It is the political victory that has set off a thousand crash outs. Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic local organiser, has won New York City’s mayoral election in a landslide, sending a coalition of Zionists, Islamophobes, and alt-right online grifters of various flavours into a tailspin.
“New York has fallen,” cried a chorus of patriots. The ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt vowed to utilise the organisation to keep a watchful eye over the Mamdani administration. For the ultra-rich like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Bill Ackman who have a vested interest in keeping the city in friendly hands and followed the election as such, his win was clearly a disaster.
Throughout the campaign, Mamdani, a Shia Muslim of Indian descent, and his wife, Syrian illustrator Rama Duwaji, have faced down a deluge of Islamophobic abuse, including death threats. A super PAC backing his opponent, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, sent out a mailer to Jewish voters that altered Mamdani’s image to make his beard look fuller and darker. Actor James Woods posted an image of Mamdani with a knife, poised to kill the Statue of Liberty in a parody of the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina.
The Islamophobia Playbook
The endless attacks prompted Mamdani to give an emotional speech in which he spoke openly about the impact of the Islamophobia he and many other New Yorkers have endured. He invoked the fear his auntie felt wearing a hijab in the wake of 9/11.
The campaign certainly has felt at times like a return to post-9/11 politics.
The Twin Towers themselves have cast a shadow over the election in a, frankly, obscene manner. Former US Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Ellie Cohanim, posted the famous falling man photo with the caption, “Vote Andrew Cuomo & save our city.” Days before the election, Rep. Andy Ogles posted a clip of the North tower being hit, accompanied by, “WAKE UP NEW YORK!” Another Cuomo PAC put out a last minute campaign ad featuring Mamdani in front of footage of the towers exploding.
Mamdani’s party has done little to defend him or promote his campaign. The response from top Democrats following his primary victory was tepid, to put it mildly. Despite the enthusiasm from voters surrounding the campaign, endorsements were slow to come, if they came at all. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer refused to endorse him and did not disclose his vote.
New York’s other Democratic Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand was forced to apologise back in July after claiming Mamdani had made, “references to global jihad,” likely a mischaracterisation of his use of the slogan, “globalise the intifada.” She went on to say, “This is a very serious issue because people that glorify the slaughter of Jews create fear in our communities.”
Asked by Yonit Levi on the Unholy podcast if Jews in New York City have a reason to be concerned, Hillary Clinton, her finger ever on the pulse of the American electorate, responded, “We’ll have to see what happens. I hope not.” When co-host Jonathan Freedland asked her if she would vote for Mamdani, Clinton demurred. “You know what? I don’t vote in this city.”
The Israel lobby failed
Despite the opposition from within his own party, Mamdani has managed to trounce his opponent, who ran as an independent after a humiliating loss in the primary. While his critics have tried to make the election a referendum on Israel, Mamdani has been consistently messaging on the key issues impacting New Yorkers: prices, transport, housing, and education.
Further, the explicit attempt to rerun the same antisemitism smear campaign deployed against Jeremy Corbyn a decade ago, has proven misguided. Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has fundamentally altered the political landscape in the US. The Israel lobby, once able to make or break American political candidacies, has become a remarkably toxic brand.
Support for Israel has plummeted among the Democratic base. In a recent Gallup poll, only 8% of self-identified Democrats approved of Israel’s military action in Gaza. The data reflects broader shifts in public opinion, with almost 60% of Americans holding a negative view of the settler colony and far more describing their actions in Gaza as a genocide than not.
The result is that politicians are beginning to move away from AIPAC, if not Israel itself. Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton recently announced he would be returning his AIPAC donations, in his words because the organisation “has aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government.”
Still, much of the Democratic leadership has failed to read the room. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seems especially caught out by the shifting fault lines among Democratic voters. Jeffries waited until the end of October to finally give an endorsement, previously kicking the can with a series of “conversations” that were transparent efforts to stall while he figured out how to appease both the base and his AIPAC benefactors.
Even then, Jeffries managed to qualify his endorsement, stating that he does not believe Mamdani is the future of the Democrats in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. In reality, it is Jeffries’ future that seems uncertain. Other than the odd cringe-inducing attempted zinger, he has failed to put up any resistance to the second Trump administration, drawing further ire from his caucus and base, and there are signs that support from his congressional colleagues appears to be collapsing.
With the party at large apparently unable or unwilling to rid itself of Israel, a surprising force has filled the void. Suburban wine moms have emerged as a nascent vanguard of the sociopolitical movement many are calling “Dark Woke,” an unabashed liberal left politics that dispenses with the usual handwringing over respectability. When MAGA goes low, Dark Woke goes lower.
Spearheading the movement is Jennifer Welch, an interior designer from Oklahoma City turned liberal left podcaster. She and her long-time friend Angie “Pumps” Sullivan created the I’ve Had It podcast in 2022. Initially described as a “comedic, feel-good podcast” in which the women would gripe about the various things that set them off, it has transformed into a platform for the duo to host big names on the American left, going on foul-mouthed tirades, and surprising Democratic figures like Cory Booker with hard hitting interrogations.
On one episode of I’ve Had It that aired just prior to the election, Welch tore into the party elites like Jeffries and Schumer, for their failures to endorse Mamdani. “So listen up, Democratic establishment,” she said. “You can either jump on board with this s**t or we’re coming after you in the same way that we come after MAGA, period… Stop taking AIPAC money. Go on an ‘I'm sorry I took AIPAC money’ atonement tour if you want to stay in power… Hakeem and Chuck, seriously get your sh*t together because the Democratic Party is moving on.”
While Jeffries and Schumer flounder, other more agile wings of the Democratic upper echelon are taking a different tack. In the final days of the campaign, former president Barack Obama called Mamdani to congratulate him on his effort and to offer to ‘be a sounding board.’ For those who have watched the arcs of Bernie Sanders and AOC, it’s an ominous move that suggests an effort to capture this rising star and bring him into the fold.
Mamdani reportedly voted for himself along the Working Families Party (WFP) ballot line, not the Democratic Party line, a potentially significant move to position himself moving forward. How long he can stay outside the apparatus remains to be seen.
Alex Foley is a researcher and painter living in Brighton, UK. They have a background in molecular biology of health and disease. They are the co-founder of the Accountability Archive, a web tool preserving fragile digital evidence of pro-genocidal rhetoric from power holders.
Follow them on X: @foleywoley
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