By Mohamed Harees –

Lukman Harees

“When an underdog wins, they win for everybody, because somebody gotta come through that door and break it open and make it possible” ~ Saint Jhn

“This is truly an earthquake in American politics,” said Krystal Ball, a leftist commentator and co-host of the popular online show Breaking Points. “I genuinely see it as a blueprint for the future: a relentless focus on affordability, a relentless focus on material politics.”

An obscure young Muslim socialist state legislator aged 34, ran an upbeat, issues-oriented campaign and leapt over the many obstacles to change and reform posed by New York City’s byzantine political system. Despite strong opposition, and an extraordinary deployment of attack ads and oppo research by a coalition of opponents that stretched from the city’s Democratic Establishment to the Trump White House, Mamdani has failed to self-destruct as many expected.

It’s a rise that’s been nothing short of meteoric. Many months ago, few residents knew his name. This gives some idea of the scale of his achievement. The numbers didn’t deter him. He was virtually unknown at the start of the race,  with polls predicting 1%, versus disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s 33%, but on June 24, Mamdani won the Democratic primary decisively, garnering the most votes of any candidate in New York City primary history.  He won not by algorithmic magic but by talking to a diverse group of New Yorkers — “which should not be underestimated.” As noted by The New York Times, Cuomo ran a campaign limited to churches, synagogues and labour union meetings in front of sympathetic audiences. He resigned as governor in 2021 following allegations of sexual harassment. That same year, Mamdani went on a 15-day hunger strike in front of City Hall in solidarity with taxi drivers who were heavily in debt.

On Nov. 4, Zohran Mamdani is tipped to be elected the first South Asian Muslim mayor of America’s largest city. If the latest polls are any indicator with the latest 25-point lead over Cuomo, it’s a 92% certainty. The very real prospect of a Mamdani victory has captivated the country and energized many progressives on the one hand while shocking and infuriating the racist and Islamophobic lobby. It underscored the central idea behind democracy: voters speaking, mobilizing and choosing — even if the odds are stacked.

Driven by a relentless focus on affordability agenda in New York with an exceptional ability to communicate, Mamdani listened to the grassroot views, and eventually built a passionate group of 90,000 mostly young volunteers. The young felt that ‘Mamdani is for the people, he’s real and what the new generation needs. It’s time for the old generation to pass the torch.’ Throughout his campaign, Mamdani has pledged to freeze rents on the apartments the city has some control over, make all buses free, make childcare free, and introduce cheap, city-run grocery stores. It is an agenda focused almost entirely on affordability. He aims, if elected, to make America’s most expensive city at least a little more tolerable for the working class. His campaign thus resonated with American working-class concerns, especially those of immigrants. His Democrat-socialist policies, disparagingly labelled “Leftist” by his detractors, struck a chord with youth and first-time voters in New York.

If Mamdani is elected, as the youngest mayor in a century, the challenges ahead will be daunting , commanding the largest police force and education department in the US, and responsible for a municipal budget that exceeds $115bn. Mamdani’s sudden success has riveted Democratic strategists around the country who see his brand of economic populism and attacks on billionaires and wealthy campaign donors as a potential road map to victory in the 2026 midterm elections.

Mamdani’s radical positions have shaken up the status quo in the U.S. and also rattled politicians across the board. Trump labelled him a “100% Communist Lunatic.” When Mamdani said he wouldn’t allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in New York should he become mayor, Trump threatened to deport him. “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him,” he said. “Look, we don’t need a communist in this country …”. Mamdani hit back at Trump, stating he would “not be intimidated.” He cautioned voters that Trump was trying to divert attention away from the core issue that mattered to New Yorkers — affordable living in the city.

Mamdani’s candidacy also triggered incredible resistance from across the political spectrum all over the country, including the media. Even the Democratic Party establishment, sought to derail his campaign even as popular support among New Yorkers continues to grow. His campaign triggered bipartisan panic, anti-Muslim racism and a full-scale attempt to obstruct his candidacy at every level. Mamdani’s views on Israel — consistent with international law and the human-rights consensus — have been treated as controversial and explosive.

From the start, the media and moneyed class have been suspicious of Mamdani’s rise, acting as gatekeepers’ intent on keeping him out of power. The business elite of New York reviled him. He is up against the reality that no mayoral candidate has won, in the known recent past without significant backing from the real-estate developers, financiers and tech executives, who have been determining the course of governance in New York. They are worried their money doesn’t seem to matter anymore as was before.

No group has railed harder against Mamdani than the billionaires who have poured millions of dollars into stopping his meteoric rise. A recent analysis by Forbes found that 26 billionaires and members of billion-dollar families across the country have spent more than $22 million into defeating Mamdani through mailers, ads and other opposition messaging. It exposed the emptiness of American democracy; if it doesn’t suit the elite and moneyed class, media gatekeepers and bipartisan power structures, they will gang together swiftly to contain it, irrespective of how the voters’ trends are. Business elites thus are panicking about a socialist takeover, while Israel hawks aghast at a ‘radical’ like him in their view, reaching the City Hall – could only fume.

For a political class deeply invested in maintaining the status quo, a Muslim mayor who speaks plainly about human rights represents not a threat to Jews, but to power itself. New York has never elected a Muslim mayor, nor one of South Asian descent, and being a Muslim, and a pro-Palestine seeking to win in the large-scale election in America’s most Jewish city, repeatedly being accused by his opponents of hating Jews and promoting non-violent boycotts and sanctions of Israel, evidently looks a disadvantage. His charge that Israel committed genocide in Gaza may have angered some conservative segments of the Jewish electorate. Television and digital ads hammered him repeatedly, and it appeared, for a moment at least, that he might be sunk. But left-leaning Jews, horrified by Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, stuck with him.    

How did he break through? In his own words,“You have to speak in a language everyone can understand and see themselves in, and you also have to speak to the struggles that people are living through and the ones that dominate their day-to-day lives”. “Politics should be about transformation, not transaction,” he said, emphasizing his belief that grassroots movements, not corporate donors, are the true engines of democracy. Public reaction to Mamdani’s remarks has been overwhelmingly positive among younger voters and progressives who see him as part of a new wave of leaders unafraid to challenge entrenched power.

Mamdani has shown he’s a deft campaigner who can command the attention of an electorate distracted by the stuff of New York life — subway delays, the latest Mets or Yankees drama, the controversy du jour engulfing Mayor Eric Adams. With an ever-present smile and snappy social media videos, Mamdani offers supporters despondent over Trump a form of political Prozac, an opportunity to repudiate what they see as the president’s anti-urban and anti-immigrant agenda. He  has retreated from past calls to defund the police and his descriptions of the department as “racist, anti-queer.”

People are backing him because they feel the powers that be ,can’t control him. He’s not big business. He’s not going to go towards Trump. He wants to make things affordable. Even if he can’t, at least he wants to try. They are all thirsting for someone who is not beholden to moneyed interests. To them, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Mamdani has also mastered the use of social media, enamouring him to younger voters. In January, he dramatized his pledge to freeze rents by diving into the icy waters off Coney Island in his suit and tie, a moment captured in a TikTok video that drew more than a million views. His video about what he called “halalflation” — how the city’s permitting process was driving up prices at carts selling food conforming to Islamic dietary laws — attracted another million clicks.

The meteoric rise of the democratic socialist Mamdani has strengthened the sense that US politics is becoming ever more ideologically polarized. Given the fecklessness of centrist Democrats, Mamdani looks set to become the standard bearer of national left opposition to Donald Trump—a role he seemed eager to play when he addressed Trump directly during a recent appearance on Fox News.

Elections stand for more than the names on the ballots. Cuomo versus Mamdani was a clash between capitalism and democratic socialism, Boomers versus Gen Z, name recognition against rizz. Yes, “rizz.” Google it. For marketing leaders, many of whom probably only started paying attention to the race after Mamdani’s stunning, decisive primary victory, this contest might mean something else entirely. This was paid media versus earned media. For all the city, and eventually the country, to see. It’s impossible to say what Mamdani’s political future will be, but his communications strategies will endure long after the campaign wraps. His earned media playbook is built for our modern media realities. Brands should take note. Critics say “through his campaign and what he can achieve as mayor, Zohran can show how big ideas aren’t just for progressives but the overwhelmingly amount of people.”

Mamdani’s rise signals a larger shift in the nation’s political landscape, one defined by activists moving from protest lines to policymaking tables. His story resonates with a generation disillusioned by traditional politics but hungry for purpose-driven leadership. His campaign seems to be about more than a single election. It’s about testing whether the left can build real power inside a party that has often treated it as a fringe nuisance. It’s also about building new centres of power in a country overtaken by conservatism. The ripples of Tuesday 4^th Nov night will be felt not just in New York, but in the whole country, and maybe even the world.  Regardless of the outcome, Mamdani’s campaign is already reshaping the political conversation. His ability to command media attention, fundraise through small donors, and mobilize volunteers at scale demonstrates the growing power of a new political generation.