The Memo: Mamdani's triumph ratchets up battle within Democratic Party |
Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral race is a political earthquake.
It caps a stunning rise from obscurity, gives the left one of its biggest triumphs to date and inflames an already-fierce fight within the Democratic Party.
The internal fight was made even sharper when the mayor-elect took to the stage of his victory party in Brooklyn shortly before midnight.
Mamdani threw a flurry of rhetorical jabs, not only against President Trump, whom he called a “despot,” but against his own party leadership, which he cast as corporatist and feeble.
His mayoralty, he promised, would be built on “a bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.”
Moments later, in an even more frontal attack, he added:
“Convention has held us back. We have bowed at the altar of caution and we have paid a mighty price. Too many working people cannot recognize themselves in our party, and too many among us have turned to the right for answers as to why they’ve been left behind.”
His speech, which also name-checked American socialist icon Eugene Debs and India’s first post-independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is sure to have centrists spluttering in consternation.
But, for the moment at least, the wind is at Mamdani’s back
The 34-year-old state assemblyman vanquished former Gov. Andrew Cuomo twice — first in the June primary and again on Tuesday.
He did........