Since their 2024 election loss, Democrats have been reeling — and people are beginning to look for answers outside of the party establishment.
This became clear after Zohran Mamdani’s June 24 victory over Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic primary, a rebuke of the party establishment that has held power for years. But the impact of Zohran’s win — and the influence of his campaign tactics — reach beyond New York City and into the entire Democratic party, and party higher-ups must take notice.
Prior to his campaign, Mamdani was a largely unknown state assembly member and a self-proclaimed socialist. At the start of the primary, very few people believed he had any chance of winning. But last month, Mamdani shocked the city, beating out candidates with far more experience and much more money to become the party’s nominee.
Mamdani was swimming upstream against nine candidates, but his savvy campaigning, which appealed to disaffected voters who felt abandoned, carried him into a two-man showdown. The race came down to Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former New York governor and scion of a political dynasty. Cuomo was largely expected to win, having a much larger campaign war chest largely made up of funds from Political Action Committees and billionaires on top of name recognition.
Mamdani, on the other hand, went a different route in his campaign, cultivating a dedicated following through social media. Even as a New Jersey resident, I was seeing Mamdani all over my TikTok feed. In the videos, he is depicted going out and having unscripted interactions with regular people in the city. In a political system that has left many American voters disillusioned by dishonest behavior, Mamdani feels like a breath of fresh air.
The key factor in Mamdani’s win, however, was that he didn’t toe the party line that had been laid down by the Democratic National Convention, or DNC. Many do not like the brand of Democratic Party politics that have come from the establishment in recent years. This culminated after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and the DNC bypassed an open primary process to nominate Kamala Harris as candidate.
Many Democratic voters felt that their progressive values were not reflected in Harris’ campaign, which incorporated some former Republicans to try and win over more moderate voters. After the loss, Bernie Sanders called out the party’s failures by stating, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
But the New York City primary shows a way forward for the Democratic Party. If they feel listened to, even voters that supported Trump in 2024 can be won over. Mamdani is about as far from establishment as you can get, and his win without party support marks a shift in how the Democratic Party operates; he’s a self-proclaimed democratic socialist despite socialism being something the Democratic Party has tried to distance itself from. He is very openly pro-Palestinian, even though the war in Gaza is a hot-button issue in the New York race. Unlike other candidates, Mamdani also takes almost no money from big business, instead relying on small, individual donations.
To many, this last part is Mamdani’s best quality. For decades, people have grown frustrated with politicians being swayed by the pharmaceutical lobby, oil companies and the National Rifle Association. Mamdani’s focus on small donations helps restore peoples’ faith in their politicians. A leader who sticks to his beliefs, instead of allowing big business to influence them, is what Democrats need.
The Democratic establishment refuses to give up, and Mamdani’s fight is far from over. Despite Mamdani’s big win, most mainstream Democrats have refused to endorse him. The only notable endorsements have been New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — all of whom already fall on the far left of American politics. No U.S. senators from New York have endorsed Mamdani. In the General election, Cuomo and New York’s current mayor Eric Adams have both decided to run as independents. They will likely garner support from establishment Democrats who don’t want to see Mamdani win.
Despite being a respite from a corrupt Democratic establishment, Mamdani is not without his faults. Personally, I have serious doubts about how much of his agenda he will be able to pass; he has shaky ideas for how to fund his plans, and there is a possibility he will drive business away from the city.
The real lesson from Mamdani’s victory, though, is not about his policies; it is about how Democrats need to change in order to survive in this new political climate. Money is great, but Mamdani has proven that today, what you really need to win an election is authenticity, dedicated supporters and grassroots campaigning. If they want to win elections and avoid becoming defunct as a party, Democrats need to take note.
Robby Wolff is a second-year international affairs and journalism combined major. He can be reached at [email protected]
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