Poll: Zohran Mamdani's policies are popular with Americans outside New York -- even if Mamdani is not

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

On July 1, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York state assemblyman from Queens, upset former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor, instantly making him the frontrunner to win the general election in November.

Mamdani’s surprise victory also made him an instant lightning rod for Democrats and Republicans nationwide. Some of the conversation has centered on Mamdani’s identity — he is a Muslim who was born in Uganda to Indian-origin parents — and his pro-Palestinian views. (The New York Times reported last week that Mamdani checked the boxes for “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his application to Columbia University in 2009.)

But perhaps the more interesting debate — or at least the one with wider implications — is whether Mamdani’s unapologetically populist agenda can serve as a blueprint for Democrats elsewhere as they struggle to regain power in the Age of Trump.

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that wouldn’t necessarily be the worst idea.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html

[everyonematters]

1. Mamdani is probably too honest to become a statewide or national politician.

He has stated that he has problems with Israel existing as religious state, even though he still supports it's right to exist. Most politicians would not admit that.

[JI7]

6. Does he say the same about all the Islamic states ?

Does he oppose all the Islamic states being Islamic ?

[everyonematters]

10. The Islamic states aren't allies.

I believe the only one that is established as a religious state is Iran. Although others have freedom of religion issues.

[JI7]

11. We are allies with many of them . We even have military bases

in their countries. And they all have Islam as their religion. There is more freedom on religion Israel than the Islamic countries.

Israel has 25 percent non Jewish population. While the Islamic countries are pretty much all Muslim.

[everyonematters]

12. Our aid to Israel amounts to about 70% of their GNP. We were paramount in it's creation.

We bare more responsibility here.

[JI7]

15. We give lots of money to other nations also. It's pretty lame

excuse as to why one can't say the others shouldn't be Islamic if they think Israel shouldn't be Jewish.

[everyonematters]

17. Mamdani was asked if he supported the existence of Israel; he said yes with a caveat.

If he was asked if he had a problem with other countries regarding religious freedom, I'll bet he would have said yes. So do I.

[yardwork]

13. Saudi Arabia is not a U.S. ally?!

Could have fooled me. Do you remember the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[indusurb]

2. Well duh, his policies have been popular for decades now

Yet the Democrats continue to rebuke them. No wonder they continue to lose. Give the people something to vote for not just vote against.

[W_HAMILTON]

8. Democrats don't rebuke them, but voters do rebuke the Democrats offering them up.

And the Biden administration was the most progressive in decades -- and Kamala ran on a platform that was even more progressive -- yet the "vote against" side prevailed.

Voters like progressive policies -- they just don't like progressives, which is something we progressives need to find ways to fix.

[yardwork]

14. THIS.

[Passages]

3. The NYT doing their best to keep those policies out of reach for New Yorkers who need them.

snip
The Times’s decision to pursue and publish the story was, at the very least, unwise.

For one thing, it came to the Times due to a widespread hack into Columbia’s databases, transmitted to the paper through an intermediary who was given anonymity by the paper. That source turns out to be Jordan Lasker, who – as the Guardian has reported – is a well-known and much criticized “eugenicist”, AKA white supremacist.

Traditional journalism ethics suggests that when news organizations base a story on hacked or stolen information, there should be an extra high bar of newsworthiness to justify publication. Much of Big Journalism, for example, turned their noses up at insider documents offered to them about JD Vance during last year’s presidential campaign, in part because the source was Iranian hackers; in some cases, they wrote about the hack but not the documents.

The Mamdani story, however, fell far short of the newsworthiness bar.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/07/is-the-new-york-times-trying-to-wreck-zohran-mamdanis-mayoral-bid

[Passages]

4. Reality:

“More than 545,000 New Yorkers voted for Zohran Mamdani the most votes any Democratic primary candidate has received in 36 years,” said Lekha Sunder, a spokeswoman for the Mamdani campaign. “In the coming months, Zohran looks forward to growing this coalition and reaching new voters with his vision for an affordable New York City.”

On Monday night, Democratic district leaders in Manhattan met with Mr. Mamdani and then endorsed him for mayor, saying in a post on X, “Democrats supporting Democrats. Groundbreaking.” In an accompanying statement, they said that they supported his vision for a more affordable city.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/nyregion/mamdani-cuomo-adams-democrats.html

[Polybius]

5. He doesn't back down, and right now, he's refusing to delete his middle finger to Columbus from 2020

I couldn't find a non right-wing link, so I won't link anything. However, the Tweet is 100% real.

Link to tweet

[fujiyamasan]

7. I wonder how much of an impact this kind of silly stuff from his past

Will have on the race and how effective it will be for the GOP to “nationalize” this race. There are some other interesting comments he has made that will definitely get coverage too.

As much as Columbus is disliked by some for obvious reasons, he remains a source of pride for Italian Americans, and his name is synonymous with discovery of the new world.

I mean we’re not talking about a confederate statue here. It won’t garner him any additional votes among Italian Americans.

[Polybius]

9. I think Cuomo has a lock on most of the Italian-American vote

He remains pretty popular with us. Heck, before the scandals, his popularity was through the roof.

[lees1975]

16. Democrats are having a real hard time realizing that their status quo, old school politics are out with most of its

constituents. And that someone like Mamdami can come along and beat one of their mainstream old line old schoolers in New York City.

Look at his agenda, look at what he is supporting, and look at the way he's gone about his campaign. This is how Democrats can win. Ignore it, criticize it or go off mad, and that's a set up for another defeat in 2026.