(The Center Square) — Republicans warn that Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s mayoral primary means his far-left platform could raise taxes, spike crime, and usher in ultra-liberal policies for the nation’s largest city.
Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, pulled off a stunning upset Tuesday over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the crowded Democrat primary. While the election will technically be decided by another ranked-choice tally next week — as nobody received 50% of the vote — Cuomo conceded the race Tuesday night and congratulated Mamdani on his victory.
“Tonight, we made history,” Mamdani, 33, said in a speech to supporters Tuesday night. “If this campaign has demonstrated anything to the world, it’s that our dreams can become reality.”
The outcome sets the stage for a November showdown with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running for reelection as an independent candidate. Cuomo, who has qualified to appear on the independent line, could also still be on the general election ballot.
But Mamdani’s victory in the primary drew a mix of condemnation and criticism from Republicans, many of whom scoffed at the idea of a Democratic socialist being in charge of the Big Apple.
“Leave it to the radical left that has taken over the Democrat party in New York City,” Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican, posted on social media. “Make no mistake … If Mamdani is elected mayor, it will be bad for public safety, law enforcement, taxpayers and businesses.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican who is considering a run for governor next year, took aim at Gov. Kathy Hochul after the Democrat posted a lukewarm congratulations to Mamdani hours after he declared victory.
“New Yorkers understand that Kathy Hochul and Far Left Socialist Democrats are destroying our great state with sanctuary state and defund the police policies, high taxes, and raging antisemitism combined with failed, ineffective, and bloated government paid for by hardworking New Yorkers,” Stefanik posted on X. “She owns this catastrophe.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican, also poked at Hochul and other New York Democrats over support for Mamdani, saying they have “embraced the absolute worst of their party.”
“A radical, antisemitic socialist was just nominated to be the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City — and Kathy Hochul didn’t lift a finger to stop it from happening,” he said in a statement. “On Kathy’s watch, millions of hard-working taxpayers have fled New York State, and now the mass exodus will begin from New York City as Zohran Mamdani runs it into the ground.”
Mamdani, 33, was first elected to the Assembly in 2021. He was endorsed by some of Democratic Party’s most prominent progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont.
He has vowed, if elected, to eliminate fares to ride New York City’s public bus system, make the City University of New York “tuition-free” and freeze rents in municipal housing.
Republican Curtis Sliwa, a longtime New York City activist and founder of the Guardian Angels — who easily won Tuesday’s GOP mayoral primary as the lone candidate — said Mamdani isn’t the right candidate for New Yorkers.
“Zohran Mamdani is too extreme for a city already on edge,” Sliwa posted on social media. “This is not the time for radical politics. It is time for real leadership.”
In a statement, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted New York Democrats for picking an “antisemitic socialist radical” who as mayor will “defund the police, abolish prisons, and institute socialist government grocery stores while massively raising taxes on working New Yorkers.”
Even White House senior advisor Stephen Miller weighed in on the results of the primary, chalking up Mamdani’s political rise to the impact of immigration on the Democratic Party’s voting base.
“The commentary about NYC Democrats nominating an anarchist-socialist for Mayor omits one point: how unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate,” Miller posted on X following Tuesday’s results. “Democrats change politics by changing voters. That’s how you turn a city that defined U.S. dominance into what it is now.”
