Zohran Can Happen Anywhere (But Having an Opponent Like Cuomo Helps)

A worker dismantles the stage following New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo s election-night watch party for the Democratic primary on June in New York City Photo Andres Kudacki Getty Images Zohran Mamdani s mastery on Tuesday night has launched a wave of enthusiasm across the progressive left and a wave of analysis in the political press The core question is simple Can a young Muslim card-carrying Democratic Socialists of America candidate beat powerful establishment figures anywhere in the country Is this a New York phenomenon or a sign of a shift in the Democratic electorate as a whole The answer is yes Yes the failure of the too big to fail mayoral candidacy of former New York Gov Andrew Cuomo armed with millions in establishment cash in the face of a volunteer-driven challenge from the left can happen anywhere Cuomo can stand in for the increasingly tone-deaf national Democratic Party leadership which has insisted since the loss that the party has to moderate its views and dismissed elected youth leader David Hogg for threatening to primary older Democratic congressional members even after the debacle of the Biden campaign And yes the specific combination of a generationally talented principled and authentic candidate with deep connections to social movements whose campaign successfully mobilized tens of thousands of participants going up against Cuomo in particular played a notable role in Mamdani s success The lessons from Mamdani s campaign can power insurgent progressive challengers to moderate Democratic machine candidates in other races even outside of deep-blue urban centers and it s worth remembering that New York has a long history of Republican mayors First Mamdani hammered on affordability pushing an economically progressive strategy platform of free buses a rent freeze and free child care which sent a clear message to voters about his priorities He also pushed a handful of innovative ideas such as municipally owned grocery stores and higher taxes on the rich which drew people in with the spark of the new And he hit the streets With society engagements and visits to communities across New York City he presented an image as an open-minded and wholesome man of the people and included his commitments to human solidarity and dignity including for the Palestinian people throughout his speeches His campaign hurriedly became associated with cost of living and while his proposals were attacked for not being realistic he stayed faithful to his message which motivated over participants to knock over million doors His productive use of social media including strategic collaborations with popular progressive influencers also helped get his message out The economic message commitment to solidarity and amazing ground match can absolutely be replicated with the right principled candidate and a strong configuration of grassroots organizations and mobilized assistants Mamdani also stressed social justice issues such as protections for the LGBTQ and immigrant communities from Trump And though he was never shy about expressing his beliefs on Palestine his campaign focused mostly on universal issues of economic justice and access that would disproportionately help marginalized communities and communities of color For example Black families with school-age children have left New York City over the past years at the highest rate compared to any other group according to census material absolutely because the cost of having children was too high Mamdani s plan to provide free child care at birth and the soaring costs of child care is documented as a major source of economic pressure for New Yorkers baby boxes to new parents and universal afterschool programs in the NYC Department of Schooling would be a boon to the diverse communities that benefit majority from such services while still providing help for New Yorkers across all levels of income Almost three-quarters of New York City masses school students fill federal criteria for economically disadvantaged and the universal pre-K plan set up by Mayor Bill de Blasio remains one of his majority of popular achievements and is used by families at a range of income levels Running on popular economic issues standing up for social justice and organizing a good ground battle and social media campaign can all succeed anywhere But the race like all races still hinged on particulars Mamdani was running with specific handicaps that other candidates seeking to reproduce his success may not face Multiple rivals dinged the -year-old state assembly member for his youth and relative inexperience Mamdani also faced racist attacks as attack mailers sent by Cuomo s PAC depicted him with a darkened beard in an attempt to play into Islamophobic tropes Mamdani managed to turn his youth and identity to his advantage mobilizing young voters and Muslim and South Asian voters across the city Any candidate seeking to replicate his success can also change their liabilities into advantages and use their positionality to mobilize and energize less-likely voters who are underrepresented in polling samples but it s certainly a laborious feat to pull off Then there is his opponent Andrew Cuomo came in with immediate name recognition the backing of New York s Democratic establishment and outspent Mamdani with a million super PAC but ran a lackluster campaign and was shadowed by a long legacy of toxicity across various corners of politically engaged New York City In plenty of approaches Mamdani became a representative of every marginalized progressive in New York City who had fought Cuomo s terrible politics and terrible style of governing for over a decade Cuomo a dinosaur of the Clinton era Third Way Democratic Party he served as President Bill Clinton s housing and urban growth secretary came into the governor s office in as the state was recovering from the financial dilemma Cuomo swaggered into office with an extreme austerity budget cutting percent over the previous year which included billions of dollars in cuts to necessary services like development and Medicaid a loss intensified by losing federal matching funds and only a tiny revenue bump from changing lottery rules This budget delayed the court-ordered budget increases to high-needs schools and included provisions to fire up to state workers Multiple of these job cuts were reversed when unions accepted cutbacks wage freezes and furloughs Cuomo came into his first year in office wielding an austerity axe and seemed to relish making enemies in population sector unions strength care and teaching Cuomo pushed these cuts through and would continue his strongman rule of the New York state establishment thanks to a divided legislature which allowed him to occupy a role as a central dealmaker for the state But Democrats won control of both the New York State Assembly and the Senate in and Republican dominance of the Senate appeared to have come to an end But four Democratic senators created their own breakaway caucus called the Independent Democratic Conference or the IDC which then chose to form a coalition with the Republicans effectively handing back control of the Senate Cuomo swiftly used this to his advantage mostly to slow the rate of progressive decree While Cuomo claimed to not be involved reports beginning in proved that Cuomo encouraged the creation of this conference and even offered advice and strategy to the IDC Cuomo also became mired in ethics scandals after he created then rapidly shut down the Moreland Commission created in January to root out corruption in state ruling body This made him a target for a principled primary challenge from good governance expert and law professor Zephyr Teachout in Teachout won a third of the primary vote signaling disapproval of Cuomo among the electorate but Cuomo did not take the challenge seriously Cuomo continued to govern with disproportionate control using the divided regime to his advantage and engaging in policies that hurt New York City such as cutting hundreds of millions of dollars of MTA funding and threatening to cut million from City University of New York funding about one-third of the state s contribution in Criticism of Cuomo intensified following Donald Trump s presidential domination When state senators from deep-blue Democratic districts in diverse urban communities joined the IDC in early that sparked new outrage and brought new attention to the issue Constituents became activated under the broader Resistance movement of the time and began to hold their senators accountable and threaten primaries In order to placate these activists Cuomo negotiated a deal in late in which IDC senators would return to the Democratic conference following a timeline However activists including new Resistance groups and established entities like New York s Working Families Party could not be placated and ran progressive challengers raised money and succeeded at beating of the IDC challengers by September Related Primaries Matter Why This Time Is Different for Andrew Cuomo Despite his association with Republicans during the Trump administration Cuomo managed to win in against his progressive challenger Cynthia Nixon who made taking out the IDC a central part of her platform The IDC along with Cuomo stalled a large number of progressive reforms in New York state lagging behind comparable states like California But in with Democratic majorities in both houses the New York State Legislature passed a historic slate of progressive reforms including the DREAM Act progressive criminal justice reforms the codification of Roe v Wade into state law gun control laws and historic extension of the state s rent regulation laws all passed in thanks to the Democratic control and injection of progressive state senators Related How New York Gov Andrew Cuomo Is Using the Pandemic to Consolidate Power Numerous anti-IDC activists remained frustrated at Cuomo s Teflon-like ability to ignore criticism His invincibility seemed more apparent during his meteoric rise to national stardom during his daily Covid- briefings in But his ascension to stardom was speedily matched by the dizzying fall to disgrace when women mostly former staffers came forward to share their stories of his sexual harassment and retaliation As key Democratic leaders in the wake of MeToo called for his resignation he resigned in disgrace But his final year was also riddled with other ethical crises including the nursing home emergency and his use of employees in drafting his Covid memoir Taxpayers paid million to cover the legal fees from these scandals and a few of Cuomo s sexual harassment suits are still being contested in court It s a mystery why Cuomo decided that his scandals did not matter and decided to jump into the mayoral race once current mayor Eric Adam s own legal troubles became a major political liability Perhaps in the age of Trump s second presidency Cuomo decided that MeToo was over Like other national Democratic leaders he saw the future of the Democratic Party in moderates who could appeal to disaffected Republicans Perhaps like Hillary Clinton in he deduced that his qualification arguments would crowd out voters concerns about his misdeeds Cuomo the governor apologized for his behavior in but mayoral candidate Cuomo claimed in that he did nothing wrong saying his only regret was his decision to resign Perhaps the shift from Biden to Trump voters from to in various immigrant and communities of color in NYC convinced Cuomo that voters would want a similarly traditional and swaggering man from Queens like Trump to run their city Cuomo has been proven wrong He made mistakes almost every step of the way refusing to meet the press hold society events attend candidate forums and take his opponents seriously While his PAC flooded TV with exaggerated attack ads Mamdani was in the streets meeting and engaging with voters crafting a hopeful message for an affordable New York with clear easy to understand guidelines proposals Cuomo leaned on a tired conservative narrative pushing fear of subways and homeless people and painting New York City as a lawless and terrifying place Related N Y Dems Face Choice Between Voters Chosen Candidate and Disgraced Adams Cuomo Cuomo and his countless Democratic operatives and billionaire funders failed to realize the long memory and activation of so a multitude of progressive New Yorkers especially members of the New York City DSA and Working Families Party Perhaps he hoped that largest part people would forget the details of his scandals The hundreds of people energized by his collusion with the IDC would not nor would feminist and physical condition care activists furious about his abuse of women and nursing home patients The existing mobilized and well-connected networks of anti-Cuomo activists made sure that as numerous New Yorkers as viable would not forget The Don t Rank Cuomo coalition used the city s ranked-choice voting system to urge voters to exclude Cuomo from their ballots Combined with Mamdani s strategy of cross-endorsing other candidates such as Brad Lander and Michael Blake this amplified the anti-Cuomo message and made his opponents seem cooperative and effective While Mamdani ran a historic campaign and is certainly a uniquely charismatic and talented candidate the work of existing progressive and socialists activists on the ground fighting Cuomo for years came together to erode the former governor s advantage All of this led to Mamdani s success on June The post Zohran Can Happen Anywhere But Having an Opponent Like Cuomo Helps appeared first on The Intercept