New York City is on the cusp of an election in which what once looked impossible has begun to seem inevitable. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist member of the New York state Assembly, is heavily favored to beat Andrew Cuomo, New York’s onetime Democratic governor and a former icon of the party establishment, in a race for mayor that has become among the most-watched in the nation.

Cuomo and Mamdani articulate two vastly different visions for New York City — and where the Democratic Party is going overall. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Akela Lacy speaks to people hoping to see each of those two visions fulfilled.

“Traditionally, we’ve thought about politics as left, right, and center,” says Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who has worked on local and national campaigns. “Zohran offered a message that was less about ideology and more about disrupting a failed status quo that is working for almost no one.”

Cass, who worked on Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign in 2021, isn’t working for Mamdani but says his candidacy indicates “that Democrats can win when we have ideas.”

In the view of Jim Walden, a former mayoral candidate who is now backing Cuomo, those ideas are “dangerous and radical policies.” He says Mamdani’s popularity is an indication that “there’s going to be a flirtation with socialism and maybe some populist push” among Democrats.

But “ultimately,” Walden says, “the party will come back closer to the center.”

Chi Ossé, a City Council member who endorsed Mamdani, sees Mamdani’s success as evidence of the opposite. “We could have gone back to or continued this trend of electing centrist, moderate Democrats,” Ossé says. Instead, he thinks that New Yorkers want “someone who ran as a loud and proud democratic socialist who has always fought on the left.”

While New York City is preparing for a general election, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is unlikely to win — turning the race almost into a second Democratic primary. “The party is now confronted with a choice,” says Lacy, “between a nominee who has become the new face of generational change in politics and a former governor fighting for his political comeback. The results could reveal where the party’s headed in next year’s midterms and beyond.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Akela Lacy.

There’s less than two weeks left before New Yorkers elect their next mayor. The race has drawn national attention — both from President Donald Trump and from observers who see it as a reckoning over the future of the Democratic Party.

PIX11 News: Zohran Mamdani continues to hold an insurmountable lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race for New York City mayor, as long as Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa stays in it.

AL: Even though New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani decisively won the Democratic primary in June, the general election has pretty much boiled down to a contest between two candidates trying to claim the Democratic mantle. There’s Mamdani — the party’s nominee — and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations that he now denies and has been chasing the mayoralty as his political comeback. Since he lost the primary, Cuomo’s running on an independent ballot line called “Fight and Deliver,” but he’s still pitching himself as a Democrat.

There’s also Curtis Sliwa — the founder of the Guardian Angels, Republican candidate, and a thorn in the side of those who want him out of the race to clear a lane on the right for Cuomo. That’s the position of billionaires like John Catsimatidis and Bill Ackman, who have been pushing to get Sliwa out.

Curtis Sliwa: Come on Ackman, stay in your lane. Does he know anything about politics? No. Does he live in New York City? No. He lives in Chappaqua, the whitest suburb of America, where even the lawn jockeys are white.

AL: It’s also the position of President Trump.

Donald Trump: We don’t need a communist in this country. But if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully, on behalf of the nation.

AL: The Trump administration already got its wish when current New York City Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race last month, and the conventional wisdom was that many Adams supporters would flock to Cuomo. But after a federal corruption indictment that disappeared when Trump swept into office — remember that? — Adams’s support was already plummeting. And with Sliwa unlikely to become mayor himself, the race is really seen as a contest between Mamdani and Cuomo.

Now, Mamdani and Cuomo represent two possible paths the Democratic Party could take: a democratic socialist who was once deemed too far to the left to pull off a primary and is now heavily favored to win the general versus a former Democratic governor who can count the Republican president in his camp. What does the saga say about the state of Democratic politics across the nation?

That question is facing Democrats at a time when the national party is still finding itself after a crushing loss that returned Donald Trump to the White House.

Two years before that, a humiliating performance in the 2022 midterms threw the New York state Democratic Party into crisis, when Democrats in the state lost congressional seats and helped hand Republicans control of the House of Representatives. In the state that gave us both insurgent leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the two top Democrats in Congress — Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries — the party is now confronted with a choice between a nominee who has become the new face of generational change in politics and a former governor fighting for his political comeback. The results could reveal where the party’s headed in next year’s midterms and beyond.

So today, we’re going to talk to people hoping to see each of those two visions fulfilled. First, we’ll hear from a City Council member backing Mamdani and a Democratic strategist who’s been following the race but isn’t working for any campaign. And after the break, we’ll hear from a former mayoral candidate who dropped out and endorsed Cuomo, saying he doesn’t want to see the Democratic Party veer toward socialism.

Joining me now is Chi Ossé. He’s the Council Member for New York City’s 36th District. He endorsed Mamdani in April.

Welcome to the show, Council Member Ossé.

Chi Ossé: Thank you so much for having me on.

AL: Also joining us is Alyssa Cass, a Democratic media strategist based in New York City and partner at Slingshot Strategies. She served as an adviser to top elected officials, candidates, and causes at the national, state, and local levels.

Welcome to the show, Alyssa.

Alyssa Cass: Hi. It is so good to be here.

AL: We’re speaking on Wednesday, October 22nd. [Editor’s note: On October 24, Politico reported that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries will be endorsing Zohran Mamdani.]

And just a note, we are not endorsing any candidate on this podcast, and we’re focusing on the pressures building both locally and nationally on the Democratic party.

To start, especially for our listeners outside of New York, why has Mamdani’s campaign become a national story? You have Fox News running wall-to-wall coverage, Trump calling to deport him — what exactly is bringing so much national attention to this race? Chi, we’ll start with you.

CO: Absolutely. Well, first and foremost, I believe that it’s one of the biggest races that we’re seeing post-November of 2024. And after Republicans secured levels within Congress as well as the presidency, people are looking at the Democratic Party and seeing how we respond to that especially within the New York City mayoral race.

You know, we could have gone two ways. We could have gone back to or continued this trend of electing centrist, moderate Democrats — or we could have gone with Zohran Mamdani, someone who ran as a loud and proud democratic socialist who has always fought on the left, who speaks up about Palestinian rights and sovereignty. And this race showed that the party is accepting and willing to move to the left.

Zohran ran a very creative, loud race that was centered around affordability and did so without being tied to the financial institutions and entities that usually elect our mayors here within New York City. And made a lot of noise during the campaign, galvanized a lot of people, and made some history in terms of how the campaign was run. So with all of that, it made this a historic race, one that has caught the ears of many and has skyrocketed Zohran into the place where he is today.

AL: Alyssa, I want to bring you in. I mean, you worked on the 2021 mayoral race, you’ve worked on national races. What’s your perspective on what is making this resonate with people outside of New York or have the potential ramifications that go beyond the city?

AC: I think about that question in kind of two primary buckets. The first is, why is this so interesting? One is, I think that it offers us a view of politics and the contours of politics that’s actually more realistic or how actual people think about it. Traditionally, we’ve thought about politics as left, right, and center. And I think that the major fault line in politics now, or how people think about it, is that the status quo is not working for almost anyone.

“He fundamentally reconstituted the electorate. … He was able to put together a coalition of, frankly, almost everyone, just other than the very wealthy.”

And if we don’t reform the status quo, we are going to break it. And Zohran offered a message that was less about ideology and more about disrupting a failed status quo that is working for almost no one. And that approach to the race offers Democrats a really powerful path forward. And as we think about how do we reconstitute winning coalitions — and that’s something I think has been a little under appreciated about Zohran’s win — he fundamentally reconstituted the electorate.

If you live in New York City — if you are working class, middle class, or even upper middle class — New York City is not working for you. If you are anyone who interacts with public services on a daily basis, if you’re sending your kid to public school, if you’re taking the bus, if you’re riding the subway, New York City life is really like — hard.

AL: You can say the f-word, it’s OK.

AC: It’s really fucking hard. And he was able to put together a coalition of, frankly, almost everyone, just other than the very........

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