The borderless allure of Zohran Mamdani

Few political races in recent memory have captured the hearts and minds of millions like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani has. Mamdani's palpably unapologetic, democratic socialist messaging has not only resonated with his voters in New York, it has reverberated with people across the globe. Non-New Yorkers everywhere (in the English-speaking world at least) are understandably invested in the outcome of this election. A Mamdani victory will be a litmus test for what political campaigns driven by genuine community engagement could look like.

A politician who does not need to be prompted or media-trained (though he undoubtedly has been), Mamdani's campaign should be in every political strategy textbook for years to come. From attempts to speak Spanish to connect with Hispanic voters, to attending Gen Z popstar PinkPantheress's concert, the Mamdani campaign has pulled out all the stops to not repeat the mistakes of the failed 2024 Biden and Harris presidential campaigns.

Mamdani's policy platform includes freezing rent for stabilised tenants, setting up city government-owned grocery stores, universal childcare for kids between six weeks and five years, fare-free buses, and increasing taxes for New York's wealthiest one percent. He has also been refreshingly, consistently vocal about Palestine (Mamdani co-founded the Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine where he attended college from 2010 to 2014).

Though Mamdani has been a staunch advocate for working-class New Yorkers, his familial background reflects a different social class. His mother is Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair (of Cannes-winning Salaam Bombay! and Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding fame, among many other features). And Mamdani's father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Mumbai-born Ugandan academic and professor of government at Columbia University.

Topics of race, colonialism, and class, are likely common conversation starters in the Nair-Mamdani household. One of Nair's more notable films, Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, is set in 1972 Idi Amin-era Uganda. Indians, including Mina (played by Choudhury) and her family are forced to flee the country and join relatives and settle in Greenwood, Mississippi. Mina meets Demetrius Williams (played by Washington), a carpet cleaner. They fall in love, but their relationship unsurprisingly sparks tension and disapproval from their communities.

Meanwhile, Zohran's father, Mahmood, researches and teaches slavery, colonialism, and capitalism. His latest monograph, Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities, published by Harvard University Press in 2020, has been shortlisted for several awards, including a British Academy Book Prize.

Leftist politics clearly runs deep in his lineage.

If elected (and multiple polls are saying he will), Mamdani will not only be New York's first Muslim mayor, he will be one of the very few in U.S. political office. Democrat André Carson is currently the only Muslim man in the House of Representatives (the three Muslim women are Democrats Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Lateefah Simon). And no Muslim has ever served in the U.S. Senate.

In a new world order dictated by populist leaders, Mamdani's popularity with everyday people should be a lesson not only to the U.S. Democratic Party but locally in Australia. Trust in government by young people in Australia continues to decline, as shown in recent articles in the ABC and The Conversation. And if the Australian Labor Party and the Greens are not careful, seats will fall.

Mamdani is on track to win the mayorship. But his next challenge will be to translate rhetoric into actual policy to cement his status as a beacon bearer for a new wave of democratic socialists taking power in U.S. politics. Until ballots officially close on 4 November, millions around the world will be watching this race closely.

The author is a strategic communicator in higher education. She previously worked as a campaigner for not-for-profit organisations Justice Connect, ActionAid, and GetUp.