Why establishment Democrats still can’t stomach progressive candidates like Zohran Mamdani | Arwa Mahdawi
www.theguardian.com
The anti-Mamdani mobilization is depressingly predictable, with a party that is allergic to fresh blood and new thinking

Who’s afraid of Zohran Mamdani? The answer, it would seem, is the entire establishment. The 33-year-old democratic socialist and New York City mayoral candidate has surged in the polls in recent weeks, netting endorsements not just from progressive voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders but also his fellow candidates for the mayoralty, with Brad Lander and Michael Blake taking advantage of the ranked-choice voting system in the primary and cross-endorsing Mamdani’s campaign.

With the primary just around the corner, polls have Mamdani closing the gap on Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York. This has spooked the establishment, which is now doing everything it can to stop Mamdani’s rise.

Take Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed Cuomo earlier this month and followed this up with a $5m donation to a pro-Cuomo Pac. The largesse appears motivated not by admiration for Cuomo – during his mayoralty, sources told the New York Times that Bloomberg saw Cuomo as “the epitome of the self-interested, horse-trading political culture he has long stood against” – but animosity towards Mamdani and his policies.

Mamdani wants to increase taxes on residents earning more than $1m a year, increase corporate taxes and freeze rents: policies that aren’t exactly popular with the billionaire set.

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
    21·
    8 hours ago

    Or do like Bernie does. Every Senate campaign I believe he runs as a democrat and after he wins the primary he switches to Independent.

    Although now I’m looking it up he may have stayed democrat this last round since he was given the chairman of the labor committee in the senate

    Nope, even “when he served as chairman of committees like the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he did so while being an independent who caucused with the Democrats.” (Google ai answer)

    • Rodneyck@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      8 hours ago

      Yes, he usually runs as a democrat and then once he wins, switches to independent, which makes sense to, I guess, abide by DNC rules and such. Won in 2024 senate race running as a dem. Currently, he is listed on Ballot Pedia as an independent, so once again, he switched it.