Mamdani’s surprise win in New York spurs battle for soul of the Democrats

After Kamala Harris’s defeat by Donald Trump last November, Democrats have been desperate for a new generation of charismatic politicians able to engage with voters and lead a fightback before next year’s midterm elections.

In Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who surprisingly won last week’s New York mayoral primary, they may have found their prototype. The 33-year-old came from nowhere to defeat the establishment favourite, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, with a positive, policy-rich campaign. He also understood the new media environment, appearing on left-field podcasts, filming himself talking to Trump voters and building a huge social media following.

But Mamdani’s victory was a jolt to the Democratic establishment, alarming its donors and many of its centrist leaders, who fear that a shift to the left will alienate swing voters. Laura Gillen, a Democratic congresswoman for New York, called him “too extreme” to lead the city, while the former Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips said: “Democrats wishing to lose the ’26 midterms should promote a 33-year-old socialist devoid of executive experience for mayor of America’s largest city.”

The battle for the soul of the party will be played out in the run-up to  elections, when all seats in the House of Representatives and a third of seats in the Senate are up for grabs.

“What we’re likely to see is more progressive Democrats jump into primaries, perhaps against moderate or centrist Democrats,” said Andrew Koneschusky, a former press secretary for the Democratic senator Chuck Schumer and now founder of Beltway Advisors consultancy.

“The Democratic party is, for all intents and purposes, lost in the ­wilderness, and I’m not seeing a lot of great ideas for how to get out of the wilderness,” he told The Observer.

“The competition could be healthy, because in the absence of that competition, the party is likely to see more of the same – and more of the same clearly isn’t working.”

Already a number of millennial upstarts are seeking to challenge long-standing Democratic figures. Jake Rakov, a 37-year-old former staffer to 70-year-old California representative Brad Sherman, will challenge his boss for his seat. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, is challenging Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat.

“What Mamdani’s campaign represents is the hunger for a real alternative to the status quo,” said Ashik Siddique, national political committee co-chair for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which counts Mamdani as a member.

“The Democratic party establishment for many electoral cycles now has been very cynical about democracy, not trusting that people are capable of making informed choices.”