The Nation Interviews Zohran Mamdani

[Celerity]

New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee shares his views on the city’s affordability crisis, the new media landscape—and how Democrats need to stand up for what they believe.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/zohran-mamdani-new-york-democratic-politics/

https://archive.ph/QmYmb



Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary in June made the 33-year-old state legislator from Queens more than just the party’s nominee to lead the nation’s largest city. For a Democratic Party desperate to reclaim political momentum, Mamdani’s laser-like focus on affordability issues offered a clear path forward. The Ugandan-born immigrant who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor also managed to overcome many of the wrenching, personality-based pitfalls of New York politics by projecting an accessible, enthusiastic, and joyful determination to open up conversations and heal past electoral divisions—an approach that starkly contrasts with Donald Trump’s dark vision of an America at odds with the world and with itself. Mamdani still faces a tough November race, with his chief opponent in the primary, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, reentering the contest as a third-party contender alongside the scandal-plagued incumbent, Mayor Eric Adams. Perennial Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden round out the field.

On the day that Mamdani sat down with Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and executive editor John Nichols for one of his first extended post-primary interviews, he had just secured the endorsement of 1199SEIU, the largest healthcare union in the country and a historic force in New York politics. At the same time, he’s still looking to win the support of national Democratic figures—notably heavy hitters from his home state like Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries—who suggest that the proud democratic socialist is too progressive on both domestic and foreign-policy issues.

Seated at a small table in the Little Flower Cafe, an Afghan eatery that he frequents in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria, Mamdani sipped a pink sheer chai and spoke about the inspiration he takes from past New York progressives such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia. He also discussed how he came to highlight affordability as the essential political issue of the moment, the future direction of the Democratic Party, and the legacy of “sewer socialism”—the breakthroughs achieved by socialist municipal governments in the past. Along the way, Mamdani highlighted key challenges for New York governance, such as protecting the city from the depredations of ICE and the vendettas of the Trump White House and navigating relations with the city’s billionaire class. He also spoke about the punishing media landscape and his efforts to address “a caricature of myself that is a responsibility for me to correct,” as well as his earnest hope—in a time of so much cynicism and despair—that democracy might finally deliver for working people. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Nation: In your victory speech on primary night, you quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt, telling the crowd: “As FDR said, ‘Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people dislike democracy but because they have grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and weakness…. In desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat.’ New York, if we have made one thing clear over these past months, it is that we need not choose between the two.” How did you come to adopt that quote and to link it to your governing vision?

Mamdani: ........

snip

[Emile]

1. Obama sees an upcoming democratic star.

[Nanjeanne]

2. Thanks for posting this fabulous interview. I'd read it a while ago but never got around to linking here.

The Nation: Might your administration include City Comptroller Brad Lander, one of your closest primary rivals, as deputy mayor or in some other key position?

Mamdani: I have yet to make any personnel commitments. But I would say that it has been a joy to run alongside Brad and to work alongside him, and to see his leadership as both a colleague for years prior but also amidst this race, in showcasing what a new kind of politics can be. I know that many others felt the same. At a moment when the language of politics is so dour and so dark, it’s important to understand that the tonic to the darkness is not imitating it, but rather to marshal the same lightness and joy that also characterizes our lives.

Mamdani: It has often felt as if we in the Democratic Party are embarrassed by some of our convictions—that at the first sign of resistance, we may back away. And what I have found as a New Yorker is that the thing New Yorkers hate more than a politician they disagree with is one that they can’t trust. And so I have run a campaign that is unabashed about its commitments, its principles, its values—while always ensuring that that lack of apology never translates into a condescension, but rather a sincerity. It allows for an honest debate with New Yorkers, where even when I go and speak to hundreds of CEOs, we have a conversation all in the knowledge that my fiscal policy, as I state it in that room, is the same as I state it on the street: a desire to match the top corporate tax rate of New York to that of the top corporate tax rate of New Jersey, a desire to increase personal income taxes on the top 1 percent of New Yorkers by 2 percent. It’s an honest desire, and it is also one that doesn’t preclude me from sharing it with those who may be taxed by it.

There is a temptation, when you see how successful Republicans have been with their style of politics, to believe that we have to mimic it in order to compete with them. In fact, it is a challenge for us to showcase our alternate vision. It’s not just a vision with regard to commitments, it’s not just a vision with regard to ideals, but it comes across even with regard to the manner in which we share our politics with others. And I think sincerity is at the heart of that.

The Nation: Yet you met recently with leaders of the business community—some of whom are billionaires. As mayor, how are you going to navigate relations with the business community?

Mamdani: First, by showing that I see them as a part of this city, and that my vision for the city includes even the same corporations that I’m looking to increase taxes on. I know no matter what our disagreements are, there’s a shared interest in the success of this city.

There are points of disagreement, no doubt. But also, I enter into those rooms [for meetings with business leaders] having been preceded by a caricature of myself that it is a responsibility for me to correct. I do not blame many New Yorkers for having that caricature, for they were subject to more than $30 million in television commercials, mailers, and radio hits with those very examples of smear and slander. I, too, would have questions if that was the only way I understood someone. I also go into those meetings making clear that, though we may—and likely, for many, will—leave with the same disagreements about fiscal policy and the tools we must use to deliver that affordability, agreement on those issues is not the basis by which I will determine who I’m willing to speak to about other issues. There are many conversations I’ve had that begin and end with disagreement about that fiscal policy, but also include shared areas of interest with regard to our parks or our streetscape, or thoughts of what this city could be. That is why I speak so often of partnership. Politics, to me, must be an act of making the principle into the possible. And you do so by extending your hand to all who are interested, not all who agree on every single idea that you have.

Just so many examples of what a great communicator this man is. It’s not just that he is smart, charismatic and funny. He is a bold thinker with also a great understanding of what it means to always engage.

[Emile]

4. +1

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

[cliffside]

5. Thanks, bookmarking for later. nt

[iemanja]

6. K & R

[Incanus]

7. Excellent article! Zohran Mamdani was also on the cover of Time this week.

It’s not easy to move around New York City as Zohran Mamdani anymore.

Like when the 33-year-old Democratic nominee for mayor leaves a union meeting to walk to his Manhattan campaign office, as he did one Monday morning in July. Within a block, a phone–wielding crowd forms and follows. “Oh my God, hello,” someone blurts. People clap. Cars honk. Traffic down Fifth Avenue comes to a standstill as a plumber’s van stops and a guy hops out to shake Mamdani’s hand. There is some heckling. “Antisemitic!” someone shouts. But mostly it is star treatment, in multiple languages and from all generations.

All this is new: the adulation, the notoriety, the xenophobic death threats that have prompted an entourage of men with spaghetti earpieces. Before 2025, basically no one knew who Mamdani was. Over the course of eight months, the democratic socialist and backbench state assemblyman went from local long shot to likely mayor of America’s biggest city. Suddenly he is a main character in national politics—the ubiquitous subject of cable news segments, a lightning rod on the left and right. Senior Democrats have weighed in for and against him. President Donald Trump has pioneered a dark new birtherism by questioning his immigration status and floating his possible arrest. (Mamdani, who would be the city’s first South Asian and Muslim mayor, was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018.) To many progressives, his style of politics—principled, pocketbook-focused, and online—was an electrifying answer for a moribund party.

https://time.com/7308924/zohran-mamdani-interview-time/