Daily Herald opinion: The New York mayoral election is historic, yes; but early reads on its implications seem overblown
What to say about Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of New York?
Let's start with Republican congressmen Randy Fine of Florida and Andy Ogles of Tennessee asking the Justice Department to shuffle through Mamdani's old naturalization papers to see if prosecutors turn up a misrepresentation so his citizenship can be revoked and he can be deported. Please. You either believe in democracy or you don't. Whether he's your cup of tea or not, Mamdani was duly elected by the people of New York and the results of that election ought to be respected. We don't have to celebrate the results of every election (and Lord knows, we don't), but we do need to cherish the people's right to choose.
Many of those on the far right have responded to Mamdani's extraordinary rise with some combination of shock, outrage, horror, bigotry and white Christian nationalism. How much is real and how much is political messaging in preparation to tag every Democratic candidate with the Mamdani-far-left-socialist label, well, that's not easy to decipher. But whatever the case, to those and others upset about Mamdani's victory, we say: Chill out for a moment, OK? And we say this while acknowledging no small amount of our own concerns about him.
Quick, name the mayor of another U.S. city (other than Chicago). And no fair going to a search engine. If these people wield so much power over the health of the nation, how come we can't name any of them? (Or maybe no more than one or two.)
Yes, New York is New York, and if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Yes, it is the financial capital of the country. It does matter, and no doubt more than any other city in America. But the country is not going to crumble if Mamdani institutes rent controls, which by the way are not unheard of in U.S. cities.
He was elected partly because of his charisma and campaign ability, but also because he was able to identify pocketbook issues that matter to people. The average apartment rent in New York, for example, is $3,596 a month, according to zillow.com; that's $43,152 a year. At the same time, his major election opponents were an incumbent mayor disgraced by scandal and a former governor who had been ousted by scandal. Both were tied, fairly or not, to Donald Trump in a reliably blue city. The names he ran against were prominent but their candidacies were weak.
Meanwhile, there are guardrails in New York that appear to be stronger than the ones currently failing to restrain the White House. Arms-length critiques of his ideas assess that while they're all liberal, most are not as outlandish as his image would suggest. And for those that may be? They would need support from the city council, the statehouse, Washington or the courts and in some cases, a combination of them. He’s in a powerful position, to be sure, and he may be adroit enough to exploit the mandate that elected him, but he can’t just snap his fingers. Time will tell. Four years ago, Eric Adams was the city's electrifying supernova.
We all should appreciate that in his victory, Mamdani was able to overcome anti-Muslim prejudice and energize young voters. He challenges convention, and there’s good in that.
That said, we worry about Mamdani’s reliance on populism and demagoguery, the ease in which he assigns black and white hats. We tend to over worry, of course, and hope that is what we are doing when we wonder if his rise could end up representing the far left's version of the worst divisiveness in the far right's make-America-great-again movement. Certainly, he needs to reach out to New York's broad constituency to clarify his views on Gaza, Zionism and antisemitism. We hope he governs collaboratively. But his postelection comments so far have not been particularly reassuring in that regard.
Democrats would do well to understand that while Mamdani showed the energy and grass-roots power that their candidates sometimes lack, his victory is not a recipe for the rest of the country. Would a candidate like Mamdani win in the heartland? More than doubtful.
The landslide victories Tuesday by Mikie Sherrill, elected governor in New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger, elected governor in Virginia, ought not be overshadowed. They provide more vital candidacies to emulate — common sense, relatively centrist Democrats who focused on economic issues while capitalizing on unease with the Trump administration's disruptive heavy handedness. If Democrats are serious, they need to understand that their obligation is not just to win, but to start to bring our polarized country together when doing so.