Zohran won: So, now what? 

For many members of the American left, this past Tuesday night was a celebration the likes of which has been a long time coming. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election seemed to ring out across the entire country, signaling the beginning of something new. It’s a new hope, perhaps, or a return to previous highs felt during the 2020 era. On a personal note, it was incredible to see how even some of the more apolitical — or at least not politically active — people were caught up in excitement about what had happened. Despite this being a local race to elect a local city official, it took on a significant nationwide emotional significance. 

Now that the emotional high is over, or at least starting to come down as the days pass, it’s worth genuinely asking the question: what comes next? Many on the left are coming to terms with whether to celebrate Mamdani as a savior or scorn him as any other liberal, and it’s already generated a great amount of controversy even though he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. I hope to present a nuanced position within this debate, recognizing what opportunities this change brings alongside the limitations that many seem unready to mention.  

To begin, it’s worth placing this victory in the context of earlier large-scale underdog progressive electoral victories within recent years. This is to say, it’s easy to see that we’ve been in this situation before. First in 2018, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke onto the national stage and ushered in the modern progressive era, and second, when Barack Obama became the first African-American president in 2008.  

These were both shocking victories featuring a very progressive candidate coming out of thin air to win the Democratic primary before winning the general election. But, they also resulted in very little once in office compared to their campaign promises. Obama completely walked back his promises to protect abortion, created an Affordable Care Act that primarily benefited insurance companies, laid the groundwork for the current expansion of fascist deportation efforts we are currently seeing and probably spent more time bombing people in the Middle East than focusing on any of those other issues combined. Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, has done far less than Obama (given that she’s only a single legislator), but has equally become a hollowed-out version of her past self while in office. This is evident in recent years as she has come under fire for not being strong enough in material support of Palestine and her alignment with the failure of the centrist Joe Biden and Kamala Harris camp at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.  

There’s been enough electoral history at this point to say that progressive and socialist candidates will capitulate on some, if not all, of their key points once they reach office. It is a simple matter of the structural influence of holding office in a political system that is so inherently against change. Especially considering how Mamdani has already faced unprecedented levels of national scrutiny from the media and virtually no support from his party system, it is likely that Mamdani will continue to follow this trend once in office in more ways than he already has. Ultimately, he will again demonstrate the inability of elected officials to significantly change the economic and social fabric of this society.  

Now, this is problematic in its own right, but also because many people will not recognize it and lay off after this victory. An inherent flaw of the electoral campaign is that it prioritizes a large rush of energy and resources towards the vote effort, before essentially releasing all the people who contributed to it once the election is over. It is ineffective at creating the sort of sustainable mass movement that is necessary to make change. Only if people continue to pressure the government once Mamdani is elected will there be the possibility of something good, and this kind of pressure can only come if people recognize that he is like any other politician and needs to be held accountable, even if he is nominally a socialist.  

A common phrase thrown at the left is that they want to “endlessly critique those in power.” And actually, yes, that is exactly what we ought to do. We exist in a political and economic structure that is inherently against change and looks to subsume and destroy it when given the opportunity. A victory that allows us some presence within this system is not an end; it is a means at best, one that you push until you can’t anymore. The moment that we rely on those in power to bring real change, any hope for it is already lost.  

Still, aside from the cynicism, there are still several valuable, positive takeaways from this historic moment that are worth looking at.  

First, an unabashedly self-described socialist did become the leader of the largest city in America. This will be an incredible opportunity for people to potentially see real progressive policy put into action on a large scale. Although he will face significant opposition from all over, presumably even the federal government, it’s not as though he’s just one senator attempting to sway all of Congress to do what he wants. Additionally, this administration seems to be aware of the absolute necessity of grassroots support to achieve its agenda, given its creation of the Our Time organization, which appears to be trying to keep up the structure built during the massive mobilization of people in his campaign efforts.  

Second, Mamdani is undoubtedly giving “socialism” a cool reputation and there is value in that. This country has historically been the foremost stronghold against any anti-capitalist views, and that’s reflected in how people react to words like “socialism.” If he can change the implicit association with this word, then that is a base that further work can build upon. Instead of having to fight the battle of helping people unlearn the stigma associated with it, now even those critics further left than Mamdani can just work on redefining socialism.   

Third and finally, this is a victory for the working class. Although much has been said about his voter base being full of upper middle-class white liberals who gentrified Brooklyn, the labor aristocracy as some would say, that’s not really the case. When cross referencing voting results with neighborhood income statistics, we can see that Mamdani won 13 of the 15 lowest income neighborhoods in the city by an average margin of 20%. Additionally, he dominated in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods across the city, again with an average margin of victory of above 20%. Yes, it is true that some places where he won by over 80%, like East Williamsburg or Bushwick, are not nearly as economically disadvantaged, but this does not disqualify his victory. This totality of the record shows a broad base, working class, multiracial victory against the capitalist interests represented by Andrew Cuomo and all his rich supporters. Simply the fact that billionaires and corporations were unnerved enough to fight tooth and nail to prevent this victory shows something about its importance.  

So, what now? Well, it’s clear that it’s too easy to simply dismiss what the Democratic Socialists of America did here, but it’s not without its inherent weaknesses. There is simply more work to be done, because this is just an opportunity. The way that this administration plays out and whether it will serve to harm or help the movement will ultimately fall on what activists and organizers do from here. The answer is in the grassroots, so it’s time to get organized!