University of Kwazulu-Natal

Why Zohran Mamdani S Win Matters And Why It Doesn T

Bonisiwe Shabane
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why zohran mamdani s win matters and why it doesn t

Author’s Note: I’ve written this commentary in response to the wave of incendiary, often bigoted attacks that followed Zohran Mamdani’s recent primary win in New York. The vitriol—much of it rooted in Islamophobia and political fear-mongering—feels eerily reminiscent of the Trumpian playbook. But what has struck me most is the Democratic Party’s ambivalence in defending one of its own, and the escalating hostility from the right wing. This moment demands moral clarity—and the courage to stand by our principles when it counts most. There are moments in politics that transcend the local, cutting through the noise like a lightning bolt. The victory of New York City State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary isn’t just a political surprise—it may be a cultural reckoning, an identity litmus test, and a wake-up call to...

The backlash has been as swift as it is predictable. A Muslim elected official who openly calls Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide has drawn the ire of pro-Israel hardliners, segments of the Jewish community, and right-wing ideologues looking to score points in the... He’s been called a radical, a threat, even un-American. Let’s not sugarcoat this: much of the rhetoric being hurled Mamdani’s way is bigoted, dangerous, and eerily familiar. If you’ve paid any attention to Donald Trump’s modus operandi—vilifying immigrants, targeting journalists, and dehumanizing dissenters—you’ve seen this playbook before. What’s frightening is not just that the right is using it again, but that the center and segments of the Democratic establishment are either silent, equivocal, or—worse—complicit.

That’s the real danger here. Because if Democrats can’t find the moral clarity to defend one of their own against a smear campaign rooted in Islamophobia and xenophobia, they’re not just shooting themselves in the foot. They’re abandoning the very values they claim to champion. November 4, 2025 will be remembered as the day Wall Street elected a socialist mayor. Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, winning more votes than any mayoral candidate since 1965—including a majority in the Financial District. It’s easy to dismiss Mamdani’s victory as a one-off in an overwhelmingly liberal city.

His main opponent, Andrew Cuomo, was a deeply flawed candidate–responsible for disastrous COVID policy that killed 12,000 nursing home patients and credibly accused of sexually harassing 13 women. Mamdani, telegenic and energetic, hammered both points mercilessly. Cuomo, by contrast, ran a lethargic and late campaign. To boot, withdrawn candidates like current mayor Eric Adams still appeared on the ballot, further confusing the antisocialist vote. But Mamdani’s victory is certainly far more than that. For it proves that Millennial American elites are willing to vote for—indeed, even to spearhead—socialism.

To understand Mamdani’s victory, you must first grasp the role of the city, the polis. New York has flown three flags in its history: Dutch, English, and now American. It existed before America, and will continue to exist when we become a space-faring civilization. Since time immemorial, cities have been important because they attract important people. Two thousand years ago, though much of the Roman Empire was farmland, you could visit the City of the Seven Hills and see civilization—roads and rhetoric, the monuments to mere subsistence transcended. Cities, then as now, are where politics come to life, where man’s future is decided.

Why, then, does New York City matter? This century belongs to the Pacific, not the Atlantic; both San Francisco and Shenzhen stand to play a much bigger role in the affairs of man than New York. But the Empire City remains home to America's elite class (outside technology and perhaps politics), and this makes it worthwhile to study. Vox’s Astead Herndon explains why Zohran Mamdani’s win matters for Democrats. Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday, defeating disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa to become the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor in the city’s history.

To unpack what Mamdani’s win means, I turned to my colleague Astead Herndon, who was on the ground reporting from an election night watch party for Mamdani. (You may have seen his big Mamdani profile in New York Times Magazine last month.) Astead and I talked about what he’s learned reporting on Mamdani’s campaign, how Mamdani got here, and what his victory means on the national stage, for Vox’s daily newsletter, Today, Explained. Our conversation is below, and you can sign up for the newsletter here for more conversations like this. Zohran Mamdani just won the NYC mayoral race. Why should people outside New York be invested in this?

I think that this represents an expansion of the progressive playbook that Bernie Sanders wrote for Democrats in his presidential campaigns. Mamdani has successfully modeled how to create a left-liberal coalition among the Democratic electorate, and he’s also modeled how to reach people beyond the ideological spectrum by bringing newer, and particularly younger, voters into...

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