According to The Washington Post, many Democrats are uneasy about what the words “Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani” could mean for the party’s future.
Mamdani, who holds a double-digit lead over Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, is favored to win the race—and that prospect is rattling nerves inside Democratic circles.
“It’s one thing for Republicans to use absurd attacks calling Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi socialists to scare voters,” said Fernand Amandi, a longtime Democratic strategist in Florida. “It’s another thing to use an actual socialist to scare voters about the Democrats being the party of socialists, and that’s the concern about Mamdani.”
From The Washington Post:
While some Democrats say the fears are overblown or outweighed by Mamdani’s ability to energize new and young voters, other more moderate lawmakers in battleground districts have distanced themselves from Mamdani — calling his policies unrealistic or out of step with the party or declining to endorse him.
“If we’re focused on playing defense on Mamdani, that will be a … major distraction,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey), a moderate who flipped his northern New Jersey district in 2016, said in an interview. Gottheimer said Mamdani has “extremist views” that are at odds with the Democratic Party and he’s concerned that Republicans will feature Mamdani prominently as a “bogeyman” in Republican attack ads.
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Democrats’ biggest concerns are closest to home. The suburbs of New York City, including parts of New Jersey, are expected to play a key role in Democrats’ fight to retake control of the House in the 2026 midterms. The region, which includes many who work in the financial sector, was decisive in 2022, when Republicans flipped several blue congressional seats and gained control of the House with a message focused on immigration and crime.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-New York), whose Long Island district voted for a Republican in 2022, has emphasized that he’s a “democratic capitalist, not a democratic socialist,” calling socialism a “failed economic system” that “hasn’t ever worked in the history of the world.”
“That’s just not something that we endorse or support,” said Suozzi, who won his seat back for Democrats in a special election last year after opting not to run in 2022, after three terms in office.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-New York), who also flipped her Long Island district last year,has publicly urged her colleagues to speak up and say: “We are not socialists.” In a statement to The Post, she reiterated her opposition to Mamdani’s policies and emphasized that residents of Nassau County, which she represents, know she’s a moderate Democrat.
The line between image and identity, it seems, is narrowing—and Democrats are beginning to wonder which side of it their party will stand on.
More over at The Washington Post:
A democratic socialist is poised to become New York mayor. Democrats are nervous. @sabrod123 https://t.co/s2Y4C3qI9S
— Noah Bierman (@Noahbierman) October 28, 2025
