Zohran Mamdani will become the next Mayor of New York City. The 33-year-old New York Assemblyman – who famously polled at around 1% for much of the early stages of the Democratic Primary – is now on course for the political upset of the century. Born in Uganda, and therefore unable to run for President, Mamdani has come from nowhere to spin American politics on its axis.
The weight of office
Without question, there are legitimate concerns about his ability to govern effectively. As highlighted in the most recent mayoral debate, Mamdani’s experience is limited. It is possible – if not even probable – that the bubble of hope and excitement that has permeated progressive politics may soon be popped by the weight of the office, and the mess that he finds himself inheriting. In a way, and this is unpopular, this is perhaps how it should be.
No political campaign should be fully able to replicate the excitement and buzz of their movement when fully endowed with the responsibility of their new role. Campaigns are a moment in time. To this day, we look at the Obama campaign in 2008 as the example of a campaign promising the hope of a better, brighter tomorrow. Once in office, when Campaigner-in-Chief became Commander-in-Chief, the dial shifted and public opinion waned. By the time of the 2010 midterms, Obama – by his own admission – faced a “shellacking”, losing 63 seats in the House of Representatives and six Senate seats.
Ultimately, the speed of change he had promised on the stump could never match the political reality of a volatile economy in the wake of the 2008 crash. At the time, people used this marked contrast to talk down the power of rhetoric, and to sully hope as some sort of snake oil; an intangible, impossible ingredient for political opportunism.
In Mamdani, the Obama style hope train is back and chugging along. Soon, it will have to slowly roll into the station, and things will inevitably change.
There can be no debating that Mamdani is anything but impressive. Flawed, sure. But, in and amongst the appearances at Pink Pantheress concerts, and TikTok trips to bodegas, is a candidate with an exceptional understanding of the current political and media landscape. A candidate who has maintained impressive message discipline and turned Democratic politics on its head.
Democratic socialism and the race to 2028
Last week, Mamdani held a sold-out rally with fellow Democratic Socialists – and titans of the progressive left – Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I’ll be the first to admit that in 2020, I did not think Sanders met the political moment. After all, politics is about moments. Joe Biden, for all his flaws, was the perfect candidate for that particular campaign.
Now, some will hear that and think: well look how that turned out. And they’d be right. But in a way, that’s exactly my point. By late 2022, the moment had passed for Biden, and his enormous legislative successes – and there were many – have been quashed by ego, vanity and an inability to pass the torch.
Now, at a time when the centre-left feels completely on the back foot and, in truth, lost, Mamdani is offering an entirely different solution. A politics not based on status or standing within the Democratic Party, but a grassroots movement that functions from the bottom up. And so while “titans” such as Hilary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris think they are being clever and responsible in dodging questions about endorsing him, they are actually cementing the exact view that Mamdani is arguing: establishment politicians are for themselves and simply don’t get it.
We see that here in the UK. Whichever side of the aisle you look at, you’ll see a group of politicians using their own power to enrich themselves, whilst avoiding meeting people where they are. Having spoken to several Labour MPs recently, their view is clear: if they lose their seat in 2027, so be it. So be it. In Mamdani, and in Sanders too, we have politicians who are far from perfect, but who are in it for the right reasons. Say what you like about Bernie, but no one can say he’s not given his life to fighting for the things he believes in. And now, as Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” makes access to healthcare inordinately harder and gives tax cuts to billionaires, it’s clear Bernie had a point.
Mamdani’s proposals are ambitious, but relatively simple: free buses, one government-run grocery store in each borough, rent freezes. Expensive, sure, and potentially unworkable, but no one can say it’s not a policy platform aimed at working people. There is a clear lesson here: running on cost of living is a highly effective campaign strategy.
It’s one Kamala Harris could, in my view, have won on. Instead, she stuck to the Biden playbook of being in a battle for the soul of the nation and Trump being a fascist. Both of which, for the record, are emphatically true. But the new frontier of political communication is short form messaging, with a laser-like focus on cost of living and affordability – and that’s on both sides of the pond.
When the Democratic Primary fully kicks off – and let’s be clear it’s already moving – Mamdani’s win is going to have significant implications. First, it is going to give a renewed sense of energy to the Bernie wing of the party, the torch most likely carried by AOC (she’s running, trust me). Bernie’s run in 2016 and in 2020 has shown us there is a solid voter base for the progressive candidate. It is possible that this time around, when Bernie ran Clinton and Biden really close, that that momentum – alongside the energy and exceptional campaigning of Mamdani – may deliver them the Democratic nomination for President, where they will most likely face JD Vance.
Whether a Democratic Socialist can win a General Election in the Rust Belt remains to be seen, but I think it’s important to remember that we’re seeing politics evolve at a startling speed – one the establishment seems unable to comprehend in real time.
By 2028, when America’s institutions have been weakened by oligarchy and self-enrichment, a campaign focused on the cost of living and affordability with a charismatic, sincere candidate could surprise us all.
Hope doesn’t have to be temporary in political campaigns. It just has to evolve into something different. And when that happens, as with Obama, it doesn’t mean the hope was insincere or manufactured. As Dr King said: the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Today, in both the UK and US, where ordinary people are increasingly priced out of a good quality of life, and the bottom has fallen out of entry-level jobs entirely, there can only be hope that things can get better.
Things can only get better: Labour’s roadmap
As it stands, Britain is at a fork in the road: a divisive form of culture politics using hate and prejudice as its vehicle is at our doors, and its antidote is nowhere to be seen. You don’t fight hate with hate. You don’t win over their voters by being a watered-down version of the real deal. You have to forge your own identity and do your own thing.
When it came into office, Labour ran on one thing: they weren’t the Conservatives. Now, on account of their complete lack of vision, they have become the thing they ran against: a sluggish, unambitious, process-driven blob. Labour does not need to look to Mamdani and steal his policies. No one is saying that they should copy him. But they should be looking at him and Sanders and the way they are able to cut through the noise and meet real people and start practising it.
The next election is not, contrary to popular opinion, a done deal. If things continue as they are, then sure. But, with change and some effort to engage with people, there is an opportunity to turn things around. My concern is twofold: that Labour does not want to, and that even if they did, they simply do not know how. Which, let’s not be blunt, is a damning indictment on our politics and the people who are supposed to represent us. The electorate is far from fair and easy – often they’re completely unreasonable and want magicians instead of politicians. They’re susceptible to hate and division and snake oil salesmen in teal ties, sure. But can you blame them? People are poorer now than we’ve been in a long, long time and there’s very little in the way of hope.
It is our job – all of us – to find it.
Because hope is not a mood. It is a discipline. It is the act of insisting that politics can still be about making life better, even when every force around us tells us it cannot.
Mamdani’s rise does not promise a perfect administration, nor a frictionless path forward. But it does show that people are still willing to organise around the idea that their lives can be improved – not in the abstract, but in the day-to-day realities of rent, buses, wages and dignity.
And that matters for us here. The North East has been treated, time and again, as a place to be managed rather than invested in – a region spoken about in statistics, not in stories. That kind of neglect breeds division, resentment, and the sense that politics is something done to us, not with us or for us. But it also means that when hope takes root here, it is powerful. It is real. It has weight.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
But only when we are the ones pulling.
We bend it.
