Zohran Mamdani takes on governing as the left and right fight to define him

Meanwhile, the Trump factor looms over both Mamdani’s place in midterm messages and his success as mayor.

The president has already pledged to take punitive measures against New York City if Mamdani wins, as he called the state lawmaker a “communist” and offered Cuomo a last-minute endorsement. After Mamdani’s victory, the White House released an image that resembled a New York Knicks logo containing the words “Trump is your president.”

Mamdani pledged to fight Trump head-on and said in his victory speech that he would dismantle “the conditions” in New York “that allowed” Trump “to accumulate power.”

“It’s not just about how to stop Trump, but how to stop the next one,” he said.

A person close to White House thinking said the importance the president and his allies placed on Mamdani in the midterms depended not only on whether he won Tuesday or by what percentage, but also on how he ends up governing.

“I think it’s too early to assess his usefulness as a national foil,” this person said. “We’ll know soon.”

A key policy area to watch

Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said he was particularly eager to see how Mamdani would act to deliver on his universal child care commitment. National Democrats have pushed for similar child care policies in recent years, to no avail, as costs have soared.

“It would both debunk the argument that it’s impossible for him to do something that requires approval from Albany and also be a North Star for Democrats, if he could actually make child care more affordable,” Green said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has expressed interest in working with Mamdani on the issue. While Mamdani is set to oversee a bureaucracy that numbers more than 300,000, his powers are somewhat limited and he will need buy-in from the New York City Council, the state legislature in Albany and other stakeholders to make his goals a reality.

Hochul already hasn’t expressed much enthusiasm for a tax increase, with Mamdani calling for a 2 percent tax on incomes above $1 million to fund his proposals.

Peduto said Mamdani can make progress on his agenda, but he needs to rally local businesses, nonprofits and foundations, state leaders and the city’s congressional delegation to make it a reality.

“It can set up pilot programs and start to put in place different initiatives that will allow it to be successful,” he said. “But only if he decides to be a consensus builder and doesn’t allow partisans who simply want to defeat the other side to control the agenda.»

As it stands, there is a Democratic divide over how much they place Mamdani in their own midterm messages.

Democrats who disagree with Mamdani praise the focus on affordability, while progressives want to create a contrast between Mamdani’s new vision for governance and center-left candidates who they say have primarily built their campaigns around anti-Trump outrage.

“Regardless of labels or even any particular issue, Democrats have a defining choice: Do we simply have an anti-Trump message or a new, forward-looking agenda that harnesses economic populism and challenges billionaires,” Green said, adding that Mamdani’s campaign “will be an enduring symbol for Democrats.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, who shared some political consulting with Mamdani, said his candidacy showed that candidates who talk “about the needs of the community, you’re going to be successful.”

“I don’t agree with Zohran on everything, and I have different solutions for some of the ills of society and the economy, but he talks about it,” Gallego said. “He ran against someone who was just plain corrupt to begin with, but No. 2 didn’t talk to people about what they were worried about. New York voters were worried about the cost of living, about having a future, and Zohran talked about that.”

“Zohran can’t win in Arizona, I can’t win in New York”, Gallego added. “But we have very similar success in that we’re talking to people and trying to solve a problem that they feel every day.”