Democratic New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is set to take office on Jan. 1, 2026, but the 34-year-old self-avowed socialist will face significant obstacles in his transition from campaigning to governing, political analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Mamdani won Tuesday night’s mayoral election with barely a majority of the vote cast, receiving 50.4% of the vote, less than 10 points ahead of his closest rival, former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who garnered 41.6%. Although he still came up short, Cuomo — who ran an independent campaign after losing the Democratic nomination to Mamdani on June 24 — outperformed multiple pre-election polls, some of which showed the socialist leading by as many as 25 points.
After the race was called in his favor, Mamdani took the stage at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, where he delivered a heavily scrutinized victory speech in which he took jabs at both Cuomo and President Donald Trump. (RELATED: Zohran Mamdani Wasted No Time In Quoting Socialist Eugene Debs During Victory Speech)
Political strategist Adam Weiss told the DCNF that the abrasive nature of the speech marked a missed opportunity for the mayor-elect to extend an olive branch to nearly half of New York City voters who supported another candidate.
“Last night was an angry Mamdani, was a bitter Mamdani. He wasn’t magnanimous. He was calling Trump all sorts of names,” Weiss told the DCNF Wednesday. “I don’t know why he’s going off on Trump, the sitting president of the United States. Be magnanimous, say, ‘We’d love to work together.’”
“He’s starting off on a bad foot,” emphasized Weiss, the CEO of AMW PR, and host of “Media Exposed” on Real America’s Voice News.
🚨 NEW: Mamdani takes aim at Trump in his victory speech:
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
“This is not only how we stop Trump it’s how we stop the next one.”@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/QLbxbkT0OO
— Anthony Iafrate (@tonyiafratedc) November 5, 2025
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said in his speech to roaring applause from his supporters. “And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it’s how we stop the next one.”
Weiss also noted that the socialist mayor-elect “took a nasty shot at Cuomo,” instead of taking the time to sit down with his primary and general election opponent to understand him and the almost 42% of New York City voters who backed him.
“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name,” Mamdani said at the beginning of his victory speech.
“It’s not the way you treat people in our society, it’s really a bad look,” Weiss said about the remark.
The political strategist stated that if Trump or any Republican had “won that election last night, and they went out and did a speech like that,” there would be “wall-to-wall” negative coverage by the media.
When asked if he thinks he will moderate his rhetoric, veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf told the DCNF that Mamdani does not have too.
“He doesn’t have to, because he doesn’t have to do anything. Should he? The issue will be does he disappoint his constituency if he moderates his rhetoric?” he said.
New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York on November 4, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Sheinkopf noted that Mamdani, who had extensively campaigned on a laundry list of far-left priorities such as taxpayer-funded free buses, rent freezes and city-run grocery stores, is set to run into significant hurdles when he actually tries to implement some of the more radical elements of his policy agenda.
“He [Mamdani] doesn’t have the power on at the MTA to … get free buses, necessarily, because he’s only got, I think, four votes on the board. He doesn’t have all the power he thinks he has on the rent stabilization, rent guidelines board, because [of] the previous appointments made,” Sheinkopf said. “It’s not so simple, but he ran a brilliant campaign talking about the things that he wished he could do and some that he will be able to do.”(RELATED: Here’s What Mayor Mamdani Can (And Can’t) Accomplish On Day One)
The consultant stressed that several major factors played a role in the success of the socialist’s campaign. He said it “was hard to find Andrew Cuomo on the ballot” while Mamdani on the other hand had a “significant edge” running on the Democratic line in deep blue New York City.
While Mamdani’s name appeared first from the left on the mayoral ballot, due to him being the Democratic Party’s nominee, Cuomo, who ran on the independent “Fight and Deliver” line appeared all the way toward the bottom right.
“Also what advantaged Mamdani was the changing nature of the city’s population,” Sheinkopf added, specifically referring to the growth of New York City’s African, Muslim and Chinese communities.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 4: Supporters watch Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani give his victory speech on television at an election-night watch party at the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden on November 4, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Jeremy Weine/Getty Images)
Weiss said that Mamdani — while receiving “adoring coverage from the media” — has not yet “fully grasped” the fact that the over one million New Yorkers who voted against him in Tuesday’s election “are frightened, scared, upset.”
“He doesn’t really have a crazy mandate,” Weiss pointed out, noting that outgoing Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams won the 2021 election with nearly 70% of the vote.
The strategist said that left-wing progressives and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members like Mamdani are “great at organizing” and getting young people with “idealistic values” on their side.
“But when it comes to governing, their ideas stink. It doesn’t work in a capitalistic system,” Weiss told the DCNF. “You can’t just give away things … tax rich people, and they’re just going to sit there and go, ‘OK, tax me to death.’ They’re going to leave.”
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