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Sisters and brothers -

Last night, I joined Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani for a rally at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York. More than 10,000 people attended. It was a terrific event.

But it is not just the people of New York City who are paying attention to this race.

The reason why this campaign has generated so much interest around the world and so much excitement is that people want to know the answer to one very simple question and that is: In the year 2025, when the people on top have never had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working class people to come together and defeat these oligarchs? That is why the entire world is watching this campaign.

Please read my speech from yesterday's event. When you are done, share it with a friend who you believe is either excited or curious about Zohran. At the very bottom of this note, you'll also see a link where you can contribute to help me organize and mobilize progressives all across the country ahead of the next election. I would appreciate it if you could chip in a few dollars.

But let me close with this: When Zohran is elected, he will need our help. All of us. He will be attacked relentlessly, not just by Republicans, but by the corporate media and even some Democrats. We must do all we can for him in order to make him the best mayor New York City has ever had. His success is our success.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders


Here is the speech:

Thank you all very much. And let me thank the people of New York City for electing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the US Congress. Not only have you elected one of the outstanding members of Congress, but you have elected somebody who has provided hope and inspiration to millions of young people and working people throughout this country.

Everybody knows that a New York City mayor’s race always generates a lot of attention. That’s not new. New York is the largest city in the country, some 8 million people, and everybody is interested in what happens in this city.

But this mayor’s race, my friends, is different. It’s not just the folks here in New York City who are paying rapt attention. It’s not just people all across our country who are watching this race. It’s not just the President of the United States who seems to be very, very concerned about who will win this election.

The truth is that people all over the world are paying keen attention as to what happens here a week from Tuesday.

Why is that? Why has this campaign created such an unbelievable amount of interest? And the answer is obvious.

These are not normal times. This is not a normal election.

This election takes place at a moment in American history when we have a rigged economy with more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the history of our country. It takes place at a time when the wealthiest people in America have never ever had it so good while 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck — struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, struggling to afford childcare or higher education for their kids, struggling to afford health care, struggling to afford decent quality food, struggling to figure out how they will retire with dignity after a lifetime of work.

This election takes place at a time when the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty and senior poverty of almost any major nation on earth, and when we have some 800,000 Americans — including many veterans — who are homeless.

This election takes place at a time when we have a president who has given $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1%, $900 billion in tax breaks to the largest corporations in our country — and has paid for these tax breaks by throwing 15 million Americans off the health care they have by slashing Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. In addition, he is forcing over 20 million Americans to see a doubling in their health care premiums.

This election takes place when we have an administration in Washington which is moving this country every day toward an authoritarian society — undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.

This election takes place when we have a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires in both political parties to select the candidates that they want — and to buy elections. Ordinary Americans get one vote. YOU get one vote. Meanwhile, Billionaires get the opportunity to spend as much as they want to elect the candidates they own.

That is the context in which this election is taking place. That is why this election is so enormously important. And that is why Zohran Mamdani must become the next mayor of New York City.

New York must have a mayor who represents the working families of this city, not just the billionaire class.

The reason why this campaign has generated so much interest around the world and so much excitement is that people want to know the answer to one very simple question and that is: In the year 2025, when the people on top have never had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working class people to come together and defeat these oligarchs? That is why the entire world is watching this campaign.

And let me tell you something else. At a moment when Americans are extremely distressed about where we are economically and politically, a victory here in New York will give hope and inspiration to people throughout our country and, in fact, throughout the world.

That is why Donald Trump is paying attention to this election. Ordinary people standing together for economic and social justice is Trump’s worst nightmare.

What Trump and his fellow oligarchs understand — if Zohran and all of you together can defeat the big money interests here in New York, people from California to Maine will understand that they can do the same, that they can take on the economic and political establishment and can win.

And when ordinary people come together and sense their own power, they will demand fundamental changes in the way this country is run. They will demand a government that works for all of us, not just the few.

All over our country, people will ask: Why are we the only major nation on earth not to guarantee health care to every man, woman and child as a human right, despite spending twice as much per capita as other countries?

Why aren’t we paying our teachers the salaries they deserve so that we can have the best public educational system in the world? Why don’t we do what was the case in America 70 years ago — make public colleges and universities tuition-free?

Why don’t we end homelessness and build 5 million units of low-income and affordable housing so that every person in this country has a home they can afford?

Why don’t we make it easier for workers to join unions so they can negotiate for better wages and working conditions? And why don’t we raise the national minimum wage to a living wage?

And when so many of our seniors are struggling to cover their basic needs, why aren’t we significantly expanding Social Security benefits and making sure that every senior in this country can retire with dignity?

Why don’t we stop spending billions of U.S. taxpayers dollars supporting the extremist Netanyahu government which has starved the children of Gaza?

In other words, a victory for Zohran will help Americans understand that in the richest country in the history of the world, every American can and should have a decent standard of living.

Now, the oligarchs and the political establishment tell us that Zohran’s agenda for New York is radical. Really? At a time when working families in this city are finding it hard to live here because of the outrageously high cost of housing, I don’t think it’s radical to say that the city should freeze the rent and triple its stock of affordable housing. At a time when working families can’t afford the high cost of childcare and psychologists tell us that zero through four are the most important years of intellectual and emotional development, it is not radical for the city to provide free childcare for every kid aged 6 weeks to 5 years.

At a time when getting to work is too expensive and we want to encourage more utilization of public transportation, it is not a radical idea to say that buses in this city should be free and fast.

And at a time when every parent wants their kids eating good-quality food and there are neighborhoods in this city where that is simply not affordable or possible, it is not a radical idea to say that there should be municipally-funded grocery stores.

And by the way, at a time when billionaires, large corporations and the very wealthy are doing extraordinarily well, when the very richest people in this country often pay an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses, it is not a radical idea to say that they should start paying their fair share of taxes.

These ideas are not radical. They are commonsense. And they are what the people of New York City want and need.

Let me be very clear: As someone who served as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont for eight years I can tell you that being mayor is not an easy job. In local government, the people hold you accountable for everything — for picking up the trash, for crime problems, for the quality of education their kids receive, for traffic jams — and everything else. That’s what mayors have to deal with. And it ain’t easy. Zohran Mamdani as mayor is not going to have all the answers. The problems facing this city and every other major city in America are enormous.

So let me say this: When he is elected, Zohran will need your help. In this unprecedented moment in our country’s history, all of us must act in an unprecedented way. Please do everything you can to work with Zohran in order to make him the best mayor this city has ever had.

And let me conclude by saying this — and I say this as someone who became mayor of Burlington in 1981 by winning that election by ten votes — after a recount. I have read the polls. You have read the polls. And the polls suggest Zohran is in the lead — and that’s great. But don’t underestimate our opponents. They have a huge amount of money and they are spending it right now. So I urge you: Forget about the polls. Go into the last eight days of this election assuming you are five points down and you — and the other 80,000 volunteers in the Mamdani campaign, have got to do everything you can to bring people out to the polls in early voting right now and on Election Day. I don’t want anyone here to wake up the day after the election and find that we lost because they outworked us. That must not happen.

My friends, a year ago, very few people in New York knew about a 33 year-old assemblyman named Zohran Mamdani. And when he first entered this race, taking on the entire Democratic political establishment, he was polling at all of 1%. Nobody knew who this guy was. But Zohran did what people who are serious about real change always do. He created a campaign from the bottom on up by building an extraordinary grassroots movement which now has 80,000 New Yorkers actively involved. Unprecedented. Unlike his opponents, he didn’t go running to the billionaire class for campaign contributions. He went to the people with an agenda that made sense to them. And despite being outspent four to one, Zohran won the primary.

And, with your hard work, over the next eight days, this young man is going to make American history.

It is my honor to introduce the next mayor of the city of New York, Zohran Mamdani.

👋 Before you go... 👋

Thank you to everyone who has donated to make Bernie's work over the last few months possible. But we're not done yet.

Bernie is going to be working hard to elect progressive candidates all over this country who have the guts not only to stand up to Trumpism, but to take on the monied interests of both parties and fight for a working class that has been ignored for far too long.

If that work sounds important to you, help Bernie keep it going with a contribution of $27 or whatever you can afford today. Thank you.

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