What Can Zohran Mamdani Do?

The Democratic nominee’s big-ticket priorities are possible — with a little help from his friends.

With a couple of days of early voting to go before Election Day in New York City, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has maintained a significant lead in the polls over his main competitor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, months after Mamdani’s generational upset over Cuomo in the Democratic primary.

To hear the candidate tell it, that advantage is thanks to one thing: Mamdani’s policy platform, which is laser-focused on making the city affordable for working people.

The three-term state assemblyman and democratic socialist has a stacked to-do list that includes freezing the rent on 1 million apartments, making buses fast and free, establishing universal child care, creating a network of five city-owned grocery stores, and spending billions of dollars to build rent-stabilized housing.

“He’s focused on affordability, and he probably has one of the most expansive services agendas that we’ve seen in decades,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit think tank.

Mamdani knows it’s an ambitious list.