Zohran Mamdani says voters gave him a mandate to move ahead on his democratic socialist agenda when he becomes mayor of New York. But in tying his success to a specific list of proposals, Mr. Mamdani may have set himself a political trap. He has given Gov. Kathy Hochul an opening to resist plans, even popular ones, that risk harming the state’s economy and budget.
He needs approval from the State Legislature for most of what he has promised to do, and Ms. Hochul is already making clear that Mr. Mamdani cannot pre-empt the state’s sovereign powers over New York City. If she remains firm, she can demonstrate how Democrats wary of Mr. Mamdani’s populist brand of socialism can push back against it.
Few of Mr. Mamdani’s major campaign pledges can be fulfilled by municipal government alone. One is opening city-run grocery stores. But an independent city board will determine whether he can make good on his vow to freeze the rent on the city’s nearly one million regulated apartments for the four years of his term.
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here. Nicole is the author of Movement: New York’s Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car, available now.
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