Who is Zohran Mamdani, likely the next mayor of New York?<\/p>\n
Is he the future of the Democratic Party or a liability in an age when voters have veered right? Is he a pragmatist whose charisma will win over business leaders \u2014 or a doctrinaire socialist who will never recruit enough support for his agenda?<\/p>\n
Times journalists have spent much of this year reporting on those questions and more about Mamdani, a figure of fascination on the left and the right.<\/p>\n
A canny pol<\/p>\n
Mamdani has recalibrated his brand since his primary victory, tweaking the us-versus-them language of his democratic-socialist values to be a tad less punitive, writes Astead Herndon, author of a perceptive profile of Mamdani<\/a> published in the Times Magazine today. Astead goes on:<\/p>\n Mamdani understands that his goals \u2014 no-cost universal child care, free buses for all, a four-year rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments \u2014 will require a broad political coalition to achieve. So he set about crafting it.<\/p>\n For months now, Mamdani has been meeting privately with former leaders in city government, business executives, heads of New York arts and cultural institutions and skeptical local Democrats. In these chats, he says he wants to support renters, not punish landlords. He wants to support public education, not take a hammer to specialized schools with elite admissions. He says he supports Palestinian rights; he\u2019s not anti-Zionist. He made key concessions when it comes to policing. Importantly, he made clear that he was open to compromise when it came to his proposed millionaire tax. He is now open to keeping on a police chief whom progressives dislike.<\/p>\n The effort began after Mamdani won the Democratic primary. His campaign compiled a list of the city\u2019s top 25 business leaders and called each of them one by one, underscoring his desire to build coalitions and establish an open line of communication. His gifts at retail politics are evident on the stump, too. He loves a rope line as much as Joe Biden. Loves a selfie like Elizabeth Warren. And he stays until the end of a Black church service.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s policy goals are ambitious, and he may not achieve them. But one surprising thing I learned in my reporting is that a hard-line backbencher from the State Assembly has already remade himself as a builder of consensus. As the Manhattan borough president told me: \u201cI want to emphasize how unprecedented this is \u2014 the first nominee in memory that has made a concerted effort to reach out to people who were against him in the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n A sticking point<\/p>\n As Mamdani\u2019s campaign upends New York politics, no single stance has polarized New Yorkers as passionately as his pro-Palestinian activism and caustic criticism of Israel, writes Nicholas Fandos, who covers local politics:<\/p>\n Mamdani has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and said the country should not exist as an officially Jewish state. (He has also denounced Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7 attack.) Those positions have cost him the support of some pro-Israel New Yorkers. Not long ago, they would have been unthinkable for a major New York mayoral candidate not long ago. How did he arrive at them?<\/p>\n In many ways, Mamdani\u2019s views track with those of other young Americans on the left. But in my reporting, I found roots tracing back much further \u2014 to Mamdani\u2019s own family history with colonialism and his parents\u2019 intellectual careers in India, Africa and New York. At Bowdoin College, he founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, and his experience helped push him onto the leftward path that could end at City Hall. Read my story about the evolution of his anti-Zionism here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The question now, as Hamas and Israel wind down their conflict, is whether the temperature will also come down in the city Mamdani is trying to lead \u2014 and whom that might help just weeks before Election Day. His leading rival, Andrew Cuomo, is counting on Jewish New Yorkers angry at Mamdani to turn out in huge numbers. On the other hand, backlash against Israel has helped motivate Mamdani\u2019s progressive base. Will this fight matter less as the war in Gaza ends?<\/p>\n A model Democrat?<\/p>\n At 33, Mamdani is calling for a new generation of leadership. Voices across the right and the left are already heralding Mamdani as a model for the future of the Democratic Party. Emma G. Fitzsimmons, the Times\u2019s City Hall bureau chief, asks: Is he?<\/p>\n Yes and no.<\/p>\n Affordability, his animating issue, is something that moves most Americans. And Mamdani is truly native to social media. (Watch him interview Trump supporters<\/a> about the high cost of living or enlist an actor from \u201cThe Gilded Age\u201d for a dramatic reading<\/a>.) That\u2019s something other candidates could copy. It\u2019s also possible that his populist quest for universal child care<\/a> could take hold elsewhere.<\/p>\n But Mamdani\u2019s far-left views might not do as well in a swing state like Pennsylvania. He once called for defunding the police. He wants to freeze rent and bar immigration agents from New York City. President Trump calls him a communist, and even some New York Democrats are wary of his agenda and have not endorsed him.<\/p>\n In many ways, Mamdani is unique. He has charisma that charms people who disagree with him. His biography as a Muslim immigrant appeals to New Yorkers in a city that is known for welcoming immigrants. But it might be less helpful elsewhere. He may someday seek higher office, but \u2014 because he is a naturalized citizen who was born in Uganda \u2014 he\u2019s ineligible for the presidency.<\/p>\n HOSTAGE AND PRISONER EXCHANGE<\/p>\n Yesterday, Hamas and Israel took a significant step toward a truce, exchanging 20 living hostages in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Trump claimed: \u201cIt\u2019s peace in the Middle East.\u201d <\/p>\n The reality on the ground is a little more complicated. Our colleague Katrin Bennhold, host of our global newsletter The World<\/a>, wanted to understand how close the hostage-prisoner exchange has brought the region to a lasting peace. (After all, we\u2019ve seen something like this before<\/a>.) So she called David Halbfinger, our Jerusalem bureau chief, to ask him.<\/p>\n What are the potential sticking points in the next phase of this truce?<\/p>\n Hamas has said it wants a full Israeli withdrawal. The Israelis are saying they\u2019re not pulling out until they get everything that was in the Trump plan. So we have the ingredients for a standoff.<\/p>\n Israel and Trump both want Gaza to be run by someone other than Hamas. But Hamas hasn\u2019t agreed to lay down its weapons. So who steps into that breach? <\/p>\n And yet some people describe this as the best hope for peace since the Oslo accords.<\/p>\n The fact that you have so many countries in the Arab and Muslim world backing the U.S. and its push not just for a cease-fire, but for a greater peace, is enormously promising. So there\u2019s reason to see this as a promising moment. It\u2019s just, again, easier to see this running into great difficulty than it is to see it accelerating from here.<\/p>\n Madagascar\u2019s president went into hiding<\/a> after weeks of bloody protests against his government.<\/p>\n Catastrophic rains brought floods and landslides in Mexico, killing at least 64 people<\/a>. Dozens more are missing.<\/p>\n At least 42 people, including seven children, were killed when a bus plunged off a road<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n France has a new cabinet \u2014 to go with its reappointed prime minister \u2014 but the political turmoil<\/a> looks unlikely to be over.<\/p>\n Other Big StoriesOPINIONS<\/p>\n Like many Muslims in America, Zohran Mamdani is being asked to prove that he\u2019s one of the \u201cgood\u201d ones<\/a> to be accepted, Meher Ahmad writes.<\/p>\n Erin White used to make dinner for her family every night. Then she stopped<\/a>. And everything is fine \u2014 maybe even better. \u201cNow our time together is about everyone\u2019s pleasure,\u201d she writes, adding, \u201cincluding mine.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a column by Michelle Goldberg on the politics of victimhood<\/a>.<\/p>\n MORNING READS<\/p>\n N.F.L.: Americans were searching online for results<\/a>. The Chicago Bears beat the Washington Commanders, 25-24, and the Atlanta Falcons beat the Buffalo Bills, 24-14. <\/p>\n IS \u2018GOING VIRAL\u2019 DEAD?<\/p>\n Remember \u201cChewbacca mom\u201d? What about the \u201cBBC dad\u201d? Or how about that dress \u2014 was it blue and black, or white and gold? They may all be relics of an earlier internet, where just about anyone could go viral.<\/p>\n Now, algorithms hypertailor each user\u2019s feed, which means no one sees the same version of the internet. And \u201cif everyone is going viral,\u201d Madison Malone Kircher writes in an essay on the death of virality<\/a>, \u201cthat means no one is.\u201d<\/p>\n More on culture