Democratic Voters Want Their Leaders to Stop Running From Zohran Mamdani

[USS_Dauntless]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/zohran-mamdani-new-york-city-mayor-bernie-sanders-fight-oligarchy/

Zohran Mamdani hadn’t been Regina Weiss’ first choice for mayor of New York City. She’d ranked city comptroller Brad Lander number-one on her primary ballot in June, and told me she wished that the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state assemblymember brought a bit more experience to the job. But Weiss, who volunteers with Indivisible, was happily supporting the Democratic nominee now, and expected to begin canvassing for him soon. What she couldn’t understand, she told me, as she waited for the candidate to take the stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders at the “Fighting Oligarchy” town hall in Brooklyn on Saturday, was why some of the biggest names in her party weren’t doing the same.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/zohran-mamdani-new-york-city-mayor-bernie-sanders-fight-oligarchy/

I wish I lived in NYC just so I could vote for Zohran Mamdani.

[Celerity]

1. K & R

[Gliderguy]

2. Mamdami is the future for all Dems and must be supported

[RussBLib]

7. Welcome to DU!

[stopdiggin]

8. maybe just SLIGHTLY overstated -- perhaps?

Jeeeezz ... !
(overweening also comes to mind .. ? )

[patphil]

3. I don't live in NYC, but do live in the state...about 60 miles north of the city and the west side of the Hudson River.

I think Zohan Mamdani would make a great mayor. Certainly better than most of the people who led that city in my lifetime.

[Hekate]

16. Tone it way, way down. Stop attacking DUers.

[Violet_Crumble]

17. They also missed the bit about not attacking Democratic public figures

They waited all that time to flame out in such a spectacular way. Good riddance

[Lovie777]

4. What crap....

it’s no running, and support.

[leanforward]

5. It's time to change

Let’s look at the ages of those pushing this “creepy” interpretation or lack there of our constitution. I’ve thought for several years that us old guys need to step aside.
BTW, I’m an octogenarian.

[Docreed2003]

6. The excuses, particularly from New York politicians

Have become off putting and infuriating, (looking at you Rep Jeffries and Sen Schumer).

I'm sorry, but the chants of "Vote Blue No Matter Who" are going to ring hollow if the current national leaders of this party, who happen to be New Yorkers, don't line up behind Mamdani.

Yes, this is a "local election", but NYC is the biggest mayoral race nationally. If we, as a party, can't support the nominee, regardless of any excuses made about the primary, I can assure you we will face backlash in the future.

Mamdani's politics may not be applicable everywhere, but he won our party's primary in NYC. If we expect voters to line up and "support blue, no matter who" then we best read the room and get behind him.

Voters, outside of NYC, who are ready to rise up against this current administration are watching. Remember when we used to boast about our "big tent", let's open it up and welcome/support/endorse the message of opposition to Trump, even if it may be more "leftist" to our liking.

[Beartracks]

10. In political tug-of-war, Republican extremists are pulling really hard into fascism. So...

... if Democrats need to pull really hard to the left in some places to bring things back, then by all means do it. Tepid centrism often seems to be kind of a non-starter.

==============

[myohmy2]

13. +1...

...and some wonder why Progressives and others feel the need to look elsewhere on occasion...

...understandable...

[ancianita]

11. To your OP point, just sharing my get-tough email response to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries' solicitation for donations...

"Dear Mr. Jeffries,

Listen to voting Democrats:

1. We Democrats KNOW Brooklyn had the highest voter turnout of all NYC boroughs in the latest mayoral primary.

2. We support our fellow NYC Democratic Party voters.

3. Most important -- you MUST endorse who NYC Democrats voted for -- Zohran Mandani
-- or you are NOT for We-The-People voters as you claim to be.

Finally.
Democratic Voters Want Their Leaders to Stop Running From Zohran Mamdani !

We Democrats will not donate to the Democratic Party until you all, on television or by press conference, endorse Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City!

Regards,
(me)
Retired teacher,
Member of AFT Local #1, Chicago Illinois
Exiled in Florida"

This is to Jeffries, not to DU. Of COURSE I support Democrats.
I just wrote to Jeffries to force him to support Democrats, too.

[ancianita]

15. Wait. You've been on DU over a year, right? You say you're a non-New Yorker and

then "to all you "OUTSIDERS who come after me show you know something about my GD city" ... then you lost me.

I'm just sharing a note about jacking up the party leaders TO VOCALLY SUPPORT both the Democratic voters of NYC who voted for Mamdani AND who they voted for -- Mamdani.
That's all.

You've been a DU member for 15 months and have 11 posts? And THIS is your latest?
Re-litigating the last election? Hope I didn't trigger some bad memories.

Looking at the bigger picture... don't hate on the big tent.
Many of us on DU realize that DU isn't necessarily representative of the rest of the Party's demographics.
But if you're saying a sizable population of Democrats are turning right wing and sexist, maybe post some internal poll data links on that, since it might show something our Party leaders know about registered Democratic voters that we here don't know.

[Ping Tung]

20. Zohran has been endorsed by AOC and Bernie.

I'm a socialist so I like that combination.

[USS_Dauntless]

21. You mean AOC?

[Ping Tung]

23. Thanks. I'm an olld man with bad eyes.

[DFW]

22. The party leadership should indeed get with their nominee unless he is really repulsive, which is far from the case here

The first time I ever voted, I voted Republican, and I am still proud of it, 54 years later. I was living in Philadelphia, and the thoroughly corrupt Democratic city machine nominated the repulsive, corrupt police commissioner, Frank Rizzo for mayor. As a 19 year old Nixon-hating Democrat, I was disgusted, and voted for the Republican candidate, a mild-mannered bureaucrat named Thatcher Longstreth. Rizzo bragged of his admiration for Nixon, and switched to being a Republican soon after he was elected mayor. Rizzo used to carry his Billy club in his cummerbund on formal occasions, in case he came across any anti-war (1971, so Vietnam) protesters, the bashing of whom he encouraged.

I find phrases like "Democratic Socialist" and "Fighting Oligarchy" to be tired sloganeering, but accept that they turn some people on. They are not tenets on which anyone has ever governed, let alone successfully, but Different Strokes for Different Folks.

Unless Mamdani really lets loose with some awful, totally unacceptable utterance, he deserves the chance to run as the primary's outcome chose. Yes, I have read his past statements that will upset some Jewish voters, and not just mildly. But we can't hang every such past utterance around every Democrat's neck like an albatross. As mayor of NYC, he is not going to shut down delicatessens or forbid kosher bakeries, and he is not going to rename Fifth Avenue "Avenue of the Ayatollahs." A mayor of NYC can't do that on his own, anyway. We need to get a grip. If elected, he'll either do well, or he won't, but the party has chosen its standard bearer in this election, and fighting some petty internal war over it will neither improve things, nor change the outcome.