Mamdani and the promise of those below against those above

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT TO NEW YORKZohran Mamdani is the candidate of the improbable. In a matter of months, he has gone from being a complete unknown in the Queens neighborhood to one of the Democratic Party's rising stars; he has managed to become mayor of the financial capital of the world despite being a socialist and is the first Muslim to govern New York City. His rise has forced both Donald Trump and Elon Musk to support his rival, former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, rather than the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani is the candidate of the improbable made possible, and for that very reason, he has become a ray of light in an increasingly dark United States under the president's authoritarian tendencies. He is the promise of the people against the elite, and his credibility lies not only in his promise to make New York more livable for the middle and working classes, increasingly burdened by the price of rent. The meetings of the major real estate magnates to finance Cuomo and Trump's demonization They are another guarantor of the interests that Mamdani represents.

"A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani. Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really don't have a choice. You have to vote for him and hope he does a fantastic job," Trump wrote on Truth Social the day before the election. And he threatened New Yorkers with completely cutting off federal funding to the city if "a communist like Mamdani" wins.

In the hours before the polls opened, social media was flooded with posts from Trump supporters and far-right accounts against Mamdani, as if he were some kind of cataclysm for New York. On an internet where the algorithm of certain platforms, like X, is increasingly biased in favor of extremist positions, Mamdani has made his way into the mainstream. The millennial candidate The 34-year-old proved he didn't need media attention to build a grassroots campaign using memes and references familiar to most young people.

Young rapper, son of immigrants

Mr. Cardamom (the stage name of a post-adolescent Mamdani who rapped) has skillfully used social media humor and built his base with the support of many young people who polls portray as increasingly conservative. His choice of stage name already reflected the strong presence of his Indian heritage in his identity. Mamdani is the son of political scientist Mahmood Mamdani, and his mother, Mira Nair, is an Oscar-nominated film director. The couple lived in Uganda, where Mamdani was born, and moved to New York when he was seven. The Democratic candidate knows firsthand the reality of the immigrants who have built the United States. A few months ago, he accompanied his father to a New York courthouse so he could take the citizenship exam. The mayoral candidate, who still had to win the primaries, waited anxiously for his father to leave the building, aware of the racial profiling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often conducts at the courthouse. A self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Mamdani has become a thorn in the side of the city's wealthy and powerful elite with his proposals focused on making the city accessible to its residents, especially the middle and working classes. Some of his campaign promises include implementing free buses, freezing rents, and establishing city-owned supermarkets. He has also openly condemned Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The Democratic candidate's rhetoric is also strongly reminiscent of the message of hope that propelled Barack Obama to the US presidency in 2009. On Monday, at the campaign's closing rally, Mamdani crossed the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn to City Hall with a message from the city that they so desperately need.

The most left-leaning soul

Mamdani embodies the most left-leaning soul within the Democratic Party, and his victory in the June primaries has already raised several eyebrows among the establishment. of the party. His proposals, such as freezing rents and providing free buses, as well as his openly pro-Palestinian stance, have distanced him from a large part of the party. The Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has not supported him.

But the reality is that one of the most remarkable aspects of Mamdani's campaign, and one that speaks volumes about his political acumen, is how, since winning the primaries, he has modulated his approach. The essence is the same, but the axis from which the discourse is framed has shifted: he talks more about helping renters and less about punishing landlords; he wants to strengthen public education, not harm private education; he is openly pro-Palestinian, but he doesn't speak of anti-Zionism. Furthermore, all these months he has been meeting with local leaders, and especially with those who have criticized him—from pro-Israel activists to billionaires—for listening to them.