Zohran is for the people

There’s been a jolt of hope in the air. In a time of dismal political conditions with a fascist in the White House, an ongoing genocide, bombs falling on Iran and Syria and Palestine, a ray of light in the darkness affects us differently than it would otherwise. In a sea of acquiescent Democrats who claim to fight fascism but instead write letters and give aimless speeches, a wave of actual organizing to seize power for the people has ushered forth from New York City, the heart of the empire and the belly of the beast.

Zohran Mamdani’s victory was unexpected, particularly to the establishment that lined up behind a sexual predator to oppose the insurgent democratic socialist. Arrayed against the corrupt and decrepit and morally bankrupt establishment was a candidate polling at 2% back in January and an army of volunteers. Ultimately, over 65,000 people participated in the Mamdani campaign, and while Cuomo spent 5x as much per vote, he wound up losing decisively to the upstart assemblyman half his age.

All of these details, and many more, matter quite a bit. In these details, in Zohran’s policy proposals, in the many excellent videos put out by the campaign, in the massive volunteer operation and the DSA’s history of organizing in New York – in all of this lies the secrets to this stunning victory. But now we’re seeing the effects. Now we’re seeing a wave of hope that is flowing from millions of people around the country and the world witnessing the establishment fall in the city that houses Wall Street. We’re seeing a wave of hope that is making countless people believe they can change the world.

That hope springs from the defeat of the corrupt, sexually harassing, disgraced former Governor who should be nowhere near politics, but it also comes from the nature of the Mamdani victory. Over 1 million people voted in a mayoral primary in an off year. Young people turned out more than any other age group, something that never happens in American politics:

Age distribution of voters in democratic NYC mayoral race

It isn’t hard to see that something special happened here, and can continue to happen across the country. Over one thousand people have already reached out to progressive organizations expressing an interest in running for local office in the week since Zohran won. Hundreds have joined DSA in just a matter of days, and the number is sure to rise. People see this electoral victory as something bigger than just winning one mayoral primary, they see it as a signal, a beacon of hope and of real possibility.

Of course some folks are tired of the rhetoric of hope and change. Many of us grew up excited for Obama, only to see his rhetoric fall flat as his policies mostly constituted more of the same, more of the status quo, more bombs dropped in the Middle East, more of the rich getting richer. But Zohran’s campaign signals something different not just because a young Muslim immigrant socialist won the race, but because he ran specifically on freezing the rent, on trying out publicly-owned grocery stores, on free buses and more. Not only did he refuse to shy away from making specific policy statements, he made his affordability agenda and those precise proposals central to his candidacy. What exactly he’ll be able to accomplish is still up for debate, and up for a fight that we’re still in the middle of, but Zohran shifted the paradigm to put concrete policies up front and treat voters like adults who can determine thoughtfully what policies they want to see and support.

We know that AIPAC, the Democratic establishment, billionaires and more are fuming at this win. They’re fuming at the people speaking out and showing up to topple their chosen candidate. They’re furious, they’re desperate, and they’re flailing. The least convincing hit pieces are now running on Zohran every day, each one more pathetic than the last. The truth is that once the people organize and rise up, once the people take back our power from the ruling class, there’s very little they can do.

We’ve only seen the beginning, and hundreds of millions of dollars might be poured into the NYC mayor’s race between now and November, but the establishment only has a defeated Andrew Cuomo and a pathetic and deranged Eric Adams. We have Zohran, tens of thousands of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of voters, and an excited coalition that actually mirrors New York City. The momentum is on our side, hope is on our side, an unprecedented national surge of enthusiasm around this campaign is on our side. Everything about this moment screams that people are not only ready for change, but are willing to fight for it and work towards it. So now it’s time to both seize the mayor’s office come November, and use this energy to transform our country city by city and state by state.