to victory.
There is not a second to lose in building up this infrastructure. That’s because the ruling class—the real estate industry, the finance sector, the charter school industry, pro-Israel forces, corporate Democrats, the right wing of the City Council and the state legislature, and, of course, the fascist Trump administration in DC—is already gearing up to try to derail Mamdani’s administration, turn public opinion against him, and attempt to fracture his political base. This coalition, which has spent decades hollowing out state capacity through ruthless austerity, will try to make an example of Mamdani’s New York City and use an “NYC in crisis” narrative for their own electoral gains in the midterms. (Republicans have wasted no time, instantly framing Mamdani’s ascent as a “national story of a party bending to socialism and the far left.”)
By staying laser-focused on winning the affordability agenda, orienting its work to organize the unorganized, and continuing to center the active participation of working New Yorkers in its campaigns, the left can take advantage of this populist moment and blunt the opposition’s narrative.
Replicating Mamdani’s ruthless message discipline can also help blunt the bigoted culture wars that both Republicans and many right-leaning Democrats seem so eager to fight. A key breakthrough that the left achieved through the Mamdani campaign was championing left-wing economic populism while demonstrating solidarity with oppressed communities. We prioritize a universalist affordability agenda not because we practice narrow economism, but because we know the cost-of-living crisis affects communities of color and other oppressed groups the hardest, and we aspire to center them as key pillars of our coalition. Applying that strategy nationwide can suck the air out of the far-right’s faux-populism and help the left in the midterms.
A Movement in Power
New York City’s left, particularly the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), of which I am a member, is not used to holding the kind of political power that Mamdani will wield. Adjusting to what Mamdani referred to in an Election Day video as the “contradictions” of office will take time. But the path that the New York left has taken to power provides some important lessons for how to use it.
How can DSA anchor its project with a mass working-class base? How can DSA position itself to organize a working class that can articulate its demands? And how does the left break away from the cycle of disillusionment that comes from building popular leaders like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jamaal Bowman, only to tear them down after perceived capitulations? How we answer these strategic questions should flow from our theory of change.
Two approaches have limitations: liberalism, which focuses on finding responsive politicians and building clientele organizations, and ultra-leftism, which emphasizes organizing around a specific political line without regard for expanding the coalition or enhancing mass politicization. Both approaches overlook the crucial role of class forces in shaping society, particularly the power of an organized mass working-class base.
An example of liberalism’s limitations was evident in Bill de Blasio’s 2013 election, where, without a clear plan for after winning office, de Blasio’s coalition of progressive Jewish voters, millennials, and Black and brown working-class New Yorkers wasn’t harnessed to build momentum toward a working-class majority. Instead, two years later, de Blasio was outflanked by the class struggle politics of Bernie Sanders. His administration’s governing strategy primarily depended on technocratic expertise rather than building a social base for his policies.
Popular
“swipe left below to view more authors”Swipe →
On the other hand, the constraints of an ultra-leftist approach were evident during the fight over expelling Jamaal Bowman from DSA in 2021. The episode shows the potential disorganizing effect of pressure tactics toward allies who are temporarily misaligned, rather than permanently obstructionist. Instead of expanding a working-class base for anti-war politics, it can functionally provide cover for our enemies to exploit our division. The Mamdani campaign shows that the left needs to be authentic, relatable, and actively engaged with the concerns and struggles of the broader population, rather than just being a vocal and ideological minority.
Elected officials make mistakes. They inevitably disappoint their voters sometimes. Mamdani will too. It will be important, when these things happen, for the left to balance accountability with an understanding of who the real enemy is. The more we focus on championing allies that help popularize previously marginal ideas and embolden a working-class base to fight for more aggressive demands, rather than prioritizing sectarian fights, the more we can build power for the long term and expand the broad coalition to fight the far right.
By building a strong foundation in the multiracial working class, mobilizing people to action, organizing a new generation of democratic socialists, and positioning the left as a beacon for working-class New Yorkers, the movement that helped elect Zohran Mamdani can drive transformative change and position the democratic socialist movement for continued success in challenging corporate Democrats in 2026 and beyond.
Mamdani’s victory is reverberating throughout the country and the world. As New York City sets the tone for the political, cultural, and financial course of our country, the democratic socialist movement should be prepared to capitalize on this historic opportunity by backing Mayor Mamdani, who has already reshuffled and reconstituted long-standing power structures, with an organized mass working-class base. This victory proves that a democratic socialist platform with a popular vision can form a majoritarian winning coalition. Now we must defend, govern, deliver, and expand the coalition for the affordability agenda. The democratic socialist movement of this country faces a crossroads: take center stage and play offense at the ballot box or retreat on the sidelines in the face of governance pressure and rising authoritarianism.
More from The Nation
Over 200 media workers have been killed in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says is the deadliest since it began tracking data in 1992. Community embroidery action,…
At a DSA watch party, I got to see history unfold as Zohran Mamdani’s victory was announced.
Democrats stormed back to dominance, winning all three statewide races and a stunning 13 seats in the House of Delegates.
In the face of Reagan’s right-wing presidency, he offered a vision, strategy, and agenda that would have led Democrats and the country in a very different direction.
A full transcript of the mayor-elect’s victory speech to supporters.
