DC Edit | Zohran Mamdani’s Victory A Boost For US Democrats
To read too much into the wins, which came in largely Blue-leaning states, and project it as a solid comeback for the Democrats might be to leap to conclusions.
The electoral verdicts in the United States in the contest for the New York mayor’s post as well as the races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia were a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump’s second term. The election of Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist immigrant candidate who is the very antithesis of him and who will be the first Muslim, first Indian-origin, man and first born in Africa to become mayor of the Big Apple is a slap in the face for Mr Trump who took greater interest in the New York poll.
To read too much into the wins, which came in largely Blue-leaning states, and project it as a solid comeback for the Democrats might be to leap to conclusions. The fact remains that Mr Trump’s actions and antics as President have not been universally popular. More of it may be at play next year when the midterms might see a tough battle for control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
As Mr Trump argued, he was not on the ballot, but what happened in the polls may be a reflection of his authoritarian style of governance, his disdain for actions by the book of statutes and his upending all traditions and conventions in his pardoning people who defied the rule of law on January 6, his tariff tantrums and in the proven racially discriminatory treatment of immigrants. In short, it can be taken to be an early vote against Trump’s supremo style of governance.
The stunningly quick rise of Mr Mamdani, born in Uganda to a Muslim father in scholar Mahmood Mamdani and a Hindu mother in the accomplished film director Mira Nair and married to Rama Duwaij, an artist born in Texas to Syrian parents, to topple a political dynasty was owed solely to the Trump factor. His appeal to the most basic needs of the average citizens of New York like reasonable rent, free commutes, lower grocery prices and the restoration of power to the working class in a metropolis of very stark inequalities struck a chord with all as a massive number of voters turned up.
Quoting from Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst with destiny’ midnight speech of 1947, Mr Mamdani, who was not afraid to flaunt his Indian heritage during the campaign, asserted that New York after his victory had “stepped out from the old into the new”. His victory is significant considering the influence that the Jewish lobby holds in the metropolis and how they may have had reason to fear his political advance though he had shunned claims of anti-Semitism and had indeed been calling for a safer, fairer, more inclusive New York.
The Democrats, too, might feel the tide is turning against Trump’s Republicans after the two governorship triumphs, a trio of state Supreme Court victories and ballot measures from Colorado to Maine, besides a state proposition to redraw congressional districts in California. In choosing a progressive candidate in New York and in promising to improve the quality of life for the middle and lower classes, they had given themselves a better chance to overcome the defeat in the presidential race of 2024.
The Democratic campaigns had different playbooks in each of the poll states, but nowhere did they have to take on the President as directly as Mr Mamdani did after getting Mr Trump’s dander up in the audaciousness of his march to power as a young state assembly lawmaker seeking a higher executive office like that of the mayor of New York. He had even drawn a threat from Mr Trump to defund the city and, given his record, such a threat is real.
