NYC's Historic Mayoral Election: A Socialist Challenger Shakes the Establishment

2 months ago

In a historic New York City mayoral election, Democratic Socialist candidate Zora Mamdani is challenging the political establishment. The Ugandan-born Muslim assembly member from Queens, who defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, is running on a platform of rent freezes, free public transit, and affordable childcare. His campaign has drawn strong youth support while facing significant backlash from both MAGA Republicans and establishment Democrats, partly due to his pro-Palestinian stance and calls to implement sanctuary city laws against ICE cooperation. The election outcome could signal a major political shift, with Mamdani even vowing to pursue arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu under UN laws if elected.

Transcript

00:00Greetings to everybody from the South, Telesur English, thank you for having me on this platform

00:08and to speak about these historic elections that are happening in New York City right now, my hometown, my home city.

00:15It's a pleasure to have you with us. So tell us, to begin with, what is the background of these elections

00:19that are taking place in New York and in other states of the country? What's the story coming to this election day?

00:25Yeah, so there, as far as New York City, there are various elections happening throughout the country, municipal elections.

00:34There's also elections happening in the cities of Minnesota and Seattle for their mayorships,

00:40and as well as a referendum out in California and governor elections out in New Jersey.

00:48But here in New York City, we are right now at a precedent moment in our history.

00:56We are right now in the process of an election, a very historic election, an election that has shocked the nation nationwide,

01:07and I think globally as well.

01:09I think it has to do with the candidates that we have, precisely one, Zora Mamdani,

01:16who is the 34-year-old assembly person from the Queens District that he is running as a Democratic Socialist,

01:26but under the Democratic Party line, which he was able to successfully win during the primary elections in June,

01:34where he defeated ex-governor of the Democratic Party, Andrew Cuomo, who right now is still running, but in the independent line.

01:43But what we see right now in New York City is very high energy, very, I guess, like electrifying energy amongst the youth,

01:52amongst different generations, seeing how this election is an election that's going to determine the destiny of New York City,

02:01but also the rest of the country, because New York City is one of the big major cities of the United States.

02:07It's a city that influences U.S. culture, but also world culture as well, because, you know, we think about it.

02:13We have the United Nations here. We have a very diverse city.

02:18So we're going to see how these results end up at the end of the day at 9 p.m.

02:24Let's stay on New York City.

02:26As you were saying, New York, this candidate that is running for a Democrat party, even though he's a Democrat Socialist,

02:32he has seen a lot of backlash coming from the right in general.

02:35Why is it that this candidate is facing so much pressure from the right against his policies?

02:40We have also seen him condemning the genocide that took place in Gaza.

02:45So what's the policy here, and what is the impact that this victory, you already mentioned some of it,

02:50what's the impact that it could have, the domino effect that it could have in other Democrat states?

02:53Right. So the candidate, Zora Mandani, who is the Ugandan-born Assembly member, who's a Muslim, Democratic Socialist,

03:05I think a lot of the backlash that has come from the far right of the MAGA movement,

03:10but as well as from the established Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and other figures who are funded by the AIPAC lobby,

03:20the Israeli lobby, it has to do with many factors.

03:23I think one of them has to do with the proposal that Mandani is giving for the working class in New York City

03:30that his campaign, he's running on an affordability campaign,

03:35because in New York City, like the rest of the country in the world, we're having an affordability crisis.

03:40People don't have the means to live a livable life when it comes to their housing,

03:45when it comes to the way they travel, when it comes to child care,

03:49and he's running on that. He's running on wanting to freeze the rent to help out a lot of New Yorkers

03:55that live in rent-stabilized apartments, not get their rent increase.

03:58He's running on wanting to make buses free, the transit free,

04:03and he's running as well as to make child care affordable for many New Yorkers who have children.

04:12And a lot of this could be possible because New York City's GDP is more than other countries.

04:17New York City has a GDP of a gross domestic product of over $1. trillion.

04:23So a lot of this stuff could be funded and possible because people ask,

04:27where is the money going to come from?

04:28But as well as his solidarity with the immigrant community,

04:34when it comes to ICE, the federal agency that right now is harassing and terrorizing immigrant groups

04:43from around the world following the Trump policy of doing the mass deportations,

04:48Mamdani has said that he will be in solidarity with the immigrant community

04:53and make sure to exert this thing that we call sanctuary city laws

04:59that prohibits ICE from working in collaboration with the NYPD, with the police department,

05:06that unfortunately the mayor that's in power right now, Eric Adams,

05:09is allowing ICE to work with the police department

05:12because Matt Adams has become a puppet to the Trump administration.

05:16But I think also, and I think a clear other part of this,

05:20it has to do with his faith as a Muslim, but also as his pro-Palestine stance.

05:30I feel, and what we've seen in New York is that him getting attacked,

05:36like these Islamophobic attacks, due to him being a Muslim,

05:42and also his stance on Palestine with them trying to make a comparison

05:46between the tragedies of 9-11 with him, as well as trying to make him out to be a Hamas sympathizer

05:56to his pro-Palestine stance to scare the Jewish faction of New Yorkers in New York City.

06:03But what we have seen as well as, a lot of it hasn't worked.

06:06I think because New York City is a very diverse city,

06:09and we have seen what occurred to our Muslim brothers and sisters post-9-11,

06:16where a lot of them were the victims of racist and prejudiced attacks during that time.

06:23And I think New Yorkers want to stand on the right side of history,

06:28those that support the candidate Zora Mamdani,

06:31as well as people understanding that there is a genocide happening in Palestine, in Gaza.

06:37And Mamdani, with his stance that he's had to take,

06:42as far as him speaking against the genocide,

06:46yet being in favor of a two-state solution,

06:50but also talking about exerting United Nations laws

06:56in case he becomes the mayor of New York

06:58to arrest the genocidal prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,

07:03who says a lot about a candidate who's running for one of the biggest positions,

07:08one of the biggest mayorships in the city, in the country, which is New York City.

07:14So I think we are seeing the true face of when it comes to the far right,

07:22but also the established Democrats attacking Mamdani due to his faith.

07:29But we will see what's going to happen,

07:32what's going to be the results during tonight's elections at 9 p.m.

NYC's Historic Mayoral Election: A Socialist Challenger Shakes the Establishment

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