Political Analysis: Mamdani’s Electoral Coalition and Challenges
Eric Adams won with over 70% of the vote in 2021. Adams won the 2021 general election with 71.0% of the vote against Republican Curtis Sliwa Wikipedia, and he won the Democratic primary with 50.4% against Kathryn Garcia in the final round of ranked-choice voting Wikipedia.
Now let me provide a comprehensive political analysis of Mamdani’s challenges and the Democratic Socialist outreach efforts:
Mamdani’s Electoral Coalition and Challenges
The Voter Resistance Issue
Exit polling showed that Jewish voters favored Cuomo over Mamdani by 29 points, 60% to 31% NBC News, representing significant resistance from that community. Regarding immigrant communities who fled socialist regimes, the resistance is rooted in deeply personal historical trauma.
Cuban Americans: 58% of Cuban Americans affiliate with or lean toward the Republican Party, motivated by a strong rejection of socialism, support for “law and order” policies, and concerns about U.S. foreign policy Yale Library. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado warned that Venezuela offers “a vivid example of the devastation that socialism and crime can bring to a society,” stating that socialism means “everybody being equally poor” Latin Post.
Russian Americans: Communities from the former Soviet Union remain deeply skeptical of socialist rhetoric based on their experiences with authoritarian communism. Cuomo won more votes in the Russian and Central Asian enclaves of South Brooklyn Documented during the primary.
Chinese Americans: The reception was mixed. Mamdani won districts like Flushing, Queens, and Manhattan Chinatown over Cuomo, but it was close and very competitive AsAmNews. Some Chinese American leaders expressed concerns about Mamdani’s inexperience and his past defund-the-police rhetoric.
What Mamdani Actually Won
Contrary to widespread resistance, Mamdani assembled a coalition of younger and middle-class voters across Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, with voters in majority-Asian neighborhoods choosing Mamdani over Cuomo with an 11-point margin Bloomberg.
South Asian Support: Mamdani led Cuomo by 41 points in Kensington, Brooklyn, nicknamed “Little Bangladesh,” and by up to 49 points in parts of Parkchester in The Bronx where there’s a fast-growing Bengali community THE CITY. Mamdani energized Asian voters with a 50,000-member canvassing army that knocked on more than 1.5 million doors, while starring in social media campaign videos explaining ranked-choice voting in Hindi, Urdu and Bangla THE CITY.
East Asian Communities: Mamdani outperformed Cuomo in the East Asian communities of Flushing, Sunset Park, and Manhattan’s Two Bridges Documented, though these were competitive races.
DSA’s Outreach Strategy
The New York City DSA chapter membership doubled from roughly 5,000 to 11,000 since June, with DSA national membership reaching a record-high 80,000 with 26,000 people joining since January CNN.
Messaging Shift: The Mamdani campaign focused on “rooting policy in the daily struggles over rent, food, and transportation,” framing proposals as affordability measures rather than abstract socialist ideals CSMonitor.com. The campaign “sharpened rhetorical ability to talk about demands and put them into an affordability package” CSMonitor.com.
Community Building: Mamdani’s volunteers built a grassroots culture by not only knocking on doors but also hosting social events, running clubs, and even soccer leagues, creating a community that extends beyond the electoral calendar CSMonitor.com.
Linguistic Diversity: In the week leading up to Primary Day alone, Mamdani and his team visited 135 mosques THE CITY, reaching communities often ignored by traditional campaigns.
The Fundamental Challenge
Despite his victory, Mamdani faces deep skepticism. Mamdani has condemned Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel as dictators while also criticizing U.S. sanctions and embargoes on their countries Wikipedia, attempting to distance himself from authoritarian socialism.
However, Cuban and Venezuelan Americans who experienced socialist regimes see the Democratic Party’s progressive wing with suspicion, fearing it could lead the country toward policies they fled from City & State NY. The challenge for Mamdani and the DSA is convincing voters that democratic socialism—focused on affordable housing, healthcare, and workers’ rights—differs fundamentally from the authoritarian systems these communities escaped.
The Bottom Line: Mamdani won by building a diverse, working-class coalition focused on bread-and-butter affordability issues, but he faces ongoing resistance from communities with lived experience of authoritarian regimes who associate any form of socialism with the trauma they fled.
