New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has to face the ultimate uphill test: proving progressivism on the national stage. His mayoral win in NYC wasn’t just a win for local progressives, but a potential turning point for progressives within the Democratic Party.
Mamdani was born in Uganda and raised in New York City, moving there at 7 years old. In 2018, he became an official American citizen. Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020 and has run as a democratic socialist since.
Progressives are more liberal on the American political spectrum than the average Democrat, and their policies are more extreme. Progressives get a bad rep for being radical, but their platform tends to be based on transforming current democratic institutions, not completely dismantling them.
According to conservative-leaning media, Mamdani runs on a radicalized platform. However, when examining what extremists are, Mamdani isn’t necessarily extreme, just progressive. Mamdani doesn’t want to dismantle the NYC governmental system, but rather use it to help New Yorkers achieve growth.
Some of the biggest issues Mamdani wants to tackle include affordable housing, early childhood education, taxing corporations and the safety of New Yorkers.
Affordability is completely out of reach in NYC; 50% of residents cannot afford the true cost of living, with 16% living below the poverty line as of 2021. Mamdani plans to freeze rent prices in NYC for rent-stabilised tenants, which have gone up by 12.6% since Mayor Eric Adams took over. Mamdani also aims to build more affordable housing to help with rent control and working-class citizens.
Mamdani also wants to focus on creating free childcare for all children from 6 weeks to 5 years old. In the same vein, he wants to distribute resources and funding to all K-12 public schools equally across the city, while ensuring schools are fully equipped with teachers, nurses and mental health counselors.
Safety has always been a topic of conversation for New Yorkers who feel unsafe walking down the street. Mamdani wants to create the Department of Community Safety, which will focus on preventing violence before it happens.
Many of these social programs and housing plans depend on public funding from the city. Mamdani wants to raise the corporate tax rate to match New Jersey’s 11.5%, which will help bring in almost $5 billion.
The progressive platform of America is built on supporting human rights, promoting healthcare for all, protecting voters and economic equality. Americans can relate to many of these issues, but progressives struggle to promote their platform.
Here at home, Athens residents and Ohio University students are faced with increasing prices in rent, groceries and nightlife. A progressive platform has run both successfully and unsuccessfully in recent local and state elections.
Micah McCarey ran a successful city council campaign with a relatively progressive platform, running on the issues of racial equity, environmental issues and supporting small businesses.
The primary concern progressives have to focus on when presenting their platforms is the cost of governmental regulations and programs. Many taxpayers across the nation don’t want increased taxes on themselves, which can cause significant hardships for middle-class Americans. Having clear guidelines on tax funding redistribution and taxing specifically the 1% can help many Americans relate to progressive candidates.
As Americans, we should focus on supporting one another. Coming from a more centrist Democrat, I’m excited to see the outcome of Mamdani’s New York; it has the potential to uplift the hundreds of progressive platforms that are bound to come.
Chase Borland is a junior studying journalism strategic communications at Ohio University. The views and opinions of this columnist do not necessarily reflect those of The Post. If you have any thoughts, questions or concerns then you can contact him at cb297222@ohio.edu.
