By Mark Gruenberg\Taryn Fivek
NEW YORK—Young and progressive New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the city’s Democratic primary for mayor on June 24. His top foe, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called him to concede the election in a race whose results may have surprised the corporations and the establishment political circles, but not the coalition backing Mamdani.
Volunteers knocked on tens of thousands of doors as they supported their candidate’s call for a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments and for slashing money for war that they said drains big cities of needed resources. They said the stress on affordability and peace, and the door-to-door campaigning, not a miracle or surprise, yielded the victory. The win is a lesson for the Democratic Party, too, many in the campaign say, that it must step up its challenges to the Trump agenda.
The coalition backing Mamdani included Brooklyn brownstoners, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, immigrant communities in Queens and elsewhere, and working-class voters of all backgrounds in this multiethnic and multinational city.
Normally, the victor in the Democratic primary goes on to win the final race in November. When ranked-choice voting totals are tabulated in full next week, it is expected that Mamdani will comfortably pass the required 50%+1 as he gets crossover support from other candidates who opposed Cuomo.
In order to win in November, though, Mamdani will have to strengthen his coalition even further by increasing support in both the African American and Latino communities, where early data suggest he won large votes but not majorities.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who did not back Mamdani in the primary, nevertheless came out strong for him on election night when she declared, “They said he could not win because they did not know his name. Well, now they know his name.”
In New York’s rank-choiced voting system, Mandami and third-place finisher Brad Lander…
