Inside the Zohran Mamdani Campaign: Lessons in Socialist Strategy and its Pressing Challenges

In a time when authoritarianism is truly globalized, leftist victories also have a spillover effect that inspires counter-strategies in different geographies. In this short article, I will try to clarify the lessons of the Mamdani campaign, as well as the possible challenges it points to for socialists around the globe.

Lessons

1. It is not about opposing authoritarianism; it is about offering an alternative!

In most countries grappling with the rise of authoritarianism, the social democrats or the mainstream left have long lost the vision to develop an alternative social project, while the radical left is too marginalized to put such a project forward. As a result, the opposition adopts the role of “critique” – repeating, again and again, what is wrong with authoritarian governments. In the end, you define yourself by being against something: anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, etc., instead of being for something.

Being on the defensive also means, de facto, defending what is already there – what is being dismantled by right-wing authoritarian governments: the liberal-representative form of capitalism and its institutions. This is a losing game, as the mainstream is dissolving for a reason. Our job is not to save what is already broken, but to demonstrate what is possible. “The world is changing,” as Zohran said in his last campaign rally on October 26 at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. “It is not a question of whether that change will come – it is a question of who will change it.” It is indeed a struggle over the direction of change. And we need to start not from what authoritarianism does wrong, but from what it diagnoses correctly – that the system is broken. Then comes the prognosis. As Bernie Sanders says: “Trump is right to say the system is broken – he is making it worse.” Offering a strong socialist alternative, both to the dissolving mainstream and to rising authoritarianism, is the only viable way to do leftist politics today.

The Mamdani campaign demonstrated what this might look like on the municipal level, in a country where the main pillars of the social state – such as healthcare and childcare – are deemed “socialist.” Instead of taking the “red scare” for granted, Mamdani claimed (democratic) socialism as a sensible response to the current crisis and translated it into a tangible municipal program: freezing rent (for rent-controlled apartments) and building affordable housing, making buses fast and free, providing childcare at no cost, and opening city-owned, non-profit grocery stores – by taxing the rich.

2. It is not about identity; it is about dignity!

When I heard that Zohran was a Shia Muslim, I was still in Berlin preparing to move to New York for seven months. It turned into a running joke among my Iranian and Turkish friends that I should meet him wearing a Zulfiqar (look it up) necklace.

The joke grew when I came across a short video of Zohran talking about Ashura (the 10th day of Muharram, on which Shia Muslims mourn for Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was trapped and killed by the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiya in Karbala), describing how “Imam” Hussein’s rebellion against oppression inspires so many “in that same fight against oppression today.” It was quite funny, and maybe a bit surreal, that the charismatic socialist New York mayoral candidate was talking about religious figures and rituals that I associate with my grandmother (Ashure – Aşure in Turkish – is also important for the Alevis of Turkey. The holy dish is cooked at the end of the 12 days of fasting for the 12 Imams and shared to remember Hüseyin’s death in Kerbela). What a weird and wonderful world indeed!

What he did was very courageous, especially considering how Islamophobia has been weaponized by Trump and the populist right throughout the mayoral campaign. He was not afraid, and did not “strategically” hide his beliefs or religious identity. He is a visibly proud Shia Muslim, Indian-Ugandan, and immigrant. But he never let the compass of the campaign shift toward identity or identity politics. The compass was (and is) a democratic socialist project that aims to build an affordable city for all.

The campaign did not erase identities; it encouraged them to flourish (in all canvassing events, people are encouraged to introduce themselves with first names and preferred pronouns, for instance) but was relentlessly careful not to put identities at the center. Instead, it integrated them into an alternative socialist vision of a city in which all can live in dignity, if not (yet) equality. And it worked. Women, queer and cisgender; PoC, Black and white; immigrant and third-generation New Yorkers all canvassed together for Zohran, united by a progressive program and by the hope and joy it radiated. In this sense, the campaign demonstrated the way to go beyond identity politics – by providing a compass, a direction, a vision worth fighting for, one that can unite us all.

3. It is not about further antagonizing and ridiculing the working-class people who voted for authoritarian leaders; it is about winning (some of) them back!

Fighting the enemy and fighting the people who vote for the enemy are different things – and the latter is a lethal mistake.

I once took a (leftist) friend from Turkey to a radical-left event in Berlin. In a conversation, she said something like, “One should try to understand why these people are voting for AfD, especially in the East.” The atmosphere immediately soured. Someone nearly shouted at her: “You don’t try to understand fascists!” On the way back home my friend asked, “How on earth do these people do politics with such puritanism?” and I answered, “They don’t.”

But die fetten Jahre sind vorbei!  [1] The mainstream is dissolving everywhere, and the populist right and its fascist versions are coming to power. We do not have the luxury to dismiss all their voters as fascists anymore. It is time to claim our responsibility in this picture: there is no strong socialist vision in sight to provide an alternative for working-class people who are voting for them.

Zohran Mamdani did exactly this and started his campaign in working-class neighborhoods, like Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx, where Trump received unexpectedly high votes in the November 2024 general elections. He talked to working-class people (mostly Black and brown) who voted for Trump, with his famous microphone in hand, asking one simple question: “Why?” The answers revolved around the rising cost of living (rent, food, gas, electricity, transportation) and the genocide in Gaza. Toward the end of a video of these conversations, Zohran asks them, “If there were a candidate talking about freezing rent, making buses free, and making universal childcare a reality, are those things you’d support?” The response was a clear “Absolutely!” So, he started his campaign by winning back the working-class people the Democrats had alienated – by building the main promises of the campaign on the very basis of their grievances and demands.

4. It is not (only) about social media – it is about organizing an immense and diverse grassroots campaign

Yes, Zohran’s social media videos are excellent – some of them could be used in media and communication classes (e.g., Halal-flation). The design, the witty street language, the content – incredible! They are so good that Zohran’s mother, the renowned director Mira Nair, is constantly asked if she is behind them.

But it is the man in the videos who makes the difference (put Andrew Cuomo in these videos and see what happens) and, more importantly, the people who believe in his message. Zohran was polling at only 1% in February – and he won the primary, beating the very powerful Democratic establishment candidate Andrew Cuomo spectacularly in June. What happened in between? People happened! Nearly 50,000 people volunteered for the primaries, and the number doubled for the actual mayoral election. The amount and energy of the volunteers show this: despite decades of cynicism and political alienation, it is possible to blow the cobwebs away when politics resonates with people. A generation of young people, in New York and beyond, found their political voice through Zohran’s campaign. One canvassing event was enough to see: the campaign has generated hope, joy, and incredible political energy. Zohran himself once found that same spark in Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign. “It was Bernie’s campaign that gave me the language of democratic socialism to describe my politics,” he said at a joint rally with Sanders on September 6 in Brooklyn. “It is a similar story of seeing yourself in a movement, in a campaign, in a politics that you were told for so long was impossible to find.”

I canvassed for Zohran in five different neighborhoods of New York City (there were regular canvassing events in 73 neighborhoods across five boroughs) and was amazed by how well-organized yet open and relaxed it was. Anyone could canvass – you just registered online for a specific time and place according to your convenience. You received the meeting point a day before by SMS and email, along with welcoming messages from your co-leads. There were apps and WhatsApp groups to organize the technicalities, and it all ran smoothly. The New York chapter of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) played an instrumental role in organizing the entire operation, constantly recruiting field leaders among committed volunteers, training them, handling data, and running the canvassing machine day in and day out.

What is critical here is the extremely open, welcoming, and flexible nature of volunteering – no gatekeepers, no proving your worth, no experience needed. People brought their identities and colors – creating groups like Seniors for Zohran or Hot Girls for Zohran (Cuomo supporters tried to steal that one, organizing an event in the Upper East Side as Hot Girls for Capitalism – the event, obviously, was a disaster). It is easy to be part of the campaign, and easy to become a lead. After years of trying and failing to become part of the German left, it was refreshing!

Challenges:

1. How to translate socialist politics to the main political arena: Where to compromise and where to stand firm

Radical-left politics can be a comfort zone. We have our meetings, our rallies, our language. But if we want to rule a big city or a country, we need to get out of that comfort zone and enter the mainstream political arena – no matter how frustrating it can be.

Zohran Mamdani was everywhere in the last weeks of his campaign – CNN, NBC, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, you name it – yes, even Fox TV. And he had to answer the same stupid questions again and again – especially on Israel and on the NYPD. The challenge for a socialist politician is to claim legitimate ground in the mainstream political arena without stepping back from core principles. Where to compromise, where to make concessions, where to draw the line? In this particular case, Zohran apologized for his 2020 statements about the NYPD (“racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety”), promised that he would not “defund” the NYPD, and that he would “discourage” the use of the slogan “globalize the intifada.” He condemned Hamas but did not step back from his wording on the genocide and apartheid – he recognizes “Israel’s right to exist” but not as a Jewish state. All of these decisions probably came after lengthy discussions. These are obviously challenging decisions for the movement and cannot be left to the spontaneous performance of one person alone.

2. How to deliver: the limits and challenges of becoming part of the system

This is an age-old discussion within the radical left: is it possible to change the system from within? No need to dig deep here, but the main challenge for the socialist left in our age is this: if the Leninist revolutionary model has failed, and the once-popular horizontalist “change the world without taking power” strategy has led nowhere, what do we do now with what we have at hand – representative democracy and its electoral mechanisms? Winning elections is one thing; delivering the promises and advancing the struggle is another. And we have seen some spectacular failures on that front, such as the Syriza disaster in Greece. It is, of course, more challenging to deliver at the central government level due to the disciplinary mechanisms of globalized capitalism (Latin America is a geography of experimentation on this front).

But even at the local government level, things will not be easy, as the Mamdani administration will soon experience. Governor Hochul, who endorsed Zohran but firmly declared that she would not allow his plan to raise the state tax (on corporate profits and income above $1 million annually), is not a real ally. Would it be possible to finance universal childcare and free buses without a tax increase? Very difficult. But let’s say it is possible: isn’t taxing the rich (redistribution, even in modest levels) an integral part of the DSA program? These are pressing questions, and they point to serious challenges for the Mamdani government in particular, and for socialist politics in general.

3. How to maintain the momentum: the question of continuity

90,000 to 100,000 volunteers – an incredible number, even for a megacity like New York. Both Zohran himself and many representatives of the DSA have repeated time and again that the work is not done once the election is won. People should continue to work and push for the campaign’s agenda – to create an affordable New York for all, they say. And continuity, of course, can only be maintained through organization.

The organizational body of the campaign – the New York chapter of the DSA – doubled its membership (from 6,000 to 12,000) during the campaign. But what is crucial is whether it will keep growing after the election victory by recruiting more and more campaign volunteers, and whether it will be successful in both working with the Mamdani administration to realize the campaign’s promises and keeping it on track through organized popular pressure where necessary. The DSA is aware of the challenge and welcomes it with open arms. We all hope to see a positive example.