Zohran Mamdani and the Politics of Every Day

Hope, change, and action.

A year ago Zohran was polling at 1%, and last night New York City erupted in celebration of his victory. Bars were packed with people cheering on a monumental win, one that defeated billionaires, brushed aside a political dynasty, and ushered in a new era of possibility. In a city whose inequality epitomizes our age, and whose skyline stands iconic over America and the world, a Muslim socialist swept into office last night. His victory filled people across New York, and across the country, with hope.

NY Mag

One of Zohran’s final campaign videos begins with him on a street corner in the Bronx right after Trump won the 2024 election, trying to talk to people about how they voted, and what they need. The first four or five people simply ignore him, seeing a weird man in a suit with a microphone trying to ask them questions as they go home from work. Just a year later Zohran is causing pileups at the New York marathon, having cabbies yell their support for him out the window, and causing a scene at Knicks games. He’s everywhere, and everywhere he goes he’s recognized. A campaign led by an unknown assemblyman has toppled the political dynasty that loomed over New York for the last 40 years.

There will be a million pieces on how Zohran and his campaign pulled this off. Some will focus on social media and amazing video production, some will insist that Zohran is uniquely good at politics, but no analysis will be complete without discussing DSA, socialism, and the immense base of volunteers that powered this campaign. Moderates will try to separate the art from the artist; they will try to adopt the style of this campaign without adopting the substance. Some have already attempted it, mimicking the aesthetics of Zohran campaign, but without the substance each has fallen flat. Without the politics and the policies that centered working class people, without concrete changes to improve people’s lives, and without the base of thousands of people in DSA you don’t get this historic campaign.

The message that dominated Zohran’s campaign, that he stuck to with amazing dedication, was affordability. The average rent in New York is nearly $4,000, grocery prices are up everywhere, the job market is stagnant — it’s not hard to see why affordability was a winning message. And rather than running on just a vague promise of making life easier to afford, Zohran ran on a clear platform of freezing the rent, making buses fast and free, and trying out municipal grocery stores. He also wants to tax the rich, and that takes help at the state level. But rather than do what most other Democrats have done for decades now, and shrink away from lofty ambitions, Zohran talks about organizing to win taxes on the rich with NYC-DSA and the army of 100,000 volunteers the campaign has amassed.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

No one knows exactly what comes next, but one thing is clear: we’ve just seen a campaign that was remarkably different, a campaign that could usher in a shift this country desperately needs. Kwame Ture has a quote that reads: “You vote once in four years and that’s your political responsibility? That’s the height of bourgeois propaganda, making the people politically irresponsible. Thinking their responsibility is limited to a one day vote. Politics is every day.”

What happens when we understand this, when we do politics every day? Voting in an election can do some good, can mitigate harm, but the powers that be certainly don’t restrict themselves to election day. The forces of capitalism and fascism are active every day, and we must be too. It is this idea, as much as anything, that won Zohran the election.

Zohran grew out of New York City DSA, and it was thousands of volunteers from the organization that helped take him from unknown assemblyman to mayor of NYC. 100,000 volunteers, the initial core of whom were virtually all DSA, are what differentiated and catapulted Zohran Mamdani into the spotlight. While Cuomo had to pay people to stand on corners glumly distributing lit, Zohran had real believers, many of whom who had known him for years and had seen him organize non-stop. These thousands of volunteers, and Zohran himself, weren’t just running a campaign, they were people who had done working-class politics every day, year after year. That was one of the vital differences between these two campaigns, a difference that allowed people power to beat back a political machine and big money.

And the big money didn’t accept this lesson until late last night. Anti-Zohran PACs took in over $40 million in just a few months. Michael Bloomberg burned $5 million in the final week alone in a failed effort to beat back a democratic socialist. But all that money was wasted, defeated by people power. And for that reason Zohran’s campaign inspired hope in millions of people, both in New York and around the country. In a city dominated by the rich, in the city that’s home to Wall Street, money couldn’t buy this election. In fact, a candidate deliberately running on standing up to the rich and looking after the working class defeated the establishment, defeated the billionaires.

From the beginning, Zohran embraced the fight against the rich and powerful. He can list Trump, Musk, Ackman and numerous other billionaires and fascists as his enemies. One of the first moments that launched him into the public eye was when Trump’s ICE goons and their leader Tom Homan went to Albany. In the New York State House the assemblyman was on camera yelling at them, being held back by a state trooper, and embodying how many of us feel about ICE, but so rarely see in an elected official. He went viral, and millions cheered on a politician willing to stand up, fight ICE, and convey the rage we feel.

Since that moment his campaign has been about fighting, but it’s also gone beyond being oppositional; it was, in many ways, a campaign focused on building something new. Zohran, his team, and the DSA offered a vision for a livable city, a city for working class people. New York has been dominated by the rich, forcing out those who can’t afford to live here anymore, and the positive message of building a city we can afford resonated deeply.

Around that message a powerful organization was built. Zohran was ushered into office by people who were, and who became, a part of a movement. Tens of thousands of people came together to build power you could feel and see in this city. The message drew people in, and as their numbers swelled everyone in New York could see the campaign snowball and develop a powerful gravitational pull. Being a part of something, organizing, feeling real power — these qualities are deeply attractive, they drew tens of thousands of volunteers to the campaign, and in victory we can translate this campaign into the transformation of millions of lives.

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Today we celebrate, but the fight isn’t over. If anything it’s just begun. Zohran will be besieged by the rich and powerful, by Trump, by billionaires and conservatives. Every inch of progress will be hard fought. The army of volunteers and organizers will be needed to enact change, and all of us, no matter where we are, will need to take lessons from this transformative campaign.

For one we will need to build, not just oppose fascism. As Zohran said in his victory speech, “We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves.” In this moment of strength we must continue to organize and fight. We will need to create institutions, spread the messages that draw people to us, and lead with positive visions for the future — conveying what we stand for, not just what we stand against.

Secondly we need to empower. Our neighbors are not just votes, or pawns. Every single person around us has agency and can be a part of building power and creating the new world we need. But in order to play that role they need skills, confidence, and the ability to be an organizer in this chaotic world. We all need hope, but that hope must be grounded in action. Each of us has a role to play as part of the collective movement toward a new world. So the hope, the joy, the energy you have right now, take it and channel it into organizing with coworkers, neighbors, and friends who are working toward the better future we see glimmers of today.

Zohran’s win must be just the beginning. We’re in a deep hole, a pit of fascism and late-capitalism that threatens to swallow us whole. The hope that comes from this victory is a hope that must fuel us, not send us back into a stupor. If you think Zohran is the second coming, organize and fight to make his vision of an affordable city a reality. If you think Zohran isn’t radical enough, organize and fight for the radical changes we need. Because beyond any politician, beyond any campaign, what we need is you. We need people activated, organized, and working to transform this world. The only way we defeat fascism and get beyond capitalism is millions of people knowing that politics is every day, and living accordingly. - JP