New York Was GOP Strategists’ Only Win

By Judson Berger

Friday, November 07, 2025

 

It’s been a rough week on the right. Virginia, my state, showed that you can fantasize about killing your political enemies and wish death upon their children, and still count on Northern Virginia and Richmond Democrats to vote straight ticket to get you into office. Despite hopes of an upset, Jack Ciattarelli got trounced in the New Jersey gubernatorial race, as did Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia (likely dragging down Jason Miyares in the process). And a meltdown at the Heritage Foundation continues apace — along with a hopefully salutary, public debate over antisemitism in the ranks of the right, a debate, it should be noted, that the left is not really having despite the obvious need for one.

 

But on the bright side for Republican strategists, if not for his hapless future constituents and the overall trajectory of the country’s political culture, Zohran Mamdani has just been gifted to them as their new campaign foil.

 

AOC, scooch over.

 

As Jeff Blehar writes, “Mamdani is going to run New York for the next four years, and residents are about to find out how well an avowed communist can manage the most complicated city on planet Earth.” Our guess is not very well. John Puri writes here about Mamdani’s many zany policies and why they threaten to cause more hardship should they come into effect.

 

If Tuesday’s results are any gauge, Republicans will need all the help they can get going into 2026. “If it is a harbinger of what the electorate will look like in next year’s midterms, it’s not too late for the GOP to panic,” Noah Rothman writes. But Democrats have their own set of problems: They are about to be up against a full-fledged effort to make Mamdani the face of their movement in competitive House races, a charge that will be difficult to parry.

 

Party leaders share at least some of the blame for his elevation to political stardom, even as strategists voice unease about the vulnerability he creates. Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani. So did House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (though his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, did not). Notably, Barack Obama called the future mayor last weekend and offered to be a “sounding board.” According to the New York Times, “Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday.”

 

To be fair, “If you like your bodega, you can keep your bodega” probably had a nice, familiar ring for the former president.

 

Noah warns that Democratic leaders will struggle from this day forward to put distance between themselves and the socialist mayor of New York City:

 

Every American will look to New York City to evaluate how its experiment with socialism is going. Whatever the results of that experiment, the Republican Party will frustrate Democratic efforts to maintain some plausible distance from the highest-profile mayor in America. . . .

 

He will almost certainly shelve the demure posture he’s adopted for the benefit of apprehensive Democrats in Washington. He will want to play the colossus bestriding left-wing politics, and the GOP will help their favorite foil secure that status.

 

The reality, as noted in last weekend’s newsletter, is that Mamdani and NYC’s politics are not representative of even New York State, let alone America. His victory was aided by an unholy confluence of flawed opponents, though he might have won anyway. Those asterisks won’t stop his comrades from attempting to use his victory to amass power in the party, something mainstream Democrats would be wise to resist, more forcefully. And they won’t stop Republicans from lumping them together every chance they get.