
After a stunning NYC primary, national Democrats try to embrace Zohran Mamdani’s energy, if not always his ideas
CNN
After a stunning NYC primary, Democrats try to embrace Zohran Mamdani’s energy if not always his ideas
New Yorkers aren’t the only ones trying to wrap their heads around Zohran Mamdani. Democratic Party operatives and elected officials around the country are both flabbergasted and inspired by the 33-year-old democratic socialist’s stunning success in Tuesday’s mayoral primary. In text chains and private conversations, they are scouring election precinct data from parts of Queens and the Bronx some had never heard of before and trying to understand how Mamdani might affect races all over the country. Mamdani, a three-term state assemblyman, is poised to win pending a ranked-choice tally after his top rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded the race Tuesday. Many Democrats on Wednesday publicly embraced the enthusiasm Mamdani generated with younger voters by focusing on the affordability crisis gripping New York and many other places across the country. They also tried to avoid associating too closely with Mamdani proposals like freezing rent or opening government-run grocery stores that they think could get easily caricatured. “Running a city myself, I’m not sure all those ideas are actionable and practical in the way they sound on a TikTok video, but that aside, he met people, he listened to people,” said Paige Cognetti, mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning, weeks after she romped in her own primary against her own city Democratic Party chair. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York City natives who lead their parties’ caucuses in each chamber of Congress, quickly issued statements saying they had spoken to Mamdani and praising the campaign he ran. They stopped short of endorsing him.













