Zohran Mamdani’s momentum crosses the Hudson

A slew of young progressive candidates who made affordability a center point of their campaigns have won recent elections across New Jersey on the heels of Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in New York City. 

James Solomon, a progressive Democrat, defeated former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey in Jersey City’s mayoral election. A few miles away in Hoboken, progressive Democrat Emily Jabbour beat the son of a former Hoboken mayor to become the city’s mayor-elect. And last month Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who also championed affordability, won New Jersey’s governorship. 

Jake Ephros and Joel Brooks, who won Jersey City council seats the same day as Solomon, became the first democratic socialists to be elected in New Jersey in over a century.

The results of December’s elections illustrate how strongly voters are responding to affordability and rejecting the Democrat establishment a month after Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the New York City’s mayoral race against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Mamdani rose to national prominence during the race, and his focus on affordability has since served as a framework for progressive candidates in New Jersey. 

Mamdani reengages jaded voters

Sangay Mishra, a politics professor at Drew University in Madison, said he’s seen growing political disengagement from his students in recent years. That changed notably with Mamdani.

“I saw that disenchantment breaking down, and people thinking of Mamdani as somebody who can really make a difference and somebody who inspires them to think about politics in different ways,” Mishra said. 

He added that Mamdani’s campaign made some of his students more excited to vote in the New Jersey gubernatorial election happening on the same day, which Democratic candidate Sherrill won with backing from the Desi community. 

“There are many people who were following [Mamdani’s election] closer than our own gubernatorial election,” Sadaf Jaffer, a lecturer at Princeton University and a former New Jersey assemblywoman, told Central Desi. 

Jaffer said many Princeton student organizers traveled to New York City to door knock for Mamdani rather than stay in New Jersey and campaign for Sherrill.

'Our own version of Zohran’

The North New Jersey chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) bussed 50 New Jersey volunteers to New York City to canvas for Mamdani the weekend before the Democratic mayoral primary, said Rohan Rao, who was the field director for Ephros and Brooks’s campaigns.

The chapter has seen its membership grow, especially among young people, as a result of Mamdani’s popularity, according to Rao. He said Mamdani’s win has popularized the democratic socialist platform in New Jersey.

“There was all of a sudden a national news story right across the river that served as a reference when we’re were going out and talking about these same issues,” Rao said.

Volunteers that were canvassing for Ephros and Brooks “would be super excited to take our materials, go to the doors and basically talk like, ‘Hey we have our own version of Zohran Mamdani running for city council right here in our neighborhood,’” Rao told Central Desi.

Desi candidates embrace identity

Mamdani’s affordability platform wasn’t the only reason he drew support, according to Mishra. He said the way Mamdani talks about his culture and religion are “open, forthcoming and honest.”

Mamdani faced an onslaught of Islamophobic and anti-Asian hate during his campaign. His opponent, Cuomo, suggested while on a podcast that Mamdani would celebrate another 9/11 and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral nominee, falsely said Mamdani made statements “in support of global jihad.” Texas Republican Congressman Brandon Gill reposted a video of Mamdani eating with his hands, calling the mayor-elect uncivilized and telling him to “go back to the Third World.”

“There are 12 days remaining until election day. I will be a Muslim man in New York City each of those 12 days and every day that follows after that,” Mamdani said in a tearful address prior to his victory. “I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I am proud to call my own.”

Mishra noted that Mamdani’s successful campaign signals to other candidates that they can “enter into the political arena as someone who is South Asian without hiding their identity, without hiding their background, without hiding their culture.”

Jay Vaingankar is a 27-year-old Indian American progressive candidate who announced his bid for a seat in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District last week. Vaingankar told Central Desi the focus of his campaign is on making life more affordable in Central Jersey.

“Zohran’s candidacy has given New Jerseyans a permission structure to say ‘Wow, like we can bring in young folks who are bold and unapologetic about the need to laser focus on affordability,’” he said.

Democrats shouldn’t water down their policies to appeal to voters, he added. As an Indian American growing up in New Jersey in the wake of 9/11, he remembers the racism and Islamophobia that followed the terror attacks.

“The need to be authentic is not just good political strategy, it’s how I was raised in the era of politics that I’ve experienced,” Vaingankar said.

Mishra said that Mamdani’s success has illustrated that South Asian candidates can still be successful without pandering to a moderate political ideology. 

Jaffer shared her excitement for progressive Jersey candidates, including Ravi Bhalla, the Hoboken mayor Jabbour will replace, as he takes a seat in the state legislature. 

“I’m really excited to see that type of South Asian political leadership that is challenging the status quo and trying to represent what people actually want,” Jaffer said.

Sofia Ahmed is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. She was a 2023-24 reporting fellow at Central Desi.

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