Zohran Mamdani's Campaign Can Expand The Left's Base

As Zohran Mamdani mounts a surging campaign for NYC mayor, his bid is becoming a model to replicate for the next wave of the US left. Can he expand his appeal to working-class demographics the Left has so far struggled to reach?

By Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin

A little over a year ago, I organized a meeting in New York City between a visiting member of Congress and a handful of local activists from across the Left. Among those present was New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani wasn’t the most prominent person in the room, and far from the most senior elected official. But immediately, it was clear that he wasn’t just another earnest progressive in a room full of them. He had something else — something difficult to describe without sounding like a campaign ad. Charisma. A fluid and natural ease with language. An ability to communicate about the issues that morally compelled him. It was obvious that Mamdani wasn’t just an ordinary organizer turned legislator. He was a natural politician, in the best sense of the word.

As Mamdani mounts a surging campaign for New York City mayor, his bid is fast becoming a case study in what the next wave of the American left should aim to replicate, while also illustrating some of the dangers we face in our efforts to build a mass base for our politics.

Mamdani’s campaign is as fresh in substance as it is in style. He’s framed his mayoral run around the most pressing issue for working-class New Yorkers: the cost of living. He’s not leading with vague invocations of equity — he’s leading with rent relief, housing justice, public transit expansion, and raising the minimum wage. And he’s doing it without cozying up to the city’s entrenched political machines or its constellation of institutional donors.

Mamdani is offering a different and more combative kind of politics than what New Yorkers have come to expect from its large liberal-left network, which elevated an NGO leader and a charter school founder in the 2021 race. His experience as an organizer, his immigrant background, and his theatrical presence (he used to be a rapper, after all) make him a uniquely compelling candidate. But we shouldn’t confuse his appeal with just vibes and videos. It’s political skill — and it’s rare.

Just as movements don’t build themselves, policy programs don’t sell themselves. We need more democratic socialists who can do what Mamdani can do: communicate complex ideas clearly, relate to ordinary people without pandering, and present a vision that feels achievable rather than utopian. That kind of skill isn’t everything, but it matters — and it should shape how we recruit and support future candidates.