Consortium News: 26-06-2025,
Zohran Mamdani’s Zionist antagonists tried to turn his Muslim identity and pro-Palestine politics into a liability, writes Corinna Barnard. So far, it hasn’t worked.
Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in Bryant Park, Oct. 27, 2024. (Bingjiefu He/Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 4.0)
By Corinna G. Barnard
Special to Consortium News
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Muslim member of the New York State Assembly who won the city’s Democratic mayoral nomination on Tuesday, is winning widespread attention for his people-versus-power victory over Andrew Cuomo, the politically damaged former governor of New York.
Cuomo, who was forced to resign from office in 2021 while facing sex-harassment allegations, had an enormous financial advantage. Forbes estimates Mamdani’s total personal wealth at $200,000, 50 times less than Cuomo’s $10 million. Cuomo, whose tenure as governor included a coverup of Covid-19 deaths at nursing homes, was backed by a $25 million super PAC. Mamdani’s campaign was subject to an $8 million spending cap for the primary.
Mamdani’s emphasis on affordability, with his passionate tributes to working-class heroes and heroines who deliver essential services and work the night shifts in the city that never sleeps, seems like an obvious recipe for political success, given New York’s stifling affordability crisis.
As such, the Mamdani-Cuomo face-off was widely viewed as a weather vane on which way the Dems should go — move progressive and restore a focus on working-class issues,