Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City marks the most significant socialist victory since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset in 2018. His win represents a dramatic power shift to the far-left wing of the Democratic Party and exposes a widening ideological divide between socialists and moderates.
Mamdani campaigned alongside Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, promising sweeping progressive reforms including rent freezes, free childcare, city-run grocery stores, fare-free transit, and steep tax hikes on corporations and high-income earners. His campaign embodied globalism, DEI, and socialism while attacking President Trump’s nationalist policies. Drawing support from young voters, immigrants, and left-wing activists, Mamdani positioned himself as a defender of New York’s working class, promising expanded public services and legal protections for illegal aliens.
It is ironic that he claims to defend the rights of his constituents while supporting illegal aliens, as most of the “rights” he advocates for them are not rights at all but taxpayer-funded benefits. Mamdani’s core proposals include universal childcare for children six weeks to five years old, freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments, making city buses fare-free, creating city-owned grocery stores, and raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. He plans to fund these initiatives through higher taxes and by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent.
His platform is an extension of the socialist movement seeking to transform New York into a so-called “global city” governed by identity politics rather than traditional American values. The result is a model that weakens business confidence, undermines national sovereignty, and threatens public safety.
So-called progressives like Mamdani somehow believe they can best serve their constituents by being soft on crime. At a 2021 protest in front of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Mamdani declared that “violent crime is an artificial construct, defined by the state,” adding that the term is used even for nonviolent offenses such as burglary if a housing unit happens to be in the same dwelling.
His statements reflect the Democratic Socialists of America’s platform, which he endorses a platform calling to “pressure, reduce, and abolish” state prison systems, viewing detention and police surveillance as “instruments of class warfare.” It also proposes ending enforcement of laws for so-called “minor offenses,” which in New York include theft under $1,000, drug possession, unarmed assault, and driving under the influence.
Mamdani’s pledge to shut down Rikers Island aligns with groups like the No New Jails coalition, which opposes the construction of any new detention facilities. While city officials claim crime is down, what’s actually declining is reporting, classification, and prosecution. Crimes are being downgraded or reclassified to make statistics appear better, while actual crime rises. New York City does not adhere to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting definitions, which significantly undercounts violent major felony offenses.
Though major felonies are officially reported as declining in 2025 compared to 2024, the overall crime rate remains about 30% higher than pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Felony assaults increased by 5% in 2024 and now stand more than 40% above 2019 figures, while rape, larceny, harassment, and misdemeanor assault have all surged. Between 2023 and 2024, New York recorded the largest rise in violent crime and assaults among the ten most populous U.S. cities, and the smallest decline in murders.
Much of this trend can be traced to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies. In 2022, he downgraded 52% of felony cases to misdemeanors, up from 39% in 2019. By 2023, that number reached 60%. His office’s felony conviction rate dropped to 51% in 2022 from 68% in 2019, while misdemeanor convictions fell to 29% from 53%.
Bragg declined to prosecute 1,119 felony cases in his first 11 months, 35% more than in 2019, and his “Day One” memo instructed prosecutors not to charge certain crimes at all and to downgrade armed robberies to shoplifting in many cases. The result is a justice system where violent crimes are reclassified as minor offenses, making New York appear safer on paper while victims grow increasingly disillusioned.
Because serious crimes are often reduced to misdemeanors with little or no punishment, many victims no longer report offenses. In 2022, only 42% of violent crime victims and 33% of property crime victims registered complaints. Business owners report losing confidence that police will respond promptly or that prosecutors will pursue charges. The National Crime Victimization Survey confirms that violent and property crimes have actually increased, contradicting official FBI data showing declines.
Across the city, victims of muggings and “minor” assaults have decided it’s not worth filing reports when offenders, if caught, are likely to walk away with a warning or a brief community service sentence.
Mamdani’s anti-Israel views, his past arrest at a pro-Gaza protest outside Senator Chuck Schumer’s home, and his refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” have drawn widespread criticism. Jewish organizations and hundreds of rabbis have denounced his record as dangerous and discriminatory, while critics argue that his history of calling the NYPD racist and anti-queer, combined with his pro-Palestinian activism, makes him too divisive to lead the nation’s largest city.
His campaign mastered social media, reaching millions through TikTok and Instagram, and successfully mobilized young, progressive, and immigrant voters. Mamdani’s win cements him as the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City and signals the rise of a radical socialist movement that many fear could reshape urban politics far beyond New York.
Omar Mahmoud Fateh, the first Somali American and Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate, is now running for mayor of Minneapolis. Born in Washington, D.C., to Somali immigrant parents, Fateh identifies as a democratic socialist and has been backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Initially endorsed by the Minneapolis Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) Party for the 2025 mayoral race, his endorsement was later revoked by the state party.
Fateh’s campaign reflects a broader trend of growing Somali American political participation across the United States, with eleven Somali Americans currently running for legislative seats in Maine, Minnesota, Ohio, and Washington, and others already serving on city councils and school boards.
President Trump endorsed Andrew Cuomo and warned he might cut federal funding to New York if Zohran Mamdani won, calling him a “100% Communist lunatic.” Mamdani responded defiantly, vowing to use the courts and public pressure to resist Trump’s threats and to defend illegal aliens and other groups he claims are targeted by federal policy.
While cities and states have the right to govern themselves and implement internal policies as they see fit, legitimate questions are being raised about whether federal taxpayers should be forced to subsidize socialist agendas at the state and municipal levels.
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