Op-Ed: Black Voters Should Run Towards Zohran Mamdani
Op-Ed: Black Voters Should Run Towards Zohran Mamdani And Away From Leaders Who Pushed Andrew Cuomo
For those of us desperate for a Democratic Party that doesn’t cling to the concerns of the well-to-do over the pain being felt by most working-class Americans, the political ascension of Zohran Mamdani is the most satisfying story in years.
As Basil Smikle Jr., who previously ran the state Democratic Party in New York and is one of the more sensible people doing punditry on cable news, told Politico, “[Mamdani] ran a smart race. He represents the next generation of Democratic politics.”
At 33, Mamdani ran a campaign that understood that voters gain more information about political candidates nowadays on social media than television, were more concerned about the cost of living in their city than they were covering the asses of corrupt politicians across the ocean orchestrating a genocide, and wanted someone that offered fresh ideas like free buses than say, no new taxation on the ultra wealthy making their lives more expensive than ever.
Yet, his significant win over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the recent Democratic NYC mayoral primary doesn’t negate the unfortunate truth for Black voters collectively: this was not only the best showing, but an indication that our political power in the party could die alongside the establishment that has long taken our support for granted.
Mamdani did well in the expected progressive neighborhoods like Park Slope and Morningside Heights, but he also triumphed in nearly every other inch of the city. And in spite of all the racist and xenophobic attacks on him, Mamdani won not only white voters, but huge swaths of East Asian, South Asian and Muslim voters, Chinese voters, and won Latino voters citywide thanks to a jaunty ground-game operation that included more than 2,000 Spanish-speaking volunteers.
This diverse group of voters has been coined by some as Mamdani’s “coalition of the in between,” but it excludes one group: Us, “the Blacks.”
Traditionally, Black voters play a key role in any candidate’s coalition of winning elections in cities like New York. There would be no Mayor Eric Adams or Mayor Bill de Blasio without strong Black support, but in this primary, Cuomo reportedly dominated in precincts where at least 70% of residents were Black, besting Mamdani 59% to 26%.
It’s likely much of that 26% includes voters under the age of 45 given Mamdani’s historic win was driven by a bevy of new young voters, but with Black voters specifically, not only did Cuomo best him, but the turnout in those areas was too low to counter the coalition created by Mamdani won in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.
That data has led to the recent New York Times story entitled “Mamdani Triumphed Without a Majority of Black Voters. Where Does That Leave Them?”
It follows the previous report, “As Black New Yorkers Move Out, N.Y.C. Politics May Be Reshaped,” where several Black leaders in the city lamented how an eroding Black population will further diminish our political influence – with some arguing that Mamdani is for the very voters pricing them out.
In the former piece, Rev. Rashad Moore, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Crown Heights, told the NYT: “The politics of the city are shifting. The tough part that we’re wrestling with is Zorhan won with support of liberal progressive white folk. Are these the same progressive white folk that are pricing us out and we can’t live in the community? That’s the tension.”
With all due respect to Pastor Moore, the tension only exists within his mind and those like him that continue to cling to a system of politics and a type of politician that are equally useless in 2025, the year of our Lord.
I encourage him and others to visit Capital B News and check out their fantastic look at the study of how gentrification has impacted Black home ownership and neighborhoods. That predates Mamdani, and a lot of Democratic leaders are to blame, along with their Republican friends on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
And while I do not like the way elder Black voters are often discussed on social media, I will say that when it comes to traditional Black leadership and our current Democratic establishment: they are leading our older Black voters towards the road of irrelevance and when they hit the dead end, it’s the rest of us that will have to deal.
I’ve already written at NewsOne about my disgust at watching a bunch of Black pastors and politicians rally behind the mayoral bid of Andrew Cuomo, only a few years after many rightly condemned him for the multiple credible accusations of sexual harassment lodged against him on top of the way he handled COVID.
As in, all of those older people dropping dead in nursing homes under his watch.
But their support for Cuomo only grew louder.
It was disgusting to watch South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn try to swoop in and save Cuomo’s campaign by trying to rally Black voters.
Disgusting because of the way he phrased his endorsement: “The mayor of New York is uniquely positioned to play an important role in the future of the national Democratic Party,” Clyburn said, adding that Cuomo had the “experiences, credentials and character to not just serve New York, but also help save the nation.”
If that isn’t a signal to go sit down and retire, I don’t know what is. Clyburn hates anything Bernie Sanders-related, which is why he jumped into a 2021 congressional race in Ohio to help defeat Nina Turner, an acolyte of Sanders.
Equally pathetic is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, plus Governor Kathy Hochul, refusing to outright endorse the overwhelming choice of their constituents.
Mamdani has already continued with his outreach to Black voters, and I hope they heed his words because the sort of working-class agenda that Mamdani has campaigned for will do more to benefit Black voters than any of the nothingness coming out of the mouths of Democratic Party leadership and those Black pastors they let pull their chains for scraps.
If we continue to listen to them, Black voters will not become the bedrock of democracy, as so often cited by mainstream Democrats and their media supporters, but the base of an increasingly ossified Democratic Party structure that puts up candidates like awful Andrew Cuomo.
In other words, reflections of a past that everyone else in the Party would like to move on from.
SEE ALSO:
MAGA Racists Predictably Melt Down Over Muslim NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Win
