India Walton's Advice For Zohran Mamdani

“I think that for him, the race ’til November needs to be staying on message—we can’t start to water it down because we think it’s going to attract a more moderate Democrat.”

By Nick Pinto, Hell Gate

A political upstart with leftist politics and the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America unseats a heavily favored party elder in the Democratic primary for the mayor’s race of a major city in New York. The party apparatus reels, and the elite interests that backed the more moderate candidate begin calculating how to approach the general election.

It’s the position New York City finds itself in today. It also describes the situation in Buffalo in 2021, when India Walton beat out incumbent mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic primary, drawing national attention to a small municipal race.

What happened next in Buffalo was equally remarkable. Despite winning the Democratic nomination, Walton found party leaders strangely reluctant to rally to her campaign. Brown, meanwhile, launched a furious write-in campaign, winning the tacit backing of the business and political leadership of the City and doing his best to persuade Buffalo voters that Walton, the party’s nominee, was a dangerous radical.

Brown’s effort to sabotage his party’s nominee was ultimately successful, and Walton’s loss was framed as a check on the momentum of the Bernie Sanders and AOC movement to realign the party toward more progressive politics.

Mamdani and his campaign are certainly intimately familiar with what happened to Walton. Indeed, Mamdani traveled to Buffalo and campaigned for Walton. That awareness has doubtless informed the campaign they’ve run. Mamdani has been deliberate about building bridges—his messaging is relentlessly positive and disciplined, and he doesn’t present himself as overthrowing the party leadership.

Mamdani’s campaign is also situated differently than Walton’s was after she won her primary—where Walton won a low-turnout election during COVID, allowing Brown to plausibly argue to donors and party leaders that her win was a fluke, Mamdani undeniably won by significant margins after turning out unprecedented numbers of voters.

Mamdani also already has more support from party leaders than Walton ever got. Attorney General Letitia James gave him a thunderous introduction at his victory party Tuesday night. Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted an appreciation of his victory, and Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have congratulated him and announced plans to meet. Even Bill Clinton, who endorsed Cuomo a few days before the election, has lined up to congratulate Mamdani.