Zohran Mamdani surges in US polls as opponents struggle to consolidate

Zohran Mamdani, whose victory in June's New York City Democratic mayoral primary shook up the political establishment, is surging in the polls ahead of November's general election, as he goes on a five-borough tour and works to position himself as the anti-Trump candidate, leaving his opponents scrambling for a new strategy.

"I think it's very smart for Mamdani to roll out the five-borough tour against Trump. He’s initiating to a degree what Trump did in 2016 in initiating rallies," David Frank, a professor of political communication and rhetoric at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab.

"I don't see Adams or Cuomo embarking on a similar trajectory. It teaches us that having money isn't a sufficient reason for candidates to be successful," he said.

The latest polls show Mamdani beating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a landslide in a three-way race and also winning in a two-way race.

A Siena College poll released last week shows Mamdani leading Cuomo 44 to 25 percent. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa follows with 12 percent, followed by incumbent Mayor Eric Adams with 7 percent. Another poll by Zenith shows Mamdani doing even better, beating out all his competition combined, bringing in 50 percent of the vote.

Both Cuomo and Adams, who are Democrats, are running are independents to compete against Mamdani, who became the Democratic nominee when he won the primary.

Last month, Cuban American entrepreneur Joseph Hernandez entered the race as an independent, though he only garnered substantial news coverage over the weekend, possibly because of his low chance in an already crowded race. He has filed a lawsuit against the city to bring back ranked choice voting to the general election.

Cuomo, Mamdani's closest competition, has launched a string of attacks on Mamdani with little success.

He wrote a post on social media saying name-dropping his political dynasty family, seeming to suggest Mamdani doesn't belong; he tried to reach out to progressive by bringing up on social media that he had passed a bill supported by Bernie Sanders, to which the Vermont senator promptly responded that he was supporting Mamdani; and Cuomo has proposed "Mamdani's Law" that would create means testing for low-priced flat rentals.

Meanwhile, Mamdani is positioning himself as the anti-Trump candidate, until now largely the domain of centrist Democrats. He has been pointing to Cuomo's conversations with US President Donald Trump, and also highlighting Cuomo’s business ties with notorious convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime close friend of Trump.

"He's trying to consolidate the party. However, one thing about that strategy is that it's moving away from what got him there in the first place," Adam Carlson, a pollster and founder of Zenith, told TNA.

"What I think would be most effective for him is to do what worked for him in the primary," he added.

With just under three months to go until the general election, there's still time for consolidation of Mamdani's opponents, particularly given the vast war chest of funding that has largely been untapped. Billionaire financier Bill Ackmann has offered to fund hundreds of millions to a centrist candidate who could beat Mamdani.

Carlson said, "One prediction is that it's going to get really ugly. The business community is not going to let Mamdani walk away with this."