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zohran mamdani
Mamdani's Movement Aims to Stay Activated While He Governs NYC
"We will organize to win and defend the agenda that resonated with voters: free childcare, fast and free buses, freezing the rent and building affordable homes, and more," says Our Time for an Affordable NYC.
Nov 07, 2025
On the heels of over 1 million New Yorkers voting for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's affordability agenda, his allies have launched an organization that aims to keep the movement behind the democratic socialist's successful campaign active during his term.
"We will organize to win and defend the agenda that resonated with voters: free childcare, fast and free buses, freezing the rent and building affordable homes, and more," says the website of the new 501(c)(4), Our Time for an Affordable NYC.
"We'll be door-knocking, phone-banking, communicating, and organizing at the neighborhood, city, and state level," the site explains. "To get it done, we'll collaborate with community organizations, movement groups, and unions that have been doing this work and share a commitment to the affordability agenda."
While Our Time embraces Mamdani's messages and policies, it is distinct from the mayor-elect and his campaign, and "was legally incorporated last week before his victory over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo," the New York Times reported Thursday. The newspaper noted Mamdani's comments about the group during a press conference earlier this week.
"I will always celebrate anyone who is looking to build on the incredible, amazing grassroots enthusiasm of our campaign," he said. "This work was not simply to win an election but transform our city, and that means it has to continue."
Mamdani "also encouraged supporters to join the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, his political home," according to City & State New York. Our Time's leadership has ties to the NYC-DSA, which played a key role in mobilizing support for Mamdani during the campaign.
Our Time's site names five people leading the organization: executive director Jeremy Freeman, field manager Magdalena Morańda, senior adviser Susan Kang, and board members David Turner and Batul Hassan.
"Our goal is to channel the energy of a volunteer base towards winning the affordability agenda, and doing so at this scale is unprecedented in New York City history," Freeman told the Times. "In developing the organization, we're looking carefully at past examples both positive and negative, and we'll certainly be sure to avoid the pitfalls of any similar efforts by past administrations, and we'll be as transparent as possible in our practices."
The group's creation has prompted comparisons to Our Revolution, which launched after the 2016 presidential run of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of Mamdani's most prominent supporters.
Some political observers have also framed it as what former Democratic President Barack Obama should have done after winning his first term. The American Prospect's executive editor, David Dayen, said that "this is the opposite of what Obama did to his volunteer base after 2008."
There's also the cautionary tale of former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's Campaign for One New York, which shut down in 2016 amid alarm over its finances, including donations from entities that had business before or labor contracts with City Hall.
Our Time is "a fully independent organization," and it is "not asking for dues or formal membership," the group's site says. "We are accepting donations from individuals, foundations, and other philanthropic organizations. All donations greater than $1,000 will be disclosed publicly on our website."
Freeman told the Times that the group will not be accepting money from corporations or firms with business before the city.
"Our victory was historic, but the campaign for an affordable New York City is just beginning," Our Time's site says. "Even as billionaires have made their opposition clear, more than 100,000 volunteers helped win this election, and they want to keep going. Our Time can be a vehicle for continued engagement—a way for folks to plug in and stay active while they find a long-term political home."
The group is coming together as Mamdani supporters, skeptics, and critics all wonder how much of his popular platform he'll actually be able to accomplish after the state assemblyman is sworn in as mayor next January.
Time on Tuesday published a detailed look at the barriers Mamdani will face in his mission to deliver a rent freeze, more affordable housing, city-run grocery stores, fare-free buses, no-cost childcare, a higher minimum wage, and taxes targeting the 1%.
"Raising taxes would require approval from the Democratic-controlled state Legislature and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul," Time noted. "Hochul endorsed Mamdani but expressed fears that significant tax hikes would force wealthy residents out of the city, ultimately opposing his proposed tax increases."
After Mamdani's Tuesday victory, longtime labor organizers Peter Olney and Rand Wilson wrote in an op-ed that during his four-year term, "every Republican and corporate Democrat will do everything possible to ensure he fails, to discredit his socialist platform."
"Any success he achieves as mayor will be due to the strength of the movement that prevailed in the primary and continued to grow for his election in November," they stressed. "If that movement stays mobilized, continues to grow, and delivers for New York’s working class, it will be an inspiring political model that our labor movement should support and attempt to replicate in other US metropolitan areas."
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Mamdani Won New York City, But the Battle for Winning a Working-Class Agenda Has Just Begun
The battle for a more affordable and egalitarian society is just beginning. Leaders like Zohran Mamdani need to gain even deeper traction with working-class voters, no matter how working class is defined and no matter their racial identity—if they want to win.
Nov 07, 2025
It truly is amazing that a Democratic Socialist has become mayor of the largest city in the United States, and that in the first line of his acceptance speech he quoted Eugene V. Debs, the brave socialist labor leader who was imprisoned in 1985 during the Pullman Strike and again in 1918 for his opposition to WWI:
“The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’”
Mamdani’s youth, charisma, humor, and incredible organizational skills led to this remarkable achievement. He worked hard and he earned it, and so did the many progressive groups that supported him.
Mamdani may have the abilities and the working-class agenda to become a major transformational political leader. Free buses, free childcare, and a rent freeze are concrete and achievable, but the opposition will be fierce, especially as he intends to increase taxes on the rich and corporations to pay for these programs. And powerful landlords will be up in arms. This is the definition of class struggle.
There will be major battles ahead that won’t be settled by Mamdani’s charisma and negotiating skills alone.
Mamdani is operating in the belly of the beast called runaway inequality. It’s nearly impossible to wrap our minds around the wealth that’s concentrated in New York. There are 123 billionaires living in NYC with a combined net worth more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars. And those numbers are surely an underestimate, given the many who have hidden their purchases of luxurious Manhattan apartments using shell companies.
To succeed against the rich and powerful, Mamdani will need a mass movement behind him, and that movement has to include enthusiastic support and the active participation of New York’s working class and labor unions.
Does he already have it? Is his victory the result of overwhelming support from highly educated liberals? Or has his working-class agenda also excited the working class more broadly, the way Eugene Debs did when he received nearly a million votes in his run for president in 1912?
All we have to go by, right now, are the exit polls, which aren’t really designed to include a clear demographic definition of the working class. But there is some suggestive information.
Let’s start with the standard media definition of working class based on education: You are often counted as being in the working class if you don’t have a four-year college degree. By this definition, Mamdani received most of his support from college-educated voters and ran behind Cuomo among working-class voters.
- New Yorkers are well educated: 58 percent of all the voters in this election had a four-year college degree or higher.
- This highly educated group overwhelmingly supported Mamdani over Cuomo, 57 percent to 37 percent.
- But Mamdani ran behind Cuomo among those who never attended college, 41 percent to 48 percent. One out of five voters are in this group.
The picture becomes blurrier if working-class is defined as having a lower income. New York voters are fairly evenly split between those whose family income is less than $100,000 year (58%), and those with $100,000 or more in family income (42%). And Mamdani’s support was identical between the two groups (51%), an almost exact match with his final vote of 51.5 percent.
But a closer look at the income brackets shows that Mamdani didn’t do as well with those with family incomes under $30,000. That group accounts for 16 percent of all voters. They favored Cuomo 50 percent to Mamdani’s 41 percent. But Mamdani won every other income bracket except those with family incomes of $300,000 or more, which he lost to Cuomo 61 percent to 34 percent. No way was a Democratic Socialist going to do well with the group he promised to tax more heavily to pay for his agenda.
Cutting it up into two income slices, Mamdani did slightly better with upper-income voters than lower-income voters. Those with family incomes of less than $50,000 gave 47 percent of their votes to Mamdani, and those with more than $50,000 supported him with 52 percent of their votes.
Revenge of the White Working Class?
Unlike Debs, Mamdani did not come out of the labor movement. He’s well-educated, an Asian immigrant born in Africa, and Muslim. Was that all too much for the allegedly racist white working-class? The exit polls don’t provide the crosstabs to give us definitive answers, but we can get some clues.
Here’s Mamdani’s support by ethnicity (of all educational and income groups):
- White 46 %
- Black 55 %
- Hispanic 49 %
- Asian 61 %
- Other 51 %
It’s hard to point the finger at white racism when support for Mamdani is almost identical between white voters and Hispanic voters. The big outlier is Asian, Mamdani’s own ethnic group.
The breakdown by gender shows less support among white men, but again the gaps are not gigantic:
- White men 43%
- White women 48%
- Black men 60%
- Black women 52%
- Hispanic men 52%
- Hispanic women 48%
Since we don’t know the income or education levels of these white men it’s not possible to see if working-class white men were less supportive, but that’s probably the case given the overall lower Mamdani numbers among those without four-year college degrees. However, while it’s not possible to tease apart racial identity and class when it comes to working-class voters of all shades, nothing big jumps out to suggest that this contest was about racial identity.
Mamdani needs those working-class voters, no matter how working class is defined and no matter what their ethnicity. He’s developed enormous support among liberal, well-educated New Yorkers, and that’s all to the good. But to take on the world’s richest, most powerful elites, that enthusiasm must spread deeply into the working class, where—even in New York—MAGA festers.
There will be major battles ahead that won’t be settled by Mamdani’s charisma and negotiating skills alone. That will require a mass movement in support of the progressive ideas the city’s new mayor campaigned on, the kind of movement New York hasn’t seen since the 1930s. Let’s hope Mamdani can reach even more deeply into the working class to strengthen his support. He’s going to need them.
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Time to Flex: Lessons for Mamdani From My Time With AOC
You can’t change a system by sending one or two people into it and hoping for the best. You have to build and use political power to break the system’s ability to resist you.
Nov 07, 2025
Lots of elections happened on Tuesday. Most of them good news for 2026. There are signs that the MAGA fever is breaking. It’s important that whatever we work to replace it with comes from a place of understanding how we got here, and builds the power necessary to repair the damage.
The most hopeful and potentially transformative victory of the night was that of Zohran Mamdani. He won the New York City mayoral race with over 50% of the vote, beating Andrew Cuomo for a second time. The turnout was amazing. More than 2 million people voted.
And here’s what should terrify the Democratic establishment: Mamdani didn’t just win the city. He won decisively in Hakeem Jeffries’ district. He won in Ritchie Torres’ district. These guys are vulnerable as hell in a primary, and they know it.
But I’ve been here before. I was there for AOC’s first primary victory. I helped recruit her to run, helped build her campaign, and then worked as her advisor and communications director. I can tell you with absolute certainty: this is just the beginning. And if the movement around Mamdani doesn’t understand that and act accordingly, this opportunity will slip away like so many others have.
I’m hopeful. Mamdani’s victory is real and it’s important. But my experience tells me that without active, aggressive political power-building, it won’t translate into anything more tangible.
The difference this time is that Mamdani doesn’t have to be one person alone. He’s an executive running the country’s largest city, which gives him powers and capacity that one member of Congress - one out of 535 - could never have. And NY has primary elections coming in June 2026. Federal races, state assembly, state senate—all of it.
The Democratic establishment is already moving to contain him. Obama is reaching out. Bill Ackman is extending olive branches. And they’ll succeed unless the movement around him understands that winning the election was just the starting line.
The Power Problem We Had With AOC
We won in 2018. We proved a grassroots movement could build a political operation to recruit and elect a new type of Democrat. But here’s what we didn’t do: we didn’t immediately use that victory to build more power. We didn’t flex.
We won one seat. We celebrated. We staffed up. We tried to work within the system. And while we were doing that, the establishment built a wall around her. Seniority rules shut her out of real committee power. Leadership froze her out. The party used her as a boogeyman to fundraise off while refusing to even look at her agenda.
We were taught the wrong lesson: that getting people in office was the goal. That was the mistake. You can’t change a system by sending one or two people into it and hoping for the best. You have to build and use political power to break the system’s ability to resist you.
What Actually Flexing Power Looks Like
Imagine if, right now, while Mamdani is being sworn in, AOC was publicly exploring a run for governor against Kathy Hochul in 2026. Not “maybe someday.” Now. Publicly. With rallies. With Bernie Sanders. With pressure.
Imagine if the movement announced tomorrow that they’re running a primary challenger against Hakeem Jeffries. Not quietly. Publicly. With resources. With a candidate who can actually compete. Imagine if Former DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake, the challenger who announced he is running against Torres yesterday, gets backed by Mamdani this week.
Imagine if the entire energy and machinery that just won a mayoral race with 2 million voters doesn’t go dormant. Imagine if it stays active, visible, and aggressive. Imagine if the message to every Democrat in New York is crystal clear: if you block Mamdani’s agenda, you will be primaried. You will be challenged. You will lose your seat.
That’s flexing power. That’s what we didn’t do. That’s what has to happen now.
Governor Hochul has already announced she won’t support tax increases on the wealthy—the foundation of Mamdani’s entire agenda. Hakeem Jeffries gave him the most tepid endorsement imaginable. Ritchie Torres called him “treacherously smart” and warned he’d make New York “ground zero for anti-Zionism.”
These people aren’t confused. They’re opposed to him. And they’ll stop him cold unless they fear losing their jobs. Not theoretically. Actually.
The Easy Enemy and the Hard One
When you’re fighting MAGA, it’s simple. They wear red hats. They’re loud. You know exactly who they are.
The Democratic establishment is different. They seem like they’re on your side. They talk about the same values. They talk about “pragmatism” and being “confined by what’s possible.” There’s always an explanation for why they couldn’t deliver.
I spent years wanting to believe those explanations meant something. That they were potential allies who just needed the right pressure.
But I don’t believe it anymore. I think they know their role. I think they know they are barriers to change, and they’re comfortable with that role.
If democratic socialism is shown to be productive, transformational, and beneficial to the vast majority of New Yorkers, it will have reverberations across the entire country. This is the front line. And they know it.
What This Actually Takes
One person can’t change something this entrenched alone. One person—no matter how brilliant—cannot overcome a system designed to resist them.
During the New Deal, it took three election cycles to build a supermajority. It can happen again in 2026, 2028, 2030. That’s the timeline.
When you’re fighting MAGA, it’s simple. They wear red hats. They’re loud. You know exactly who they are. The Democratic establishment is different. They seem like they’re on your side.
While Mamdani is picking up the trash and making the city function, the movement around him has to be simultaneously primarying Jeffries, running challengers against Torres, recruiting state legislators. It means rallies. Visibility. Making clear political risk to every Democrat in the state who opposes his agenda.
Yes, the infrastructure is collapsing. Yes, construction in New York costs seven times what it costs anywhere else. Yes, the MTA has a $62 billion backlog. Those problems require competent governance. But none of it matters if Hochul and the State Legislature just block him. So while Mamdani’s team is fixing potholes, the movement has to be in the streets, at the rallies, primarying the people in the way.
Where We Go From Here
I’m hopeful. Mamdani’s victory is real and it’s important. But my experience tells me that without active, aggressive political power-building, it won’t translate into anything more tangible.
The impulse will be to work within the system. Staff the administration. Make government function. That has to happen. But it can’t be all that happens. You’ve got to be running a political revolution simultaneously. You’ve got to use your platform. You’ve got to make it clear that opposing this agenda has political consequences.
Because the last 10 months aren’t a departure from the norm. They’re the natural evolution of the past 50 years. And if we want something different, we have to build it. Fast. Visibly. With political risk and political courage.
The impulse will be to work within the system. Staff the administration. Make government function. That has to happen. But it can’t be all that happens.
Starting Monday, November 10, I’m publishing four weeks of essays, supported by a series of videos, laying out exactly what this looks like. Not theory. Actual strategy. Actual targets. Actual timelines.
Then, on Tuesday December 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day - I’ll launch a new initiative designed to reframe and refocus our collective efforts toward meaningful change.
This is the work. This is what it takes. Whether this becomes a moment of transformative power, or just another progressive mayor and a handful of individual candidates fighting alone, depends on what happens in the next six months.
We’re just getting warmed up.
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