He’s the mayor-elect of New York. Will he also be America’s mayor?

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Nov. 4 election not only makes him the leader of the Big Apple. It also turns him into one of the most high-profile Democrats in the country − one who will be running the hometown of President Donald Trump, who isn't about to watch quietly from the sidelines.

New York mayors always command national attention because they are in charge of America’s biggest city. Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, made such an impression with Americans as he guided the traumatized city through the days and weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that he became widely known as “America’s mayor.”

Mamdani won’t take office until January. But for months, his face has been splashed across television screens and news feeds. Americans from Schenectady to Salinas and points in between will be hearing even more about him after he and his wife move into Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence.

Why the sudden nationwide interest in a state assemblyman that most Americans had never heard of until a few months ago?

For starters, he’s young (just 34), charismatic and articulate, often drawing comparisons to a young Barack Obama. He’s a fresh face in an era when many Americans are starving for new leadership.

He’s a self-described democratic socialist pushing a progressive message of fighting inequality, protecting the rights of immigrants and making life more affordable in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Many of those same issues are playing out across the country amid concerns over the high cost of housing, National Guard troops patrolling the streets of multiple cities, and reports of aggressive raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

To many progressives, Mamdani's campaign − which mobilized record-breaking volunteer and voter turnout − shows how to reenergize a moribund Democratic Party.

Two of the country's best-known progressives − Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York − campaigned on his behalf.

The new Republican boogeyman

Republicans benefit from having a Democrat they can demonize and tie to the entire Democratic Party heading into next year’s midterm congressional elections.

Mamdani is their new boogeyman.

With his election, “now every House Democrat is dragging an anvil of radical socialism into 2026,” said Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the U.S. House.

The committee already has put out a strategy memo showing how the GOP plans to make Mamdani the villain in next year’s key battleground races. And before Mamdani had even won, House Republican leaders were already saying that congressional Democrats were beholden to him.

A sign of how the GOP plans to characterize the race: “This isn’t about one race in New York," the memo notes, "it’s a national story of a party bending the knee to socialism and the far left.”

Mamdani’s victory puts him on a collision course with Trump, who was born and raised in New York and made his mark in the city’s real-estate market before entering politics. Trump has taken an unusual interest in the mayor’s race, mocking Mamdani as “a 100% Communist Lunatic” and threatening to withhold funding for the city if Mamdani was elected. On the eve of the election, Trump urged voters to vote for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying he is capable of leading New York while Mamdani isn't.

“He wants to destroy New York,” Trump said at an event in Des Moines in July. “I love New York, and we’re not going to let him do that. … America is never going to be communist in any way, shape or form, and that includes New York City.”

Trump also has threatened to investigate Mamdani’s immigration status and arrest him if he refuses to allow immigration raids in New York.

Mamdani was born in Uganda, moved to the United States with his parents when he was a young child and became a U.S. citizen shortly after graduating college. He has said he’s willing to work with Trump on affordability and cost-of-living issues. But he vowed to fight Trump on immigration raids by using the courts, reminding New Yorkers of their rights and upholding the city’s sanctuary city policies.

Mamdani, who will be New York's first Muslim and South Asian mayor, was the target of attacks that relied on Islamophobic tropes during the campaign.

“God forbid, another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo asked during an appearance on a conservative radio show.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican who is considering a run for New York governor in 2026, branded Mamdani a "jihadist." Rep. Andy Ogles, a hard-right conservative Republican from Tennessee, suggested Mamdani should be stripped of his citizenship and deported. And Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican running for governor in her home state, tried to tie him to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She posted a photo of Mamdani on X, along with the message: "After 9/11, we said 'Never Forget. I think we sadly have forgotten."

Mamdani was just 9 on the day of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Schumer and Jeffries' split on Mamdani

The one group that doesn't want to talk about Mamdani is moderate Democrats.

Some prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York, declined to endorse Mamdani. Even on Election Day, Schumer declined to say for whom he had voted.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who lives in Brooklyn, waited until a little over a week before the election to endorse Mamdani. A critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, Jeffries had resisted backing him for months despite significant pressure from leftists in his party. When he finally made the endorsement, he did so in writing, saying he respected the will of the primary voters and young voters who had been inspired to participate in the electoral process.

Even so, Jeffries’ endorsement was significant because he's likely to become House speaker if Democrats win back the majority in next year’s election.

Can other Democrats win with Mamdani message?

For their part, Democrats are examining Mamdani’s victory to see how well his affordability message and other left-leaning issues can transfer to other contests heading into next year’s congressional midterms and the 2028 presidential race.

Democrats have been confined to the political wilderness since then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ devastating loss to Trump last year. Some are worried about what Mamdani’s victory will do to the party’s image and how it could feed the Republican argument that Democrats are inflicting socialism on the country.

But others think Mamdani may show Democrats the formula for winning back voters who have abandoned them.

Progressive activist Adam Green said there is a growing consensus that Democrats need to talk more about affordability issues and appealing more to working-class voters. Mamdani showed how that can be done, he said.

“For a long time, Democratic voters didn’t know that it was OK to be inspired,” said Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a grassroots organization that boasts a million members.

“Zohran Mamdani proved that when a Democrat has a fresh set of forward-looking ideas and they shake up the system, volunteers flock to help, and voters flock to the polls,” Green said. “And that is an important message for all Democrats running in 2026 and 2028.”

The New York mayoral race illustrated a generational struggle playing out within the Democratic Party, said Susan Stokes, director of the University of Chicago’s Center on Democracy.

“Zohran Mamdani represents young progressives (in his case, a democratic socialist) who are more outspoken on issues related to income inequality and raising the prospects of poor and working-class voters, the kinds of voters who have trended increasingly Republican in recent years if they are turning out to vote,” Stokes said.

Cuomo, 67, who rose to prominence during the Clinton administration, represents an older generation of Democrats who are more centrist or conservative than younger, aspiring leaders.

The split comes out around economic and cost-of-living issues but also shows up in other issues as well. In the New York mayoral race Cuomo slammed Mamdani for being a sharp critic of Israel, his past calls to defund the police (which Mamdani has recanted), and insulting the legacy of Christopher Columbus.

“The Democrats, nationally, face an enormous and urgent challenge of reasserting their image as the party of lower-income and working-class Americans,” Stokes said. “Will the older, more establishment Democrats figure out how to solve that problem? Are there more ‘centrist’ answers that other young Democratic leaders can provide? Or will the Mamdani/AOC/Bernie type response become the dominant one in the party?"

Whether he’s New York’s or America’s mayor, Mamdani’s election may offer some clues.

Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. A veteran reporter, he has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X: @mcollinsNEWS

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: America's mayor? Why people outside of New York should care about Mamdani's victory

Reporting by Michael Collins, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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