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ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S ELECTRIFYING UPSET IN NYC:#RANKTHESLATE –
“DON’T RANK CUOMO”  
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Nan Faessler
July 1, 2025
The Stansbury Forum
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_ Along with the turnout of 50,000 volunteers who embraced the
Mamdani campaign, the NY WFP, achieved the following: Knocked 7,750
doors; made 126K phone calls; organized 300 early voting poll site and
over 200 election day poll site visibility shifts. _

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So much ink (literal and virtual) has been spilled on the electrifying
upset in the NYC mayoral primary race. Zohran Mamdani wins and Andrew
Cuomo, the former disgraced NY governor, had to concede on election
night. Every media outlet has weighed in from _NY Times,_ to every
substack, and every celebrity who supported Mamdani. 

This is not an analysis of Zohran’s mighty win but just a few
observations from a New York City resident and more precisely someone
living in Central Harlem.

As a volunteer member of the NY Working Families Party (NY WFP) I
fully supported the brilliantly executed strategy of “Rank the
Slate”. Ana Maria Archila and Jasmine Gripper, the co-directors of
the NY WFP, analyzed the failing of the progressives in the 2021 NYC
mayoral race that allowed NYC mayor Eric Adams to win by just over
7,000 votes. Given that Ranked-Choice Voting would be used again
during this Democratic primary, they presented a program to build a
true coalition of progressives who would support each other with the
ultimate goal of denying Andrew Cuomo the win in the primary. And it
worked.

Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), for those not familiar, is a system used
during the primaries in NY State to allow a primary voter to choose up
to five candidates on their ballot in descending rankings. If a
candidate receives 50% plus 1 of the 1st-choice votes, they are the
winner. If no candidate earns more than 50% of the 1st-choice votes,
then counting continues in rounds. At the end of each round, the
candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. This process will
continue until there are only two candidates left and the candidate
with the most votes wins. (Zohran Mamdani on election night had over
43% of the first choice votes, the final tally will be announced by
the NYC Board of Elections on Tuesday July 1st and Zohran’s final
numbers will be higher.)

The beauty of RCV is that more diverse candidates win elections.
Cities that have implemented ranked choice voting have elected more
women and more people of color, making their elected officials more
representative of their communities.

Earlier in the year, NY WFP leadership held mass calls with members
and supporters to talk about the strategy and pulling together
progressives who would unite around a strategy that supported the full
slate – a slate where any of the candidates who were endorsed by the
NY WFP would be fighters for working people of NYC and most
importantly a slate that would not split the vote of our base.

Many mayoral candidates came forward asking for the endorsement of NY
WFP. Our process included an all day meeting at the Make the Road
headquarters in Queens. While each of us had our own favorites, each
candidate had a sit down with NY WFP leadership – where candidates
had to agree to support the other NY WFP endorsed candidates in a
spirit of unity. If they did not agree to this principle then we would
not include them on the NY WFP Slate.

At the end of the endorsement process the NY WFP ended up with four
great candidates who agreed to be presented as a slate – a slate
with no rankings (#1, #2 etc.) until the end of May: Adrienne Adams
(no connection to Mayor Adams); Brad Lander; Zohran Mamdani and
Zellnor Myrie. These candidates represented a diverse mosaic of NYC,
all with a vision to make NYC safe and affordable, and all with the
courage to stand up to Donald Trump.

#RankTheSlate was our rallying cry during canvasses and phone banks,
along with our adjacent  Don’t Rank Cuomo. When I talked to voters
I talked about the full slate, encouraging voters to list all four
candidates on their ballots, ranking them by voter’s preference. My
candidate was _The Slate_. Encouraging voters to rank the full slate
and not to rank Cuomo meant we had a shot at defeating our corrupt
former governor and his billionaire funders who had dropped over $25
million into his “Fix the City” SuperPac.

Of course each individual candidate had their own campaign and their
own canvassers who were out on the streets, at green markets, door
knocking, at local events, and when NY WFP members and volunteers
ended up in the same spaces we embraced and hugged – we knew we were
on the same team.

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Two months before Election Day, June 24th, NY WFP had members and
volunteers in the field canvassing, and full poll site visibility
during early voting.

Along with the incredible turnout of 50,000 volunteers who embraced
the Mamdani campaign, the NY WFP, in two months prior to Election Day
achieved the following:

KNOCKED 7,750 DOORS; MADE 126K PHONE CALLS; ORGANIZED 300 EARLY VOTING
POLL SITE VISIBILITY SHIFTS; AND OVER 200 ELECTION DAY POLL SITE
VISIBILITY SHIFTS.

At the end of May, NY WFP ranked the slate as follows: #1 Zohran
Mamdani, #2 Brad Lander, #3 Adrienne Adams, #4 Zellnor Myrie.

Combatting the manosphere toxicity was the absolute bromance between
our number 1 and 2 picks. Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander cross
endorsed. It was electric – they appeared together at events, made
sure that their own supporters knew who to rank second, they even
showed up on “Late Night with Steven Colbert”. It made my heart
sing. It showed that the strategy laid out by Jasmine Gripper and Ana
Maria Archila would work and even before the final vote, I and many
others knew we could beat our disgraced former Governor.

Later Zohran and Michael Blake, another Dem candidate on the ballot
cross endorsed, proving that Zohran had the capacity to broaden his
coalition. Michael Blake had been an NY State Assemblyman from the
Bronx and worked in the Obama White House. Blake became my number
five.   

I put in lots of leg work – in the best of two ways – the hard
work of canvasses making sure folks knew about 1) Ranked-Choice
Voting 2) Our #RankTheSlate ballot, and 3) How we could defeat
Andrew Cuomo (and eventually the morally corrupt Mayor Eric Adams in
the general in November) our legs got a workout knocking doors,
climbing stairs, running around green markets, and any event where we
could be in front of the public.

I am not your typical canvasser – why? Because I love it. (Not a fan
of phone banking, but will do it when asked.) Getting to talk to
voters, even non-voters, excites me. It gets one out from the bubble
of one’s own like-minded friends. And I am over the top when I am
able to hear someone’s concerns and persuade them to vote for the
Slate. Though I would add that here in NYC it was not all that
difficult. Free buses, free childcare, affordable housing is top of
mind for all but the cruel 1% and their allies.

During our early voting, and on Election Day itself, while doing poll
site visibility, I would shout to folks on their way in to vote,
“#RankTheSlate and No Cuomo”. Inevitably the rejoinder from the
voter to me was so sweet as they would yell as they turned around to
face me, “Don’t Rank Cuomo”. This meme/slogan broke through.
Everyone (well 99% of everyone) said “Don’t Rank Cuomo”.

Central Harlem is where I live. Harlem, while gentrifying is still an
African American neighborhood, and Black politicians hold sway – but
that is changing. If you look at the data of who voted for Zohran
Mamdani vs. Andrew Cuomo, Cuomo held much of the Black vote in the
Bronx, parts of Harlem and Brooklyn, but but but, my experience on the
streets, knocking doors, poll site visibility – African Americans
under 60 were clearly in the Don’t Rank Cuomo camp, with an attitude
of “why would you even think I would vote for that sleaze”.  

June 24th, Election Day, I ran into Keith Wright, the Manhattan
Democratic County Party leader, whom I have known, and worked with a
bit over the past 9-10 years. Keith is one of the old establishment
Black leaders in Harlem/Manhattan. He shocked me as I was doing my
“Zohran is going to win” happy dance at the corner of Malcolm X
Blvd and 134th, the PS 175 poll site. Keith says to me “Zohran is
going to win and I voted for him”. Like Popeye I could have said
back “Blow me down”. I was stunned. I did not expect this from
him. A couple days later on the streets near our Harlem Trader
Joe’s, I ran into Keith’s son, Jordan Wright, who is a recently
elected NY State Assemblyman from Harlem. Giving Jordan a bit of a
hard time for supporting Cuomo, Jordan could not wait to pull out his
phone and show me a photo of Zohran and himself. Glad to see Jordan
and electeds in NYC realizing that they need to be on the right side
of history – even if it is late. (Other electeds need to stop their
vile attacks on Mamdani – but that is another article and being
addressed by the Mamdani campaign.)

Please see below the statement about Mamdani’s historic win by the
two co-directors of the NY WFP, Jasmine Gripper and Ana Maria Archila:

“Tonight, we showed that organized people can defeat the
billionaires and corrupt politicians of the past—and together, we
can win a more affordable future for New York. New York City showed
the country it’s time to usher in a new era of leadership — one
that puts working families at the center of their vision.
NYWFP—alongside Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, and
Zellnor Myrie—built a true coalition that represented all New
Yorkers. When we run on the dignity and the power of working people,
we win.”

“Zohran built a multi-racial movement of working families, powerful
and energized enough to defeat the billionaire class and their
hand-picked candidate, Andrew Cuomo. The Working Families Party is
ready to roll up our sleeves and support Zohran all the way to City
Hall.”

_Nan Faessler is a NY Working Families Party member and volunteer and
an active member of Indivisible Harlem, WE ACT for Environmental
Justice and NY Renews _

* Working Families Party
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* Ranked choice voting
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* New York City mayoral election
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* Zohran Mamdani
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