Zohran Mamdani is taking New York City and the Democratic Party for a ride on the progressive/socialist express. Will it work in the wider world?
Before Tuesday’s Democratic Party victories in deep blue districts, progressives were still grappling with the reasons for 2024’s big losses.
They were closing in on an answer, too.
Democrats went too far to the left , they cut out entire constituencies, they shrunk the tent — and it cost them.
“It’s Obvious Why Harris Lost in 2024,” Ross Douthat wrote for the New York Times on November 1, 2025. “But Can Democrats Accept It?”
“The most obvious thing in politics is often the hardest to admit: If you lose an election, the best thing that you can do to make sure you win the next one is to find a message that puts you closer to the median voter than you were the last time around,” Douthat began.
“However, to move to the center is, by definition, to move in the direction of the other party, toward the hated enemy and away from your most passionate supporters,” he remarked. “Nobody wants to do that! Which is why, in times of political defeat, there is a bottomless appetite for prescriptions that reassure the defeated party members that they just need to be truer to themselves, more effective, more ruthless. And no ambitious politician wants to be the first to throw cold water on these hopes.”
“This is the psychological spot where many Democrats find themselves today,” he added. “It is completely obvious that the party lost in 2024 because it overcommitted to a range of unpopular left-wing positions, some of which yielded disastrous policy results (like the Biden migration wave) while others merely persuaded constituencies that had voted Democratic in the past (like blue-collar Midwesterners or culturally conservative Latino men) that the party now cared more about climate change and various academic fixations than cheap energy and good-paying jobs.”
“This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism,” agreed Democrat-whisperer Ezra Klein on November 2.
“Any enduring majority — any real power — will require Democrats to solve a problem they do not yet know how to solve: The number of places in which the Democratic Party is competitive has shrunk,” Klein noted. “When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Democrats held Senate seats in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and West Virginia. How many of those states remain in reach for Democrats today?”
Klein has a point. Democratic victories in progressive strongholds are pyrric victories at best.
What works in New York City doesn’t play well in the vital swing states Democrats will need to win in 2026. Worse, what plays well with the progressive base actually drives independents and moderates from the party.
“As Mamdani wins, Democrats worry about national fallout,” admitted Zack Stanton and Nnamdi Egwuonwu for MSNBC on November 4. “The progressive candidate surged to a historic mayoral win. And that’s adding to unease among Democrats looking for a way back to national power.”
“For the progressive left, it will be a signal achievement — the highest executive office ever held by a self-identified democratic socialist in the United States,” they wrote. “After a decade that began with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) insurgent presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton — continuing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s improbable 2018 congressional win, the formation of the “Squad” of lefty lawmakers and the pulling of the entire party to the left — Mamdani’s victory would be the capstone of a 10-year ideological project, and give democratic socialists an enormously powerful bully pulpit for the next four years.”
“Essentially, what’s happened here is the DSA has glommed onto the Democratic Party and said, hey, we’re Democrats,” warned veteran Democratic Party political analyst Mark Penn this week. “And unfortunately, the DNC leadership has said, sure, come on in. It doesn’t really matter if you believe things that are completely antithetical to core Democratic principles. We’re welcoming you if you win elections. I think that’s a crazy position for a party. It’s ultimately, fundamentally destructive. I always remind people that in 1972 and 1984, the Democratic Party managed to reduce itself to a single state. And we could be headed for another wave.”
“I mean, look, we see what happened in Chicago,” Penn pointed out. “There was a clear choice. They chose the candidate farther to the left. And now the entire city is in an uproar because of the results that they’ve gotten. These cities with these mayors are going to get worse results. And this, I think, trend has the real capability to take the party even further down, which, let’s face it, it’s out of power in all branches of government precisely because it’s moved too far to the left.”
And while saner heads in the party are urging moderation and caution, the far progressive left is jubilantly declaring the Democratic Party under new management.
Meanwhile, Democrats are still grappling with the Biden Administration’s messes, including damning recent revelations about Biden’s use of the autopen. Even the New York Times admits there are questions.
Does Mamdani represent a way out of the mess the Democratic Party is in? Or will he drive the party deeper into danger?
(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)