Zohran Mamdani is poised to become New York City’s next mayor — and some high-profile critics are already licking their chops, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Republican governor singled out Mamdani early Monday, a day after the democratic socialist held a major rally in Queens, New York, where he was joined by Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Governor Kathy Hochul — highlighting his rise from state assemblymember to potential party leader.
“Assuming he gets elected, Mamdani will be the most prominent Democrat in America the day he takes office,” DeSantis posted on X. “Voters across the country will be able to watch his leftist agenda in action and know that his path is the Democrat path nationally.”
A victory on November 4 by Mamdani, who leads former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa in polls with early voting already underway, will “be good for Republicans, bad for New York City,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis shared his take hours after billionaire Elon Musk posted a video of Hochul at Mamdani’s “New York Is Not for Sale” rally, where she urged thousands of supporters to help elect the upstart 34-year-old as part of a larger effort to “take back America,” video shows.
“Zohran is the future of the Democratic Party,” Musk wrote on X late Sunday.
The move to anoint Mamdani as the party’s savior could ultimately be beneficial to Republicans and their supporters nationwide, political analysts told Newsweek on Monday.
“Governor DeSantis is correct,” GOP strategist Adolfo Franco wrote in an email. “The Republican Party will accurately portray Mamdani as the new face of the Democratic Party and emblematic of the extreme, leftist and socialist direction of the Democrats. By comparison, Bernie Sanders and AOC appear moderate to most Americans. His election will alarm the majority of centrists in the country and alienate those voters.”
Mamdani will become the new preferred target for Republicans if elected, quickly replacing Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Franco predicted.
“As he is the chief executive of the nation’s largest city and financial capital of the United States,” he continued. “AOC, for example, is a congresswoman from Queens and one of 435 members of the House of Representatives.”
A victory by Mamdani — who has pledged to freeze rent increases, make buses free citywide and provide universal childcare, among other Big Apple proposals — would “in the GOP’s view” lead to human and capital flight from New York, as well as higher taxes and increased crime, Franco said.
“Failed policies in New York would then be used in 2028 by the GOP to illustrate what the Democrats would do to the country if returned to power,” he said.
Mamdani would also “certainly be a future” candidate for senator, governor, or even president, depending on what transpires at ballot boxes next week and beyond, Franco said.
“If the socialist wing fully dominates the Party, Mamdani will certainly be its future leader,” he said. “His leftist, socialist views and youth and charismatic style appeal to many in the left wing of the Democratic party.”
Kaivan Shroff, an attorney and political commentator, said he disagreed with DeSantis’ assumption that Mamdani would immediately become the “most prominent Democrat” in the country if elected.
“I think his star will honestly fade a bit,” Shroff told Newsweek. “I don’t know if he’ll be popular — he certainly might be a name on people’s minds and lips. Despite the rally yesterday, he’s alienated some of his most vocal leftist supporters by making certain compromises. And I think when he takes office, it’ll be pretty apparent that a lot of the things he campaigned on, he simply cannot do. So, I think a lot of folks will be watching as he kind of fails in a major spotlight.”
Shroff believes any national ambitions by Mamdani won’t materialize due to what he expects to be limited success as the 111th mayor of New York City.
“That’s certainly something we’ve seen with past mayors,” Shroff said. “It’s not exactly a stepping stone to national office.”
Shroff said most Democrats across the country are “much more moderate” than Mamdani and pointed to recent polls by Gallup indicating a centrist push within the party since 2024.
“They don’t want to charge further left,” Shroff said. “So, I don’t think that he’s going to be winning on the right side of things and on the left, I don’t think he’s going to be able to deliver a lot of what he promised folks and certainly he’ll alienate folks in that regard.”
Shroff, who lives in New York, said he hopes Mamdani is successful if elected, but characterized his campaign and potential administration as a “slow-moving train wreck” that will be an eventual blessing for conservatives, as DeSantis suggested.
“I think it is going to be positive for Republicans messaging-wise,” he continued. “There’s so much attention on this race right now and certainly people will be watching Mamdani because he’s gotten so much hype. But so much of what he’s put forth really relies on statewide support — where you’re asking local officials and representatives to vote against the interests of their folks upstate to benefit New York City. Why would anyone do that? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
But DeSantis and other Mamdani-focused Republicans are deflecting blame for driving up costs for Americans amid “unprecedented corruption” by President Trump that party leaders have ignored, according to Colin Seeberger, senior adviser for communications at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
“Fear mongering about the mayor of New York City will do nothing to lower health care costs, provide relief to families struggling with surging utility rates, or help farmers who’ve been abandoned by this administration,” Seeberger told Newsweek in a statement.
Nomiki Konst, a progressive strategist and political analyst, accused Mamdani’s critics of resorting to familiar tactics as his campaign gains momentum locally.
“This is what the Republicans do,” Konst told Newsweek. “The far-right in particular — like DeSantis — they love to find a bogeyman and then frame however they want that bogeyman to look and rile up their base in communities that usually have zero interaction with that bogeyman. They used to make it Hilary [Clinton], then it was Nancy Pelosi, then it was AOC. I think they’re going to try with Zohran.”
Konst, who has been dating former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio since January, said President Trump still villainizes her partner years after de Blasio left public office in 2021.
“I know I’m biased, [but] they still do that,” Konst told Newsweek. “Donald Trump brings up his name in the White House, like, almost every week. But the reality is that the people of New York voted overwhelmingly for Bill de Blasio and hopefully that will be the same mandate for Mamdani. This is the largest city in the nation, so it’s easy for someone like DeSantis — who maybe should be paying attention to his own state — to start blaming all of the country’s problems on Mamdani.”
