I started to sense that New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was a force to be reckoned with when I saw his man-on-the-street-style videos all over TikTok and Instagram. Democratic disruptor David Hogg stood side-by-side with a smiling Mamdani in a New York City park as they chatted with young fans. Entertainer The Kid Mero and the mayoral candidate dapped up locals in the predominantly Hispanic, low-income Washington Heights. Mamdani vlogged his walking journey from the tip of Manhattan to the bottom, during which he made many pit stops to interact with residents. He was accessible, authentic, cool, and idealistic: all the qualities Generation Z values. 

“New Yorkers deserve a mayor they can see, they can hear, they can even yell at,” Mamdani said along the route, a populist message that struck a similar tone to President Donald Trump.

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Mamdani tapped into the real hopes and anxieties of young voters and used a buzzword increasingly alluring to them in this economy: “affordable.” His promises of lowering the cost of housing, groceries, childcare, and transportation were unrealistic. However, Gen Z bought it, never mind who ultimately pays. Unlike disgraced former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani led a charismatic campaign of grassroots activism, key celebrity endorsements, and trendy merchandise. The worst part was that much of the merch appeared organic; creators made it themselves, leaning into retro iconography with slogans such as “Hot Girls for Zohran.” It evidently did better than “White Dudes for Harris,” although most young women identify as progressive anyway.

Mamdani was hungry and acted like he really wanted to be mayor. Meanwhile, Cuomo, whose political dynasty has shaped New York since the 1980s, believed he was entitled to be mayor.

“I have never seen a candidate for local office get mobbed by young voters who, unprompted, could recite his own platform,” Hogg posted after Mamdani was announced the winner of the Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday night.

It was these factors, in addition to the bad taste left by Cuomo’s and New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s scandals and alleged corruption, that appealed to Gen Z New Yorkers. It’s a shame their enthusiasm could not be channeled toward a political platform that actually made sense.

One New York City fashion influencer’s get-out-the-vote message for Mamdani stuck with me. In it, Halley Kate acknowledged that she, one of multiple other female victims, was randomly punched in the face by a man. After the suspect’s arrest, the NYPD confirmed that he was “a criminal recidivist with an extensive criminal record” and was previously arrested and released. The incident marked “his third arrest in the past six months.” 

A dive into Mamdani’s X archive revealed several troubling posts from 2020, a year of nationwide social justice unrest, including one that says, “Queer liberation means defund the police.” 

Kate, who was assaulted, failed to make the connection between her attack and the policies that Mamdani has supported. Instead of empowering police to crack down on crime and prevent repeat offenders from offending again, Mamdani has supported the use of “social workers” to curb urban violence as well as disastrous bail reform policies that let recidivist criminals back onto the street. Under Mamdani, Kate’s attacker and others like him would be given free rein to terrorize other innocent young women in New York City.

Gen Z New Yorkers, many fresh out of leftist colleges, also ate up Mamdani’s democratic socialism — communism on training wheels. It’s true that rent in the city is obscene compared to the rest of the country, but magically “freezing” it via rent control never works. In fact, it punishes landlords and disincentivizes them from investing in the maintenance of their buildings, which then fall into disrepair. Mamdani proposed to pay for his grab bag of goodies by taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers with a “millionaire” tax, in addition to bumping up the corporate tax.

DEMOCRATS ARE DELUSIONAL IF THEY THINK MAMDANI PROVIDES ROAD MAP BACK TO POWER

In anticipation of Mamdani’s tax-the-rich regime, some industry moguls, such as the owner of the Gristedes family grocery store chain, have planned to escape to other states. Capital flight, a result of a place being too unstable or inhospitable for business, will hurt the average New Yorker because it means less money for domestic investment in businesses and infrastructure projects. This could lead to fewer job opportunities, slower economic growth, and, of course, less government revenue to fund Mamdani’s ambitious socialist vision.

All of this should have been taught to young New Yorkers, but it increasingly isn’t — not in academia, and not by many parents who realize too late the social justice warriors they’ve created by subsidizing their children’s woke educations. Unfortunately, Gen Z New Yorkers may have to live in the hellscape that Mamdani’s policies will create to realize what they’ve done.

Caroline Downey is a staff writer at National Review and editor-in-chief of the Conservateur.