New York City’s mayoral election is a high-stakes referendum on Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who inspired socialist disciple Zohran Mamdani, now on the precipice of running the Big Apple.
If Mamdani, who is the clear frontrunner, blows the election Tuesday, it will be a major setback to the far left and look poorly on Wu, who Mamdani says is his role model mayor.
If Mamdani wins – and polls show him ahead – it will be a test of Wu’s policies and positions since the New York Assemblyman does his best to emulate her with free buses, higher taxes, weak support for law enforcement, opposition to ICE and a lot of smiling and waving.
If she’s going to be allied with him, she has to bear the consequences if he gets tripped up or messes up when he’s running City Hall.
The 40-year-old Wu has been quietly supportive of 33-year-old Mamdani, calling his campaign “inspiring” but keeping her distance because of some of his controversial positions like his virulent opposition to Israel.
“It’s inspiring to see that someone who ran a campaign based on a joyful, positive vision of getting things done that matter to people win out over millions of dollars of negative ads and a much darker vision of what cities are and what they stand for,” Wu said after Mamdani’s surprise primary victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which galvanized the left wing across the nation.
Though Wu doesn’t call herself a socialist like Mamdani, her positions might as well make her one. She is far left but Mamdani light, though she got launched to stardom before her New York compatriot.
Mamdani has promised “fast and free buses” despite the fact that New York City’s buses lurch along at just 8 mph, parroting Wu’s plan to eventually make T buses fare-free.
“Today in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one in five New Yorkers cannot afford the bus fare,” Mamdani said in his final debate encounter with Cuomo, who is now running as an independent in a last-ditch effort to stop Mamdani.
Fare-free buses is one of frontrunner Mamdani’s central pillars of his campaign to make the city more affordable, which has struck a deep chord with young New Yorkers.
Wu, coasting to a second term with no opposition, has connected to Boston voters with similar promises of making life more affordable with policies like rent control – which Mamdani also favors.
Mamdani also pledges to launch city-run grocery stores to make food more affordable, and until the general election was embracing his socialist agenda.
If he loses on Tuesday, it will send a message to Democrats that voters aren’t quite ready to veer that far left, and it will maybe send a message to Wu to moderate some of her rhetoric.
Wu took out opponent Josh Kraft in the preliminary election by nearly 50 points.
Cuomo in the last few days has ridiculed Mamdani’s promises of free stuff, but it may be too little too late. Polls show him trailing Mamdani by double digits.
“Yeah, it sounds good. Flying buses, free food, freezing rents,” Cuomo said. “It’s all untrue, it is all untrue. There is no Santa Claus. He has no plan, and he has no ability or experience to accomplish anything in this city.”
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (AP)