Lessons from NYC

It seems that good things still are possible!

Wow. Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee to lead New York City, America’s biggest metropolis.

Everyone and their mother have takes today. And they should — this is one of the most significant electoral results for the trajectory of the Democratic Party over the next several years at least, so I don’t think it can be over-discussed! In that spirit, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts.

1) We have a new formula for progressive campaigning.

Zohran is a generational political talent, and not every candidate will be able to replicate the caliber of his performance (to say nothing of that beam-of-sunshine smile).

But any progressive — hell, any Democrat — thinking about running for office should look at his basic strategy, which included:

• Laser-focused message discipline on a materially-grounded campaign theme (affordability) articulated not through vague generalities but a core set of concrete, easy-to-articulate commitments (for Zohran, freezing the rent, fast and free buses, universal childcare).

• Relentlessly positive campaigning from a candidate who made clear every day in every way that he just loved the city and people he was seeking to represent.

• Culturally and linguistically specific outreach to all the beautifully diverse communities across New York, combined with a rejection of tired identity politics. (It’s worth noting, despite recent efforts by centrists to blame progressives for the off-putting effects of identity politics, that it’s overwhelmingly been the establishment that’s weaponized these cynical strategies to undermine progressive populists in Democratic primaries. And that was certainly the case in this race.)

• A commitment to listening, meeting people where they’re at, going on every show, communicating to every audience, and demonstrating flexibility to voters with different viewponts, while at the same time refusing to back down from your core values. This latter half of the equation not only inspired the army of volunteers that provided Zohran’s campaign with such an incredible groundgame — it also showed voters that Zohran was someone who could be trusted to stick to his guns.

2) We have a new model for what solidarity looks like.

One of the most inspiring stories from this election was the endgame collaboration between Zohran and the other progressive champion in the race, NYC’s City Comptroller Brad Lander.

I first met Brad in 2016, and since then I’ve never seen him act as anything but a Grade A mensch. In this race, he did so on multiple fronts.

The most emotional, for me, was seeing Zohran and Brad demonstrate what it can look like for Jews and Muslims to come together around a vision of hope for a better world. Millions of dollars were spent in recent weeks viciously labeling Zohran — in ways that were both racist and violence-inducing — as antisemitic for his opposition to Israel’s “knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated” war crimes in Gaza (that quote is not from Zohran, by the way, it’s from Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert).

These smears — which sought to erase the many tens of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers voting and volunteering for Zohran (polling before the election showed him running a strong second place among all Jewish voters, and that was before his late surge; I think it’s an extremely safe bet that Zohran won Jewish voters under the age of 45) — clearly fell flat. And Brad Lander played a role in that.

If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you watch this video of Brad and Zohran on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monday night. Colbert aggressively confronted Zohran about the allegations of antisemitism he’s faced, which Zohran answered effectively, as usual. But this time he didn’t have to face these bad-faith attacks alone. Here’s what Brad had to say:

I’m the highest ranking Jewish elected official in New York City government. I’m nervous about rising antisemitism. And also I believe in the humanity and human rights of Palestinians. I support that vision of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, but I hate what the Netanyahu government is doing in Gaza. And look, no mayor is gonna be responsible for what happens in the Middle East. But there is something quite remarkable about a Jewish New Yorker and a Muslim New Yorker coming together to say here’s how we protect all New Yorkers. Jewish New Yorkers and Muslim New Yorkers are not going to be divided from each other. We build a city where you have affordable housing and good schools and safe neighborhoods for everyone.

When I saw this clip, I couldn’t help but get misty eyed, thinking about what a strike against hate and division it’d be for this message to carry the day Tuesday.

I got even more misty eyed last night, when it did just that.

Brad provided another important model of solidarity, too — solidarity between politicians with shared progressive values. Too often, we have seen progressive candidates in crowded primaries get wrapped up in their own egos. We saw it in 2020 — moderates were fast to consolidate around the centrist campaign with the best chance of beating the leading progressive candidate, whereas progressive candidates failed to do so. That didn’t happen in this election. Brad put his ego aside and got to work supporting the candidate with the best shot to defeat Andrew Cuomo. Like I said, a Grade A mensch!

And as far as lessons for other progressive officials to take from this saga, it’s worth noting how much better Brad’s solidarity strategy is working out for his own career than, say, Jessica Ramos’s approach. For those who weren’t following this race so closely, Jessica Ramos is a state senator who also ran for mayor as a progressive. One of the first people to call on Cuomo to resign in 2021 for his record of sexual harassement, Ramos apparently became furious watching Zohran catch fire while she failed to gain traction, and stunned observers earlier this month by making a surprise endorsement of Cuomo (it was not a cross-endorsement; Cuomo was clear he wouldn’t be voting for Ramos). In doing so, Ramos burned every bridge she had to communities and groups that once supported her. Her career seems effectively over. Brad, on the other hand, has the whole world in front of him: One rumor is that Zohran will bring him on to be First Deputy Mayor (essentially the city’s COO), and countless activists are clamoring for him to run for Congress in NY-10, a seat he’d likely walk into. Turns out that sometimes doing the right thing pays off better than doing the transparently cynical thing!

3) Do-nothing Democratic incumbents should be nervous.

There are too many dynamics at play in this race to boil everything down to one explanation. But it seems unassailable that Zohran’s massive win against a 67-year-old scion of a political dynasty is more evidence that Democratic primary voters are done with do-nothing leaders who’ve failed to effectively stand up to Trump’s authoritarian takeover.

That’s not to say everyone who primaries an incument this year will win. But for young progressives thinking of challenging a do-nothing Democrat, it should count as one point in the “pro” column. Certainly, if I were an incumbent Democratic elected official with a primary in the next two years, I would look at last night’s election and think to myself, “Oof, if I want to keep this seat, I better start stepping up my game.” And that in and of itself could be a gamechanger.

---

For those of us who dream of bringing back the Democratic Party of FDR — a party that stands for something, that is willing to take on powerful interests, that fights for regular people, and perhaps above all, that wins — the main takeaway right now should just be joy. It’s so, so rare that good things happen. I’d almost forgotten it was possible. So by all means, take a moment to savor this moment. Hopefully it’s the start of many more!