All the candidates supported by the mayor won last week. His ability to reshape the political landscape of New York City shows what happens when a socialist takes executive power.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (center) holds hands with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (L) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at the end of a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York on October 26, 2025.
(Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) Last Tuesday, all the candidates supported by Zohran Mamdani won: the mayor obtained three out of three in Congress and five out of five in the state legislative elections. Her victory provides a glimpse of how one leader can reshape an entire party — and shows why it’s time for the left to support a possible presidential bid by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Because, as Mamdani’s kingmaker status demonstrates, there is almost nothing that can increase the appeal of a faction within a party more than the fact that the party leader comes from that faction.
This is not to say that Mamdani’s support was the only variable in the left’s victory on Tuesday. NY-DSA’s door-to-door organizing capacity is extremely important. Voter backlash against the incumbent party’s support for Israel, fueled by AIPAC, was a major factor. And more broadly, the Democratic base’s anger over the failure of party elites to stop Trump has changed the terrain on which all of the insurrectionists’ primary challenges are playing out.
But Mamdani was undoubtedly a key driver in these races. This is particularly clear in Claire Valdez’s lopsided victory in NY-7 over Antonio Reynoso, a former insurrectionist himself with a track record of truly progressive achievements and whose agenda was virtually identical to Valdez’s. The most important distinguishing factor in this race was Mamdani’s support. It seemed like every mail from Valdez had Mamdani’s smiling face on it. And that made all the difference.
The lesson here is that, at least in his particular jurisdiction, a chief executive becomes the leader of his party. And when you’re the CEO and leader of your party, like Donald Trump put it on“Everyone wants to be [your] friend. » This ripple effect doesn’t always materialize: No one is pretending that Chicago’s embattled mayor, Brandon Johnson, is remaking that city’s politics in his image. But the attentional advantages of an effective chief executive mean that when such a leader has a clear vision of where his party should go and explicitly communicates that vision to party members, he can rebuild his party.
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We saw this dynamic clearly in Trump’s consolidation of the Republican Party. In just a few cycles, he shattered the Republican establishment and made it a vessel for the MAGA movement. We’ve even seen Biden, despite his obvious weaknesses, engender a trace of this: It’s no coincidence that progressive insurgent primary victories have largely stagnated during his tenure, because in general the average party member wants to be with their leader.
And that’s exactly what we’re seeing today with Mamdani’s success in reshaping the Democratic establishment in New York. Policy sums up this dynamic well in a article about how centrist Democrats are “freaking out” that progressives are “becoming more and more dominant as they continue to win – reshaping the Democratic Party.” Or as Liam Kerr, director of the Manchin-glazing WelcomePAC, puts it: “Centrist Democrats, normal Democrats, need to realize that we are the insurgents and they are the new establishment. »
This is, of course, the goal of the DSA: to create a new pro-worker, anti-oligarchy establishment to lead the Democratic Party. And Mamdani’s success last week shows that making a big move for the top job can pay such outsized dividends on that end that the risk is worth it.
In hindsight, this all seems obvious. But it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t so clear at the start of Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Many current NY-DSA members advocated against he supported Mamdani, arguing that the potential downsides of his candidacy were too great and that the movement should continue to focus on strengthening its ranks of lower-level elected officials.
Find out more about the AOC: Many on the left today have a similar analysis regarding the 2028 presidential campaign. It is time for us to exorcise these doubts. There is simply nothing that matters more than a leftist winning the Democratic presidential nomination. This matters for our chances of defeating MAGA, because the Democratic Party’s best chance of beating Trump’s successor is to have a candidate who embraces true economic populism. This is important for our substantive purposes – because, as Trump has demonstrated, the American presidency has amassed essentially imperial power to pursue an agenda through executive and administrative actions. Perhaps more than anything, this is important to the left’s project to transform the Democratic Party into a party capable of tackling obscene inequality, rampant corruption, the escalating climate crisis, and other existential challenges of our time — because, as Mamdani’s New York town hall demonstrated, if a leftist can become the leader of the national Democratic Party, the median Democratic voter will follow.
This is where Ocasio-Cortez comes in.
Of course, AOC isn’t the only progressive who could plausibly run for president. Congressman Ro Khanna has boldly supported populists across the country, denouncing the sclerosis of the Democrats’ congressional leadership and leading the charge in prosecuting the Epstein class. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has been a courageous voice against Israeli apartheid, also recently expressed interest in at least exploring a presidential campaign. And I, for one, would be up for a third Bernie Sanders run.
But the chances of that materializing at Sanders’ age — he’ll be 86 in 2028 — seem close to zero, which is probably why Sanders has worked so hard to build the next generation of left-wing leaders. And while no one will ever truly fill his shoes, there is only one clear heir to Sanders’ role as the standard-bearer of the American left: AOC.
Much of the discussion about AOC’s political future has focused on whether she should run for president or challenge Chuck Schumer for the Senate. But at this point, challenging Schumer is a waste of his talents. by Schumer favorability among New Yorkers, he represents only 38 percent, the Democratic base is furious with him for his capitulations to Trump, and the most central issue of his political identity – his unconditional loyalty to the Israeli government – has become toxic among Democratic primary voters. You don’t need an AOC to take him down – there are plenty of other progressive leaders in the state who could do it.
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On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine anyone on the left being in a better position for a presidential campaign than AOC currently is. She is one of the Democratic Party’s most effective communicators. She is one of the strongest bases fundraisers in Congress. She is one of the most popular politicians of the country. And she is in a unique position to build the kind of increasingly powerful Democratic primary coalition — of young people, Latinos and working-class voters — that has delivered other major opposition victories, from Mamdani to James Talarico in Texas. This goes beyond identity politics: It’s not just about AOC being young, Latina, and working-class. This is because it can speak authentically and convincingly to the experiences, fears and aspirations of these groups.
What she is not, at this point, is clearly committed to pursuing a presidential campaign in 2028. When David Axelrod asks her if she was a candidate, she answered”My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go. Senate seats, House seats, elected officials come and go. But single-payer health care is forever…I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window and looking at the conditions of this country. And saying what move or what decision I can make today that will bring us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday.”
This response was famous online as a piece of rhetoric, and rightly so, it’s a phenomenal response. But as a statement of real political strategy, it’s a bit off. If you want single-payer health care, nothing could have a greater impact than electing a president who will actually fight to pass single-payer health care. And no one is currently in a stronger position to be that president than AOC, if she chooses to run.
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. She’s a politician and none of us will agree with all of her choices. Personally, I found it recent explanation for supporting Hakeem Jeffries as House Democratic leader, it’s frustrating. And she made mistakes in the 2024 campaign – others asked her to do so. apologize for whitewashing Kamala Harris’ position on Gaza during her DNC speech, and as someone who work to oust Biden from the Democratic ticket, I was upset when she (and other progressives) threw him a lifeline after his debate fiasco. Needless to say, the left will have to hold her back account like any elected leader.
But given the benefits of an AOC presidency, those of us on the left should urge him to run. If our ultimate goal is to transform the Democratic Party into a force capable of defeating the authoritarian right and transforming this country for the better, the fight for the White House is not a distraction. This may be the most important political fight of our lifetimes – and AOC can win it.
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Aaron Regunberg Aaron Regunberg is a climate lawyer and editor-in-chief of The New Republicand a former Rhode Island state representative.