Mamdani and the left’s biggest stars unite before a sea of supporters
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
By LISA LERER
Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez united Sunday for a huge rally in Queens, casting Mamdani’s once unlikely candidacy for mayor of New York City as a powerful step forward in the Democratic efforts to push back on President Donald Trump.
With early voting underway this past weekend, Sanders described a win by Mamdani, a Democrat, as Trump’s “worst nightmare.” Ocasio-Cortez promised that there “will be a day after” the Trump administration.
And Mamdani, speaking to a stadium of cheering supporters in Queens, said he would build a city that would offer a rebuke to the Trump agenda.
“While Donald Trump’s billionaires think they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses,” he said. “Let us win a City Hall that works for those straining to buy groceries, not those straining to buy our democracy.”
For Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani and their democratic socialist allies, it was a moment that felt like stepping into power, a time when Sanders predicted victories for the liberal candidates from “California to Maine.”
The event drew a crowd more typical of a national race than a municipal one, with the 13,000-seat stadium nearly filled. Supporters cheered speeches from Democratic officials, rousing calls to action from liberal clergy and the chants of a self-described resistance chorus.
Ocasio-Cortez said a victory by Mamdani in New York City — the biggest city in the nation and the center of the financial world — would not only send a message of defiance to Trump but bolster their brand of progressive populist politics across the country.
“We set the bar for America and I’m talking to you, Donald Trump,” she said. “There has been a day before his presidency and there will be a day after, and it belongs to us.”
They were also joined by a trifecta of New York power brokers — Gov. Kathy Hochul; Carl Heastie, the Assembly speaker; and Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader — who received a tepid response from the crowd.
As Hochul spoke, the crowd broke into a chant of “tax the rich” — a reference to proposals championed by the new mayor and opposed by the moderate Democratic governor — nearly heckling her off the stage. “I can hear you,” responded Hochul, trying to calm the crowd.
Mamdani emerged on the stage to join Hochul and the other state leaders, clasping the governor’s hand and thrusting their arms upward in partnership, cushioning the blowback and allowing her to walk off to some applause.
But as the stars of the liberal world reveled in the moment, they were contemplating what awaits after the Nov. 4 election, if they win, when Mamdani and his movement will face a far tougher challenge than even a long-shot campaign: running the largest city in America and proving to the political world that their agenda can be replicated across the country.
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and their democratic socialist allies in elected office have crafted legislation, pushed Democratic policy to the left and periodically driven the national political conversation. But their movement has never captured an executive position with as much power as the mayor of New York City.
“The stakes are high for the movement and for democratic socialists in general,” said Julia Salazar, a democratic socialist state senator in New York, who spoke at the rally. “It’s certainly consequential politically but also consequential in a material way for millions of people.”
In other cities, democratic socialists have found their goals stymied by the same forces that impede many politicians, such as a finite budget, difficulty building alliances and government dysfunction.
If elected, Mamdani will assume the mayoralty having set an extraordinarily high standard for his own success. His meteoric rise through the race has been fueled by a promise to make the city more affordable through four signature policy proposals. He has promised universal child care, free buses, city-owned grocery stores and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments.
At his rally in Queens, those promises were a central part of the pitch from all three main speakers, printed on a banner positioned right behind them.
But voters are likely to assess his performance on rather prosaic concerns, including trash, crime, schools and, of course, rats.
“In local government, the people hold you accountable for everything from picking up the trash, for crime problems, for the quality of education their kids receive for traffic jams — blame the mayor,” Sanders told the crowd, recalling his own experience as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. “That’s what mayors have to deal with, and it is not easy.”
Since winning the nomination, Mamdani has made a conspicuous effort to expand his appeal. He has shed some liberal positions he held in the past, promised to apologize for comments calling the Police Department racist and announced that he intended to ask Jessica Tisch, the billionaire heiress appointed by Mayor Eric Adams who has pushed for stricter criminal justice laws, to stay on as police commissioner.
He has also distanced himself from specific policy goals of the democratic socialist movement, differentiating his platform from the group’s national agenda.
“I am both a democratic socialist and I’m also a Democrat,” he told The New York Times. “One is a description of my political ideology, the other is a description of the party that I belong to.”
But even as he stands on the precipice of running the nation’s financial center, he is not shrinking from his roots in democratic socialist and left-wing organizing — a point made obvious by his late-stage appearance with the biggest stars of the progressive left.
Their support is a homecoming of sorts for Mamdani, who has described Sanders as “the single most influential political figure in my life.” His 2016 presidential run inspired Mamdani to formally join the Democratic Socialists of America.
Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have thrown their political might behind Mamdani’s bid, headlining splashy campaign rallies and hosting private meetings to advise him on campaign strategy. In an interview with the Times last month, Sanders called Mamdani and the political energy he had inspired “the future of the Democratic Party.”
Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the House Progressive Caucus, noted that some of the proposals being pushed by Mamdani had been implemented in other cities, including in his own district, which includes Austin and San Antonio.
But those plans have not received the same level of scrutiny as Mamdani is likely to face.
“New York City is New York City,” said Casar, who has spoken with Mamdani about his campaign and policy agenda. “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.”