The Audacity of Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Will the Weight of Office and Expectations Crush Him?

The first time Zohran Kwame Mamdani came into my view was late last year. There was talk that he was going to throw his hat in the ring, to run the largest city in the country, home to more than eight million people. As a little known freshman state assemblyman from Queens, his youthful smile and disarming demeanor had won him a dedicated fan base. His activism for the struggling NYC taxi drivers had brought him attention and support from the immigrant community. This afforded him the audacity to run for the highest office in the city.

Also the election of Donald Trump and the surprise swing of voters in the immigrant community, had opened a door for a different kind of politics on the left.

Then a friend told me he was filmmaker Mira Nair’s son. Mira the well known director from India had made Salam Bombay which was an influential film for anyone in the business. She was also an advisor on my film Salam- The First Muslim Nobel Laureatte, so my interest in him peaked even more.

Since then Zohran catapulted himself via an immensely effective viral social media campaign, onto every screen of not just every New Yorker but people all around the world. His name spelled in bright yellow bold letters on his posters became instantly recognizable. His playful memes on TikTok of him eating Biryani with his hands at a local Halal truck, and him yelling at Tom Homan, the border Czar, made him an instant hero.

The Landslide

As the primaries neared, his signature platform of making New York affordable became the central theme of his campaign. Freezing rents, free buses, childcare and grocery stores for low income families and making the wealthy city dwellers pay for all of it, revealed his Democratic Socialist credentials. His politics aligned with Bernie Sanders and AOC who were attracting huge audiences around the country on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. He swept the primaries in a landslide.

In any other time, this would have sealed his victory in the general election. But the establishment was not having it and the rich of the city were spooked by a “socialist.”And so they opened their wallets and Hampton homes, in an attempt to derail his candidacy, and back a disgraced candidate who had been booted out of office, at the center of a sex scandal.

Opponents from the president down to fellow Democrats called him a “commie” and branded him dangerous for New York as he would drain the city of its wealth, which makes New York the financial capital of the world and a playground for the rich to spend and park their money.

Fellow Democrats who took money from AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, refused to endorse him.

Mispronouncing his name became a regular gag to diminish him and his credentials. Racism and bigotry which had been normalized by Trump and his tribe creeped into New York politics like never before. 

Zohran has become a master of deflection by defaulting to his rehearsed answer when thrown curve balls. His goto response always is, “my primary focus is New Yorkers from all walks of life, to make their lives better and more affordable.”

Zohran in his riled up youthful protest phase had uttered statements such as “Defund the Police” and “Globalize the Intefadah.”

These came to haunt him branding him some kind of radical revolutionary of sorts. His father being a professor of Colonial and Post-Colonial history most certainly had had an overwhelming influence on his ideas, but clearly as a politician running for Mayor of the most diverse city in the world, he would have to move on his politics to win over voters, which he did.

Half and Half

Even though Zohran is half Muslim and half Hindu, he made a decision to highlight his Muslim identity more, for astute political reasons. A million Muslims from around the world make New York their home and it was a vote bank that would be important to get. This decision would bring with it a deluge of Islamophobia from his opponents, which came at him fast and furious.

New York having one of the largest Jewish populations in the world outside Israel, had been rattled by the conflict and the campus protests that followed. Antisemitism had reared its ugly head and Donald Trump had made things worse by arresting Mahmoud Khalil and bulldozing Columbia University to bend to his will. The youth in the city, and the progressives, Jewish and non-Jewish, had taken these events seriously. They had made up their mind on which side of the issue they stood, and Zohran was clearly in their camp.

Then came the most important questions of our time. “Do you condemn Hamas” and “Do you think Israel has a right to exist”. Zohran answered, he believed in the right of Israel to exist as a nation with equal rights for all under international law. His harsh criticism of Israel and wanting to arrest Benjamin Natenyahu and calling the bloodshed a “genocide” lost him support in the wider Jewish community. 

A dear Jewish friend of mine, voted for Cuomo, and said the Jewish people will not feel safe if he became Mayor.

The more progressive young Jewish population and some in the ultra-Orthodox sections of the city, have clearly thrown their support behind Zohran for his stance on the Israel/Palestinian issue.

Zohran has become a master of deflection by defaulting to his rehearsed answer when thrown curve balls. His goto response always is, “my primary focus is New Yorkers from all walks of life, to make their lives better and more affordable.”

Rent is Too High

I have lived in this city for 30 years. I have seen and experienced gentrification first hand and have also made a short film on this subject titled Saint Felix Street, which is available on YouTube. My first apartment I rented in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was a one bedroom in a Brownstone walkup. The rent in 1994 for this small apartment was $800. Today it would be hard-pressed to find even a single room in a shared apartment for this price.

In a recent WNYC program a black voter from this neighborhood called Zohran an “empty suit,” as he was mainly being supported by progressive white gentrifiers who had turned her neighborhood unaffordable and unrecognizable. And if Zohran thinks he can do anything about it, he was basically offering a pipe dream.

Zohran has struggled to get black voters on his side. Even though he tried his best, by visiting many Churches, he has gotten a lukewarm response. Probably for not being black and being an immigrant, and not being your garden variety Democrat.

Just like Barack Obama, Zohran has captured the imagination of many in a dark period in American politics. With his youthful energy and disarming charm and infectious smile he has walked on water. Just like Obama, he is willing to give the voter the benefit of the doubt, of not being a racist, Islamophobic and agist and give them a chance to believe in his audacity of hope.

People will project a whole range of aspirations on to him as they did on Obama and may feel disappointed.

Sure he does not have the experience, he is not mouthing conventional talking points people like to hear, some are fearful and think he is an empty suit.

What he is not though, is an old tired politician with baggage with allegiances to the establishment and lobbyists and the status quo.

The weight of the office will stretch, bend and crush him. 

But for now, he is the man for the moment.

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Anand Kamalakar is a Brooklyn based documentary film director, producer and editor. His film OSBORNE will premiere on PBS nationwide next year.