It's their brand. Always has been.

They just used to do a better job of hiding it.

Many Democratic leaders and donors are panicking about Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who won the party's nomination to be the next mayor of New York City.

Why it matters: Establishment Democrats looking to recover from 2024's losses fear Mamdani could hurt the party's brand nationally -- while young progressives believe his formula could spread beyond New York.

Democratic leaders largely rallied behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York's mayoral primary, and Mamdani's shocking victory Tuesday was the latest example of the party's establishment being disconnected from many of its own voters.

Driving the news: On Wednesday, many Democratic lawmakers and officials either denounced Mamdani or notably declined to rally around him. Republicans -- including President Trump -- crowed about Democrats embracing a democratic socialist who has called for reduced police funding and sided with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The top two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, declined to endorse Mamdani even as they applauded his victory.

...

Other House Democrats from New York who hadn't backed Mamdani were mostly tight-lipped Wednesday.

Reps. Pat Ryan, Josh Riley and Ritchie Torres -- who went so far as to say he wouldn't run for governor if Mamdani won -- all dodged reporters.

Rep. Dan Goldman, asked if he had any thoughts on the result, told Axios: "Not right now."

Major Democratic donors -- who poured tens of millions into a Super PAC for Cuomo -- were having private discussions Wednesday about whether to back an independent run by Cuomo in November's general election, or rally behind unpopular incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who's also running as an independent.

...

"The full-on freakout by the establishment is entirely predictable -- they do no introspection or soul searching, and instead just lash out," said Lis Smith, a longtime Democratic operative who used to work for Cuomo but has become a critic.

"This is an outcome of their own creation," Smith added. "If you don't want to lose to a socialist, don't run a fatally flawed candidate like Andrew Cuomo."

...

Flashback: Mamdani repeatedly had called for defunding the New York Police Department -- a position he tried to add nuance to during the campaign.

"We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety," he posted on X (then Twitter) in June 2020. "What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD."

Mamdani also dodged questions about whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state -- an important issue to many Jewish voters in New York City.

...

Mamdani has denounced anti-semitism, but some Democrats aren't convinced.

Gillen alleged that Mamdani "has demonstrated a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments."

Ed Morrissey calls bullshit on the leftwing Axios' warning that socialism may spread to other blue cities in the future, noting that LA elected the Castro-loving communist Karen Bass and Chicago elected the openly racist radical black revanchist Brandon Johnson.

And that didn't go very well at all.

Even the ultraliberal Chicago Tribune, which I assume endorsed their literal-moron Mayor Brandon Johnson, tried to warn NYC about voting for this terrorist-supporting communist.

To no avail, of course.

The Chicago Tribune issued a grim warning to New Yorkers about electing a socialist mayoral candidate like Zohran Mamdani in a bombshell op-ed Monday, the day before the Empire State's primary elections.

The paper's editorial board paints a bleak image of Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic socialist Queens assemblyman who leapfrogged the longtime front-runner, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a stunning new poll released earlier in the day.

"A familiar dilemma: a moderate, business-friendly Democrat versus a democratic socialist. New Yorkers, take it from Chicago -- we've seen this movie before, and the ending isn't pretty," the board of one of the last remaining big-city daily newspapers cautioned.

The Tribune likened Mamdani's buzzworthy campaign, which has garnered a historic amount of grassroots support, to that of embattled progressive Windy City Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office in 2023.

"Johnson's approval rating cratered in his second year -- a reflection of how quickly progressive promises collapsed under the weight of governance and Chicago's financial reality," the paper wrote. "What sounded good in theory has translated into dysfunction, driven by fiscal missteps and political inexperience.

"Johnson is one of the most progressive mayors in the U.S., but Mamdani, inarguably, is yet more radical," it continued.

I know you're going to be shocked to hear this, but it turns out that any criticism you direct at Mamdani for calling for a globalization of the intifada and for having released a rap track praising the convicted Holy Land Foundation funders of Hamas, <a href="https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/06/26/predictable-anybody-criticizing-mamdani-is-islamophobic-n3804198>is Islamophobic.

Below, the morbidly-obese fire-alarm-puller and 9/11 Truther Jamaal Bowman asserts that being called the n-word on social media caused his morbid obesity.

He makes this claim while making the incoherent case that anyone who opposes Mamdani is racist.

He also somehow connects " black="" lynchings"="" to="" january="" 6th.<br="">

Boohoo whinin' and cryin' that the white man made him eat whole cases of Twinkies, as Black Conservative Perspective noted.

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Sen. John Fetterman reacts to socialist Mamdani's win in NYC: "I'd describe it as Christmas in July for the GOP"