America’s largest city is run by Zohran Mamdani, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Los Angeles, the second-largest metro, could follow: Fellow DSA member Nithya Raman seems poised to become its next mayor.
A new California Post poll shows her leading Mayor Karen Bass. If Raman wins, DSA members will hold both mayors’ offices, forcing Democratic Party leaders to ask whether they still run their party, or whether they’re just chasing its socialist wing.
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Mamdani and Raman aren’t political twins. Mamdani has charisma, social media savvy and a talent for political theater; Raman has considerably less star power. What they share is more useful: Opponents that voters can’t stand.
Andrew Cuomo entered the final weeks of New York’s 2025 mayoral race with a 55% unfavorable rating in a Marist poll reported by the New York Post. In LA, a California Post-McLaughlin survey last week found 71.7% disapproved of Bass’ performance.
Raman led the race 46.7% to 38.8%, even though 41% identified Raman as the more extreme candidate, compared with 16.4% for Bass.
I’ve spent nearly four decades in California politics; I can’t remember an incumbent this weak in LA. Fed-up voters aren’t suddenly converting to socialism; they’re willing to gamble on someone further left because the people in charge have worn out their welcome.
Socialists Zohran Mamdani and Nithya Raman aren’t political twins. Mamdani has charisma, social media savvy and a talent for political theater; Raman has considerably less star power. AP Photo/William Liang
The DSA stands to benefit: its members are winning elections, taking office and — for once — holding the power to turn activist demands into government policy.
These aren’t ceremonial jobs: New York’s mayor oversees a budget of more than $100 billion, the nation’s largest police department and the city’s public schools. The mayor of LA controls a budget of roughly $13 billion and appoints the commissions that run the LAPD, the port, the airport and the Department of Water and Power. That’s a lot of power to hand an organization with a written platform.
Start with immigration: The DSA’s national program calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending deportations and granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. On the domestic side, the agenda includes healthcare free at the point of service, free public college and cancellation of student debt.
Then comes public ownership of major corporations and essential industries. That’s not a bigger welfare state: The DSA wants to replace capitalism itself. Republicans didn’t invent that claim — the DSA printed it.
Raman doesn’t have to endorse every national DSA plank, but the LA chapter, which has endorsed her mayoral campaign, has its own radical demands, like ending ordinances making it illegal for homeless people to camp on the street.
Mamdani needs Albany to advance his agenda; New York Gov. Kathy Hochul needs the party’s increasingly powerful left to help her win. Anadolu via Getty Images
For years, Democratic leaders have welcomed the socialist left’s volunteers, money and enthusiasm while keeping its more radical proposals at arm’s length. That arrangement gets uncomfortable when the activists become mayors and start implementing policy.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has already felt the squeeze. Her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, challenged her from the left with support from prominent DSA legislators. Hochul got Mamdani’s endorsement instead, and Delgado later dropped out after struggling to gain traction.
Now Hochul and Mamdani are campaigning together, even as she resists the higher taxes the DSA wants. Mamdani needs Albany to advance his agenda; Hochul needs the party’s increasingly powerful left to help her win.
The suburbs are another story: A Data for Progress survey found Mamdani was viewed favorably by 61% of New York City respondents but only 43% in the suburbs. That’s an 18-point drop once you cross the city line.
Democrats running in competitive districts can’t afford to ignore that difference. California Democrats know the math. The state’s most competitive House seats are in Orange County, the Central Valley and the Inland Empire — not hipster-heavy Silver Lake.
Republicans have spent the past decade fighting over the move from Reagan conservatism to Donald Trump’s national populism. That fight has been loud, public and bruising. Democrats’ version is just starting, and it may not stop at City Hall.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent much of the past year cultivating a national profile and visiting early presidential primary states. Yet another California Post-McLaughlin survey found New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a DSA member, drawing 18% support in a hypothetical 2028 Democratic presidential primary among California respondents. Pete Buttigieg received 17%. Newsom only managed 14% — in his own state.
New Yorkers are already finding out what happens when the activists take power. Angelenos still have time to decide whether they want to find out as well. Democrats in swing districts across both states will be living with that answer, and so will every Democrat who wants to run for president in 2028.
The socialists stopped asking permission. Now they’re taking the party, one City Hall at a time.
Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.
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