The New Democrats
The New Democrats
What happens to a party whose only institutional energy is anti-institutional?
Hakeem Jeffries was worried.
It had been less than a month since the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani shocked the political world by defeating the former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. The Bernie Sanders coalition that had been systematically snubbed by the Democratic National Committee in 2016 was suddenly alive and rearing its head again in the financial capital of the United States. This time it sported a candidate that was younger, more polished, and capable of producing digital gold.
The son of a filmmaker and a professor, Mamdani rose to prominence through a series of sleek, street-smart TV ads promising to freeze the rent, provide no-cost childcare, and make public busing free. Mamdani’s victory was aided by an uncharacteristically weak primary field, but the 33-year-old’s ability to connect with the ascendant progressives should not be discounted. Mamdani’s campaign singlehandedly transformed the New York City Democratic primary, long considered a stronghold for establishment Democrats, into a full-blown schism that could reset the ideological makeup of American left-wing politics.
Mamdani did something Cuomo didn’t think was necessary: He knocked on doors and registered the next generation of young New Yorkers. And they voted for him. In the two weeks leading up to this June’s election, Mamdani registered thousands of people to vote in the primary, which had far more new voter registrations than the 2021 cycle when the incumbent Mayor Eric Adams was elected. So Jeffries was right to be worried. Something was happening in New York City, and it was completely outside his control.
Mamdani is less Muslim and less socialist than his detractors would have you believe. He’s a typical, American progressive who found his greatest support among educated whites under the age of 40. Born in Uganda, Mamdani marked “African-American” when he applied to Columbia University as a young adult, one of several scandals that have so far failed to trim his sails. And though some have raised concerns about Mamdani’s Muslim faith, the young politician who was once an aspiring rapper plays more like a barista than a cleric. On social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, Mamdani is a star who routinely rakes in millions of views thanks to his Trumpian ability to connect with nontraditional voters.
In 2021, he led “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” protests during a pro-Palestinian rally across from the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan and later introduced a bill into the New York State Assembly that would ban state funding for Israeli settlers. According to polling by Data for Progress, more than two-thirds of voters in the New York City Democratic primary believe Israel is “committing genocide” and 63 percent believe city officials should enforce an international arrest warrant on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite the shift in public opinion, Mamdani has repeatedly had to defend his positions on Israel. Cuomo and debate moderators worked as a tag-team to direct the conversation. Their transparent attempt to overwhelm Mamdani failed. In the end, it was his steadfast belief that New York City should discontinue its working relationship with a war state that helped propel him to victory.
A champagne socialist who grew up with a taste for politics on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mamdani projects a “power-to-the-people” activist image, although he enjoys the finer things in life when not on the campaign trail. Following his primary victory against Cuomo, Mamdani jetted off to his childhood home of Uganda to celebrate his marriage to 27-year-old artist Rama Duwaji. The New York Post reported the two stayed in a private compound guarded by masked security and cell phone jamming equipment. He’s a lot more Al Gore than he is Eugene Debs.
Two weeks after Mamdani’s shock win in NYC, the Democratic Party of Minnesota’s largest city endorsed “Mamdani II,” the democratic socialist Omar Fateh, in his bid to become the next mayor of Minneapolis. Fateh, a 35-year-old state senator who was born in the United States to Somalian immigrants, won 60 percent of delegates at the Democratic–Farmer-Labor convention where he defeated incumbent Jacob Frey, a two-term mayor who rose to national prominence during the fallout following George Floyd’s death.
Fateh, the first Somali-American and first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota State Senate, is promising policy positions similar to Mamdani’s, such as rent control and tax hikes on the wealthy. Fateh is pro-union and decries the role of aggressive developers in the Twin Cities. And he has also been a sharp critic of the Minneapolis Police Department, calling for “upstream solutions” to address poverty and suggesting that “47 percent of calls to MPD can be diverted to non-police responders.”
In Texas, the firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett is polling ahead of her Democratic rivals Collin Allred and Beto O’Rourke in the Texas Democratic Senate primary. Although Crockett is not aligned with the DSA like Fateh and Mamdani, the 44-year-old is the type of TV-ready progressive whose over-the-top antics are capable of putting O’Rourke’s theatrics to shame. Crockett, who was only elected to the House of Representatives two years ago, has quickly established herself as a fighter in Congress and is now viewed as a legitimate challenger for Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s seat. Could a younger and more energized Democratic voter base deliver the long-dreamed Blue Texas for Democrats? It’s difficult to envision. But it was also difficult to envision Mamdani before Mamdani, and Trump before Trump.
Which is all quite concerning for Jeffries. After all, no one had been better situated to benefit from the Democrats wrestling back control of Congress in 2026. The former attorney from Crown Heights, New York has meticulously positioned himself to take on the key leadership role if it becomes available. But appearances can be deceiving. There is growing concern among Jeffries and his establishment allies that, should Mamdani win in New York City, Fateh take Minneapolis, and Crockett grab the Senate nomination in Texas, Jeffries, who is seen as a centrist, might lose control of the party’s messaging along with the party power-brokers.
So for Jeffries, who has failed to exact notable change in tempo or policy from his peers in the Democratic establishment, the prospect of real progressives gaining traction among the American electorate is of deep concern—not only for his grip on power, but for the larger Democratic infrastructure, which has so far successfully batted away previous attempts by progressives to hijack its messaging and leadership. But the ability to modulate and mold the messaging from the top down during the online era is proving ever more difficult.
In a highly publicized affair this Spring, Democratic Party officials admitted they were spending time and good money in an attempt to find their own Joe Rogan or Theo Von, two podcasters who helped power the Republican Party into power this past year. It was a striking admission for the Democrats, a party that has come to embody the political establishment during the Trump years.
In February, the Democrats elected Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, a 24-year-old gun control activist, to become the co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. But by June, Hogg was out. His attempt to outspend and outmaneuver the “out-of-touch, ineffective” older House Democrats in 2026 was firmly rejected by party officials. But as the Republican Party learned in 2016, you can’t stop an idea or a person whose time has come. Mamdani and Fateh’s victory is evidence that Hogg’s short-lived tenure was not simply a mirage but a signal of the future for Democrats.
That signal was echoed by none other than Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who spent three hours chatting with the YouTube star Andrew Callaghan and took a number of shots at George Clooney and other bigwigs of the Democratic Party. “F—k him and f—k everyone around him!” Biden raged to Callaghan. “Him and James Carville, who hasn’t run a race in 40 years. And David Axelrod, who had one political success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama. And that was because of Obama and not because of David Axelrod. And David Plouffe and all of these guys and the Pod Save America guys.” Biden couldn’t help himself now. He was seething. “They made millions of dollars.”
In the most distorted of ways, the younger Biden had a point. The Democratic Party that created his father now resembles the elder Biden at his worst: a hollowed-out, corporate-captured nonmover making policy by autopen. It cost them dearly at the ballot box in 2024. Ironically, the Pod Save America crew admitted days after Hunter Biden’s interview that the Democratic Party needs a “total mindset change” if it hopes to compete in the midterms and beyond. The surprising support for upstarts such as Mamdani and Fateh are clear signifiers that the Democratic Party of Clinton and Biden and Obama has been examined by its supporters and found wanting.
Looking forward to the next presidential election in a little over three years, New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finds herself well within striking distance of the favorites, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and former Vice President Kamala Harris. AOC has been on a roll in 2025, co-headlining a sold-out West-Coast tour with Sanders and fundraising $15 million, a figure that far surpasses that of any other member of the House this year.
The big crowds and impressive war chest suggests the Bronx native could be a challenger for the Democratic nomination in 2028. The polls look strong for AOC, too. According to the latest numbers from Emerson College, she’s polling 41 percent to Vice President J.D. Vance’s 44 percent in a hypothtical matchup. Though she would be one of the youngest presidential candidates in history, the sharpest polling firms, including AtlasIntel, find her favorability rating among the highest of any American politician.
But a lot can change between now and 2028, as evidenced by AOC suddenly being forced to defend her progressive bonafides after she voted “no” on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to cut funding for Israel’s defense in July. AOC later argued that the bill did not, in fact, eliminate funding for Israel’s military offensive capabilities. The truth, whatever it may be, didn’t really matter; it was the look of the thing, and the damage was already done. Anonymous threats poured in against AOC’s life, and the Democratic Socialists of America accused AOC of supporting an “eliminationist campaign against the Palestinian people.” Though her numbers are impressive at this early stage in the 2028 race, AOC will have to thread a needle between the establishment and insurgent politicians if she is to challenge for the nomination.
On the other side of the country, Newsom is polling slightly ahead of AOC. A known quantity sandwiched between the old and new, Newsom carries considerable baggage. The former San Francisco mayor will need to find support in different places to win the presidency. Newsom has attempted to broaden his unique coalition by reaching across the political landscape in 2025: this March, the California statesman sat for an interview with right wing podcaster Charlie Kirk. He asked the TPUSA founder for advice on how to better connect with disenfranchised young male voters. When liberal outlets decried the gamesmanship, Newsom argued for the importance of reaching nontraditional voters in the wake of Trump’s success attracting the youth vote in 2024.
Newsom isn’t the only California politician with an eye on the White House who is imploring Democrats to turn a new page. Rep. Ro Khanna (D‑CA), a rising star from Silicon Valley, has essentially begun his 2028 presidential campaign with a number of recent speeches pitching a new path for the Democrats. “The Old Guard needs to go,” Khanna said at the Fight For Our Future Summit in late July. “The old ways have not been working. This party needs a new rebirth.”
In a report published in late July, the Wall Street Journal found that American voters are fed up with the Democratic Party. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they hold an unfavorable view of the it. The dismal numbers support Khanna’s call for a rebirth. The surge in new, progressive politicians finding success on the left flank of the liberal movement spells change. Whether these New Democrats can succeed where their predecessors failed remains to be seen, but the shifting landscape suggests they’ll be given the chance.
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