The closer Zohran Mamdani has come to winning the New York mayor’s race, the more people have been asking the question Aaron Blake posed in an article for CNN: “How much of a liability could he be for Democrats?”

Republicans want to use him to generally label Democrats as left-wing extremists: The campaign arm of the House Republicans has called him “the new face of the Democrat Party.” (President Donald Trump prefers to describe him as “a 100% Communist Lunatic.”)

Some Democratic officials, often off the record, fear that Mamdani hands Republicans ammunition against their party. Prominent elected leaders in his state are still reluctant to endorse his campaign. Other Democrats, mostly on the left end of the party, think he gives the party a needed jolt of enthusiasm. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) says, “Mamdani’s campaign really shows the direction in which the Democratic Party should be moving.”

This debate ignores what might be the biggest danger that Mamdani poses to the Democratic........

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