Election Day in NYC - Zohran, Cuomo and the Democratic Party

This isn't justabout New York City. It's about whether Democrats have given up on having a vision at all.

Today is election day in New York City.

And Democrats are about to show us exactly who they are.

No matter the result, this mayoral election will impact the Democratic Party well outside of the City. The primary is coming down to two choices.

Andrew Cuomo. The former Governor of NY who resigned in disgrace after thirteen women accused him of sexual assault or misconduct. Gross mismanagement during covid. A host of other failures. Until yesterday he led in every single independent poll.

Yet Bill Clinton, James Clyburn, billionaire former mayor Mike Bloomberg, AIPAC Congressman Richie Torres—they all endorsed him. The disgraced former governor who resigned under a mountain of sexual assault claims and shady dealings. They persisted.

Proving that the Republican Party doesn't have a monopoly on the backing of sexual predators and general bad humans.

The other choice? Zohran Mamdani. State assembly member. He's a Democratic Socialist that has been running a very energetic and unusually positive campaign. He's been promoting policies to fix livability of the city for the working-class.

If Zohran loses, it will be presented as evidence that progressives or socialists are toxic. It doesn't matter how close he comes or how hard the party has worked to shut him down. Still this will be held up for the next two years as 2026 and their primaries approach as evidence that we can't turn to bold solutions.

However, if Mamdani wins, it will be written off as unimportant. After all, folks will say that NYC was more or less some communist fever dream of a city that doesn't represent the broader electorate. But it is a city that elected billionaire Bloomberg a couple times. Where Cuomo led in every major poll until the very last one where he was still within the margin of error. So I would argue that it's a fairly diverse group of Democrats.

I have two big takeaways from a Zohran win, if that were to come to pass.

What can Democratic voters learn from this? I think, and the polls agree, that we democrats are sick and tired of our leadership. Lack of leadership is more what we have grown tired of really.

Winning the primary is just the beginning. Adams and Cuomo will not go silently into the night. Neither, too, will their establishment donors and supporters that are hellbent on keeping a Democratic socialist out of Gracie Mansion. This will become an interesting general election because even if Zohran wins the primary, the machine will mobilize against him.

The pundits, the media, the NYT, the party leaders will tell us to ignore the energy, the passion, the policies, and the candidate. They will tell us we need to hold firmly onto the very ideas that brought us to Trump, MAGA, and a Democratic Party less popular than ever.

Why? Because if Zohran succeeds—if he proves government can build things and improve lives—voters might start demanding more than just slowing defeat. They might realize we don't have to keep losing.

These folks will tell us that we mustn't change. The country is doing well. We just need to message better, find a better way to sell our wares to the voters. 30 years of Democrats telling us Republicans are just better at messaging when what they really have is a vision. A dark and dystopian vision but a clear vision and an enemy within. Mostly powerless enemy within, but still something to point at.

Then they will tell us that Democrats have the answers and that things were actually going really well.

Forget that housing is unaffordable, forget that health care will cost America 77 trillion over the next 10 years, forget that only 40 or so Democrats supported a bill to strip war powers away from a president they tell us is lawless, authoritarian, and ready to snap the neck of our democracy with the slightest opening. Forget education costs, declining purchasing power, people having to use credit to buy groceries.

Forget all that and just know that you have it good. You've got Netflix and a TV and refrigerator and a car. Ignore the wealth inequality, forget that we can't build a subway or expand highspeed internet access, forget that we're supporting Israel, a rogue and genocidal nation, and that we've just attacked another sovereign nation that posed us no threat.

You see, Democrats want to get back to slim majorities and deal making with Republicans. They want to ignore those on the left and right and in the middle. They want to work with donors and the chamber of commerce and billionaires to get us "back on track." I think that's the track that brought us Trump. That's a track that leads to some version of revolution. And it's easier to weaponize enraged people when you direct their ire at people they can see. People like immigrants or politicians.

Democrats have convinced themselves that actually fixing shit is impossible. That government making life better is some utopian dream. They've given up on having a vision at all.

Zohran represents something different. Not just policies but proof that we can build again. That we don't have to accept that this is the best we can do.

We need Democrats with vision. Builders who see what's possible and will fight to make it real. Yes, that means fighting Democrats, Republicans, special interests, unions, corporations—everyone invested in keeping things broken. But when you're building something people can see and touch and believe in, that's a fight others will join.

Zohran gets that. He's not just against things. He's for building housing, transit, childcare—actual stuff that makes life better. That's the vision that scares them. Not because he can fight, but because he might win.

If we want different results from the Democratic party, we have to start voting differently. We keep electing the same corporatist Democrats who ignore our needs, then act shocked when nothing changes. If we want the party to be responsive to voters instead of donors, we have to punish those who sell us out and reward those who actually build for us.

That means voting for the builders, not the predators. For the visionaries, not the managers of decline.

For the Zohrans, not the Cuomos. Every time