Ever since President Donald Trump was voted into office in 2016 — and arguably even before that — Democrats have scrambled to regain their voter base. We saw these efforts succeed in former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election but then falter in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss. In the midst of defeats among Democrats that followed, a politician by the name of Zohran Mamdani drew sudden attention.
Mamdani has served as a member of the New York State Assembly for the past four years. Yet when this past New York City’s Democratic primaries came up, neither he nor his democratic socialist platform was on anyone’s radar. As a household name, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was largely assumed to receive the Democratic nomination, which, in New York City, is essentially a guaranteed win for the mayoral race. In spite of these assumptions, Mamdani’s grassroots campaign and savvy social media presence helped him gain momentum. He successfully made politics more accessible to younger voters by posting campaign videos and ranked-choice voting explainers on TikTok, Instagram and X. By the time the nomination rolled around, Mamdani won by a significant margin.
Not only was Mamdani popular in traditionally leftist parts of the city, but he also won over many districts that had voted for Trump in the presidential election. This success feels counterintuitive, especially considering that the Democratic Party has moved increasingly centrist in its politics in an attempt to gain Republican support. We saw these efforts most explicitly in Harris’ campaign, where she consistently appealed to Republican voters by loosening her stance on gun regulation, touting former Republican Sen. Liz Cheney’s endorsement and promising to nominate a Republican to her cabinet. As we know now, appealing to moderate Republicans failed, and our country has been pushed further into MAGA Republicanism.
Seeing Democrats consistently push further and further centrist in their policies sends a message: Leftist politics are impossible. Candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders are seen as an unsafe bet. Democrats continue to appeal to lofty Democratic ideals and push supposedly safe centrists like Biden or Harris. They claim that is the only way to defeat Trump.
But maybe that system was never going to work in the first place. According to the logic of the Harris campaign, someone with Mamdani’s far-left political views could never appeal to Trump voters. But we have seen time and time again, leftist economic policies prove popular. Not just with Mamdani: Sanders famously won a landslide in the 2016 Democratic primary in West Virginia — the same state that Trump later won by a landslide.
This trend checks out historically as well. White working-class voters used to vote mainly for the Democratic Party. But as ‘New Democrats’ shifted towards more neoliberal policies and distanced themselves from leftist economic policies like unions, those same voters turned Republican. Between 1962 and 2004, working-class Democratic Party identification dropped from 67% to 51%. With little distinction between Democratic and Republican economic platforms, the Republican Party could win white working-class voters on culture war issues like gay marriage or abortion — a tactic that only continues and evolves in the modern political landscape.
This history offers some more explanation as to how Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani could win over a voter base that seemed to vote so radically right. When Democrats base their platform on abstract ideals like defending the Constitution or culture war topics like trans rights, Republicans are going to win time and time again. The reality is that many voters do not prioritize democracy — not because they are selfish or fascist, but because most people simply want to financially support themselves. In contrast, Mamdani ran an economically populist campaign. He promised free buses, government-owned grocery stores and rent freezes — all of which are tangible. Whether he can achieve them is irrelevant. If voters believe these policies will improve their immediate lives, they will vote for them.
Being on Tufts’ campus, you may hear apathy about leftism. Many say that it is good in theory but would never gain the popular support necessary to succeed. Yet policies like welfare programs, unions and accessible food remain widely popular, especially among the very constituents the Democratic party hopes to win back. If Democrats want the working-class voter on their side, they need to push left with their policies, not just chase Republicans further and further right.
