New York’s immigrant Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani is trying to grab a leading role in the Democratic Party by using his urban political machine to defeat establishment Democrats. “Mamdani Burns Allies in Making a Big Bet for Congress and the Left,” said a June 21 headline in the New York Times, which describes how the ethnic Indian Mayor is trying to defeat leaders in the city’s Latino and Jewish blocs:
Mr. Mamdani and allies are attempting to unseat two Democratic incumbents, Representatives Daniel Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, whom they view as too friendly to corporate donors and Israel. They want to lay claim to a third House seat. And down the ballot, they have designs on expanding the democratic socialist bloc in Albany. If he prevails on Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani, 34, will go a long way toward establishing socialists as a major faction in New York City politics and himself as a kingmaker capable of vaulting relatively unknown candidates to victory and sidelining erstwhile power brokers.
