A Surprising Aspect of Mamdani’s Victory

One of the more surprising aspects of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City? The racial demographics of his supporters resembled President Trump’s voters from 2024. “Mamdani won majority-black precincts by 26 percentage points, majority Hispanic by 20 percentage points, and majority Asian by 4 percentage points,” Renu Mukherjee observes. “Similarly, Trump owed his reelection last year in large part to historic gains among nonwhite Americans.” In New York, Trump’s support among majority black and Hispanic areas grew by 46 percent and 55 percent, respectively, from 2020.

Read more about how Mamdani won these groups’ support, and what Democrats and Republicans can learn from it.

Last week, New York City voters passed charter amendments that will shift zoning powers from the city council to the mayor, indicating their support for new housing development.

Interestingly, those who voted in favor of the amendments also voted for Zohran Mamdani, while those who voted against overlapped with Trump supporters in 2024. It wasn’t long ago that the governing Democratic political class opposed more housing in affluent areas.

“The results reflect the dwindling political clout of the small-homeowner coalition that once bolstered Mayors Edward Koch, Rudolph Giuliani, and Michael Bloomberg,” Eric Kober writes. “Its waning voting power reflects the substantially increased population in areas of Northern Brooklyn and western Queens rezoned in the Giuliani and Bloomberg years.”

Read his analysis.

University of Massachusetts Boston Professor Vincent J. Cannato got a sense early on that a mainstream liberal Democrat like former governor Andrew Cuomo would struggle in New York City’s mayoral election. The two spoke before Cuomo announced his candidacy.

“Cuomo balked at running as any kind of ‘moderate,’ instead repeatedly returning to the idea of fashioning himself as an anti-woke liberal or progressive,” Cannato writes. “He did not realize that this path was becoming increasingly narrow in New York.”

Indeed, if mainstream liberal Democrats want to win elections, they need to deliver common-sense pragmatism. Read more about the lessons they can learn from Cuomo’s defeat.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has published a new book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy. “The book’s purported intention is to argue for public schools’ crucial role in our democratic society,” Danyela Souza Egorov writes. “But it offers little in the way of education policy or ideas that would truly benefit teachers and students.”

Instead, Weingarten remains focused on attacking her political opponents and supporters of school choice while attempting to rehabilitate her image. Read Egorov’s review.

Stephen Eide joins Brian Anderson to discuss “Scandinavia on the Hudson,” his story from City Journal’s Autumn 2025 issue.

“‘Progressive’ Democrats use the ‘slow march’ strategy. Since they have almost total control of public and university education, they indoctrinate all youths with constant ‘progressive’ propaganda, reward those who drink the Kool-Aid, and punish the few who don’t. And they import millions of Third Worlders to keep boosting their numbers. As a result, Blue States and cities almost never revert to Red, and Red States become Bluer and Bluer. Mamdani is indeed the future of NYC and Blue America.”

Photo credits: ANGELINA KATSANIS / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images