Friend, last night Zohran Mamdani officially became Mayor-elect of New York City.
It’s an incredible achievement — Zohran started at 1% in the polls. He was told he had no shot. He was told a progressive, Muslim, immigrant man could not win.
He proved them all wrong.
And in doing so Zohran charted a new path forward for the Democratic party. Let me explain.
Since our devastating losses to the far-right in 2024, Democrats have tried to figure out why. Polls show that approval ratings for the Democratic Party are at all time lows, even as Trump moves ahead with his extremely unpopular agenda.
One poll of working-class voters showed that one of the first words that they associated with our party was “weak”. We play it too safe. We don’t show fire. We don’t reflect the anger that regular people feel when the system is stacked against them. In many ways, our party is lost in the wilderness.
The politics that propelled Zohran to victory are a true antidote to this situation: Positive, bold, ideas-driven, and focused on the needs of the working class instead of the billionaire class. He’s generated so much excitement among regular folks at a time when Democrats need it most.
But the fact that party leaders refused to endorse Zohran, or waited until the last minute to show their half-hearted support for his campaign, really shows where the problem lies.
If Democrats continue to be too afraid to get behind bold ideas and working-class politics, we will continue to lose. If we sacrifice a truly progressive agenda to appease billionaire donors and mythical “moderate Republicans”, we will leave behind millions of young people, working people, and folks who simply don’t see a reason to vote and decide to stay home — the exact groups that Democrats lost tons of support from in 2024.
Friend — When I first ran for Congress in 2018, I faced many of the same challenges as Zohran. So did AOC, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. So did Bernie Sanders when he ran for president in two historic campaigns. Our entire movement has faced pushback from powerful voices in the Democratic party who are invested in the status quo.
But now, as Trump’s fascist agenda is exposing the ineffectiveness of the establishment wing of the Democratic party, more and more folks are realizing the truth: Progressive, working class politics are the only chance that Democrats have at winning over Americans and defeating Trump.
That’s why I’m fighting every day to not just put forward a progressive agenda that speaks directly to the skyrocketing cost of living, but to push our party in that direction too.
So if you want to see more Zohrans, more Bernies, and more Democratic victories in the years to come, please:
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In solidarity,
Ilhan
PAID FOR BY ILHAN FOR CONGRESS
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Ilhan for Congress
PO Box 33079
Washington D.C., 20033
