The battle for generational change in the United States is on and it’s taking place in New York City.
When 7.30 visits Harlem on a cold autumn evening, 22-year-old Durga Sreenivasan is standing on a footpath in the chill wind fighting for every vote she can for Zohran Mamdani, a man who may be about to deliver the country a political earthquake.
Sreenivasan is a campaign organiser for Mamdani, who, if the polls prove correct, is set to make history by becoming the first Muslim mayor of New York City, at 34 years of age.
He is also the son of immigrants and a Democratic socialist — but more importantly, he is making an impact.
Durga Sreenivasan, 22, is a campaign organiser for Zohran Mamdani. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
Rarely has any election in the US outside a presidential campaign held as much interest around the world as this one. Foreign media crews are crawling all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, trying to work out what it is about this man that has the whole country talking.
Mamdani has also captured the imagination of those from the more traditional side of the Democrats, such as Karine Jean-Pierre, for three years the spokesperson for president Joe Biden.
Jean-Pierre is adamant that any risk Mamdani represents due to a lack of experience in managing anything, let alone a city, may be worth taking.
“I think sometimes you have to go unconventional in order to make change,” Jean-Pierre says.
Zohran Mamdani’s run for mayor has garnered interest around the world. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
For her, the spectre of change brings up a positive memory.
“I worked on the Barack Obama presidential election in 2008. That was hope and change. And he excited young people. He changed the electorate for Democrats, he expanded the electorates for Democrats, and I think that sometimes it’s OK to do that. We’ve got to give the guy [Mamdani] a chance.”
For Mamdani supporters, especially within the Democratic Party, this is the chance for enormous change.
A young Barack Obama ran a campaign for change in America in 2008. (Getty Images: Scott Olson)
“It’s time for the old guard to move on,” says Sreenivasan, referring to the current three most famous Democrats — Joe Biden, 82, Nancy Pelosi, 85 and Chuck Schumer, 74.
“Go get that cottage in Westchester, go start your own garden, that’s what the time is for you.”
That many young people in New York could never afford somewhere like the upmarket borough of Westchester forms part of Mamdani’s platform, which focuses on cost of living.
Sreenivasan says that previous mayors have done nothing to address homelessness in New York.
“We’re at a place where 150,000 children in New York City are homeless. None of these [former] mayors have fixed that — all men, all older men.”
Karine Jean-Pierre says Mamdani should be given a chance (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
Sreenivasan says Mamdani’s youth and diversity are inspirational to her generation, tens of thousands of whom have taken to doorknocking.
“As a 22-year-old, seeing someone like Zohran, just 10 years older than I am, making one of the biggest differences in our city, I’ve seen how that inspires my peers and part of that is I want to inspire more young people of colour to run for office,” she tells 7.30.
“Zohran Mamdani as a person means that young people can create change.
“As a movement, he’s a symbol of democratic socialism really but also how we can organise. For me, it’s a way of showing that we can be successful in this and we have a blueprint now, so we can replicate it.
“Zohran Mamdani represents the spark of a movement, not the movement in totality.”A new socialism
Zohran Mamdani ordering a sandwich during a campaign event in the Bronx. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)
There’s now a real possibility the largest city in the US may elect a socialist. Until now, socialism has been regarded as a dirty word in US politics.
But for Sreenivasan and many of her generation, the word does not have the meaning it does for many older Americans.
“Why am I walking home and seeing people on the streets?” she asks.
“Why am I the only brown person in my class? Why am I the only Hindu in almost all of my classes?
Young supporters of Zohran Mamdani cheer while he speaks at an event. (AP: Heather Khalifa)
“That’s not right, because I know there are people all over this city who should have the same access to education, to a home, the same access to food as I do.
“That’s what socialism is to me. And no, I didn’t sit there and read all these theoretical books about socialism. I’ve seen that we need to give people a home.”
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator popular with younger Americans, has long championed the need to close the wealth gap but now that issue is gaining wider traction.
Senator Bernie Sanders with Zohran Mamdani at a town hall meeting in Brooklyn. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)
Sanders says that Elon Musk has as much wealth as the bottom 52 per cent of American families.
He also says the top 1 per cent of Americans have as much wealth as the bottom 93 per cent and that 60 per cent of Americans are living week-to-week.
That 60 per cent figure is particularly relevant as 42 million Americans may lose their “food stamps” due to the current federal government shutdown.
The anti-Trump who borrows from Trump
At a time when Donald Trump dominates US politics, some see Mamdani as a way forward for the Democrats. (Reuters: Suzanne Plunkett)
While Sanders has long been an advocate for closing the wealth gap and remains popular, the Democrats have found themselves in the political wilderness.
The Donald Trump juggernaut now controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Despite that, Mamdani and the New York mayoral race have mesmerised the nation and garnered criticism from the right.
Fox News, for instance, is warning against electing “a communist”, while left-leaning MSNBC sees Mamdani as a way forward for Democrats.
Inside the party, powerbrokers are trying to work out whether a Mamdani win would mean a move to the left, away from the more conservative pro-business model established by Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
Even if a late surge to fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo, 67, defeats him, Mamdani has changed American politics. He’s shown that a 34-year-old with a crash-through, blunt-speaking campaign prepared to criticise Israel can defeat Cuomo, a man backed by the might of the Democrat machine, in a primary.
Andrew Cuomo is running as an independent candidate for mayor. (Pool via Reuters: Angelina Katsanis)
Cuomo is a former governor of New York forced from office by sexual assault allegations.
When he was defeated by Mamdani in the Democratic primary he decided to run for mayor as an independent. His campaign has focused on his experience as governor.
Mamdani doesn’t have that but he has been able to capture the Zeitgeist.
While his and Trump’s politics could not be further apart, in some ways, Mamdani is replicating on the left what Trump did on the right — running as an anti-politician rejecting long-held norms and conventions.
Zohran Mamdani waves during the 2025 New York Pride March. (Reuters: Kylie Cooper )
Just as Trump angered many Republicans with his free-ranging policies that often contradicted traditional Republican policy — such as his support for tariffs — Mamdani has confronted many establishment Democrat policies.
Traditionally, a Democrat candidate needs to be centrist or slightly left of centre, committed to health care and social welfare spending and publicly, at least, concerned about spending overruns. And it’s been an unwritten rule that you give unqualified support to Israel, something which often guaranteed large amounts of money from America’s pro-Israel lobby.
Mamdani has rejected that compact, accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza and saying as mayor — responsible for the New York Police Department — should Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu come to New York, he would order his arrest for alleged war crimes.
This could discourage Netanyahu from attending the United Nations General Assembly, which he has attended for many years.
Elaine Kamarck believes Mamdani’s criticism of Israel will not harm his chances in the election. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
One noteworthy aspect of this election is that a Muslim has a chance of being elected in a city with a large Jewish community — despite his criticism of Israel.
The Brookings Institution’s Elaine Kamarck says Mamdani’s position on Gaza has not damaged him.
“I think a lot of American Jews and New York City Jews are appalled at Bibi Netanyahu and what has been going on in Gaza,” Ms Kamarck tells 7.30.
“Even Jews that are very pro-Israel have been appalled by Netanyahu’s conduct of this war. And I think that has allowed Mamdani to get where he is.”
‘Less experience, more integrity’
Reverend Rashad Moore says the city needs the kind of radical change that Mamdani represents. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
Mamdani is also promising free child care for all, free buses for all, government-owned grocery stores to sell subsidised groceries and a freeze in rent increases.
Someone who understands the reality of New York City better than most is Reverend Rashad Moore, pastor at the First Baptist Church in Crown Heights, part of this mayoral election.
Reverend Moore says life is so tough for so many in New York that there needs to be the radical change Mamdani represents.
Political analyst Elaine Kamarck from the Brookings Institution says the Mamdani momentum may be a reaction from Democrat supporters against the old guard.
“Right now, everybody’s attracted to Mamdani almost because he’s the anti-Biden, just in terms of his charisma, his youth, his energy,” she says.
Cost of living has been a major theme in Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. (Reuters: David Delgado)
“And they’re not paying a lot of attention to the reality of what he’s proposing, which really, frankly, he can’t do.
“He’s only got two options. One is he’s going to have to move away from some of these more outlandish proposals, or if he tries to do them, he’s going to find white flight from Manhattan and that will take away the tax base and make the situation even worse.”
The Mamdani campaign rejects suggestions their program is unfunded.
“Our plan is to tax the 1 per cent, our billionaires, by 1 per cent extra … what we’re saying is people who have all this wealth and don’t know what to do with it give that tiny 1 per cent of your salary back back to the city,” Sreenivasan tells 7.30.
Reverend Moore believes that Mamdani is a response to Trump and that success in New York could be a catalyst for change in other places.
Reverend Rashad Moore believes Mamdani is a response to Trump’s presidency. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
“It’s impossible to ignore the reality that we’re dealing with,” he says.
“There’s a hope that if it happens in New York, it can happen elsewhere, especially as we get ready for midterms.”
On the issue of a Muslim mayor, Reverend Moore says: “I’ve told my congregation, I would be open to the possibility of working with a morally grounded Muslim over a corrupt Christian any day. And so I think there are times when the best thing that we can do is open ourselves up to the possibility of something new.”
Not all of his congregants are supporting Mamdani, though: Loretta Grimsley prefers Cuomo.
“He’s tough, he’s been in government all his life and I can foresee him getting things done,” she says.
Loretta Grimsley says she would prefer Andrew Cuomo as mayor. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan )
“I don’t agree with everything but I can see him actually handling something the size of New York City.”
Reverend Moore says the Mamdani momentum reflects integrity over experience.
“People are all saying that Zohran is too young, we don’t need that. I think this is a wonderful time for new energy, new hopes, new dream,” he says.
“Young people can be considered a little bit radical but you need that at a time like this and at a time like this, I will take a mayor with less experience and more integrity than less integrity and more experience.”
That integrity is why he sees Mamdani as a leader for change and believes Democrats should throw support behind him, despite his inexperience.
“When people are knocking on the doors of a church because they don’t have food … in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country there’s literally not enough food,” Reverend Moore says.
“Because of political games, people’s lives are at stake. This is not the time to play it safe. This is the time to step out, cry out, spare not and dream big.”
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