On a brisk September Saturday in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Julie Swoope is working through her canvassing list with practiced ease, supervising a group of young volunteers as they knock on doors and urge neighbors to come out and vote this November. They are also urging them to cast that vote for Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as New York’s next mayor. 

It wasn’t too long ago that Ms. Swoope, a volunteer organizer with New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was one of those walking the blocks. 

“There’s a lot of new people coming out – which is great,” she says, checking off the addresses volunteers were able to complete. “We had like 130 RSVPs, and there are always new people still coming in.”

Why We Wrote This

The populist campaign of Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor has energized the growing number of democratic socialists across the U.S. They could change the direction of the Democratic Party.

Since last year, New York’s DSA chapter, the largest in the country, has more than doubled in size, growing from roughly 5,000 members to nearly 11,000. About 2,000 of those new members joined after Mr. Mamdani, a little-known state assembly member from Queens, toppled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary last June.

Just 10 years ago, the term “socialist” was more or less a dirty word in American politics. But as both of the country’s two major political parties underwent dramatic upheavals in 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, helped galvanize a movement of young and mostly white progressives who weren’t afraid of embracing the term.

In the Democratic Party, that young, boisterous movement was mostly on the outside of the established left-of-center coalition of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In recent years, however, progressives, including democratic socialists, have come into their own as more now hold elected office.

Along with Senator Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a national figure. Their leadership has been central to the inroads that progressive candidates have made as the current Democratic leadership struggles to respond to President Donald Trump’s dominant place in current U.S. politics. Other democratic socialists in Congress include Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Rep. Greg Casar in Texas. There are also some 250 democratic socialists holding state and local elected offices, according to most counts, most  elected after 2019.

A victory in November would propel Mr. Mamdani into a national role, taking the executive reins of the country’s largest city. 

The Democratic Socialists of America have called for collective ownership of energy production and transportation. But instead of trumpeting these and other progressive positions, such as the Green New Deal, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial inequality, Mr. Mamdani is offering what his campaign frames as a “survival agenda.” 

“Mamdani has been really effective at helping people move past just a label to think about the actual issues and policies,” says Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University. She says affordability has become an “organizing principle” – a way to reengage people in shaping their futures. 

Mr. Mamdani is gaining traction, Dr. Greer says, because he offers “a vision of hope” reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign. 

His proposals emphasize free public transit for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, city-run grocery stores in each borough, and rent freezes to protect tenants from sudden spikes.

He’s not the only one. Mayor Michelle Wu in Boston, a progressive Democrat who does not call herself a democratic socialist, is pursuing a similar agenda as she is set to serve a second term, running unopposed in the general election. In Seattle, the democratic socialist Katie Wilson, who defeated the incumbent Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the primary in August, is also focusing on transportation and housing costs as she faces off against Mayor Harrell again in November. (In both Boston and Seattle, the general election features the top two vote-getters in the primaries, regardless of party affiliation.)

“The [Mamdani] campaign has really sharpened our rhetorical ability to talk about those demands and put them into an affordability package, explaining them very clearly,” says Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA. 

Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, as well as Mayor Wu’s and Ms. Wilson’s, hasn’t abandoned previous priorities; they are just emphasizing new ones. In New York, Mr. Mamdani’s volunteers are trying to build a grassroots culture, not only knocking on doors, but also hosting social events, running clubs, and even soccer leagues, hoping to create a community that extends beyond the electoral calendar.

“We are trying to build a culture for how we govern,” Ms. Mausser says. “It’s inclusive, based on the masses, and empowers people to be part of the change.”

A Venn diagram of MAGA and democratic socialist ideas

For a growing number of Democrats and Republicans, unfettered global capitalism is now viewed with deep suspicion.

There is a Venn diagram of ideas embraced by progressive Democrats and MAGA conservatives alike. This includes tariffs to protect the American worker – a position long held by Senator Sanders. 

Both movements also share an unease with international corporations. Many in both camps express concerns with America’s corporate food suppliers and drug companies. 

Since 2016, when Mr. Trump first won over many of the working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the Democratic coalition, party leaders have struggled to find a durable response to his brand of antiestablishment populism.

“Whether left or right, populism begins with the sense that the system is fundamentally broken,” says James DeFilippis, professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There is an unquestioned decline in support for status quo candidates, and a growing appetite for leaders who speak with a populist vibe.” 

The Republican candidate for mayor, Curtis Sliwa, the hard-edged civic leader and radio personality from Brooklyn who founded the Guardian Angels during New York’s crime waves in the late 1970s, has also echoed some of Mr. Mamdani’s ideas. 

True, Mr. Sliwa is far from a typical Republican, whether on the establishment or MAGA side of the party. He calls himself a “blue-collar working-class populist,” and he rejects much of traditional Republican orthodoxy, embracing ideas that would once have been considered liberal or even socialist. 

He supports expanding the Mitchell-Lama social housing program, created in 1955, which provides affordable housing for middle-income residents. He has also floated the idea of a universal basic income for working families.

On a September morning in Queens, Mr. Sliwa leans against a subway pillar in his trademark red beret, railing against crime and talking about the need to make New York more affordable for the working class.  

“Rents, utilities, food prices – everything keeps going up,” says Mr. Sliwa. “People need relief, and the city can help deliver it. Public schools, the 40-hour workweek – those were called socialist once, too. I cherry-pick ideas that work, and I don’t care what label you put on them.”

The Republican candidate for mayor is polling at only about 10% of likely voters, however. Mr. Mamdani, who is polling at about 45%, according to the most recent surveys, continues to hold a commanding lead over Mr. Cuomo, who’s polling at about 25%. (In September, the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams, withdrew from the race.)

Most New Yorkers would not consider themselves either progressives or democratic socialists. But they appear willing to try a different approach to governing New York as living costs soar. 

George Konetsky, a native New Yorker who has lived in Astoria since 1986, says Mr. Mamdani’s ideas sound promising but remain abstract. 

“Mamdani is getting a free ride,” Mr. Konetsky says, taking a break from his morning run. “Nobody’s asked him exactly how he’s going to pay for anything, and nobody’s really challenging him on his many controversial comments.” Nevertheless, he adds, “Cuomo is yesterday’s news, and Sliwa would be a wild card.” 

Others feeling a more populist vibe see Mr. Mamdani’s lack of executive experience as a part of his appeal. 

“He’s the only candidate who isn’t crazy corrupt,” says Shannon Marshall, another Astoria resident. She sees Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy as a rejection of the status quo. “Even though he’s not as experienced politically, he has a much better track record of supporting workers and unions.”

Mohammed Makanera works in security and has lived in New York his whole life. He’s backing Mr. Mamdani out of frustration with the political status quo. He feels like past mayors have been more interested in building their own platforms than in addressing everyday struggles.

National politics feed into cynicism, he says. But Mr. Mamdani’s proposals for free transit and city-run grocery stores resonate with him. “Even if he hasn’t worked out all the details, I like his policies because he’s trying to put more money into the city,” Mr. Makanera says.

The impact of Mamdani's success

The success of Mr. Mamdani in New York has already become a model for other Democratic Socialists of America chapters across the country. 

Organizers say the lessons from Mr. Mamdani’s campaign – rooting policy in the daily struggles over rent, food, and transportation – are informing new messaging experiments in places like Somerville, Massachusetts; and Minneapolis.

In Somerville, DSA organizers are aligning with tenants unions to push rent stabilization and expand public ownership of housing, blending local advocacy with the “survival agenda” proposed in New York. 

In Minneapolis, the focus is on free transit and cooperative housing – both framed as affordability measures rather than as abstract socialist ideals.

The pivot toward affordability marks both a rebranding and a strategic expansion, observers say. It is seeking to reach Democratic voters once thought beyond its reach.

Still, the appeal of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign underscores a generational and ideological shift happening within the party, says Dr. Greer, the political scientist from Fordham. Despite Mr. Mamdani’s grassroots appeal, establishment Democrats have been reluctant to back him. 

“You’ve got Democrats who own the building, and Democrats who are renting in the building,” she says. “It’s a difficult needle to thread. The fact that people like Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and especially Hakeem Jeffries are still sitting on the sidelines [of the Mamdani campaign] – as though something will change – says a lot about the divide right now, she adds, referring to three of the state’s U.S. lawmakers.”

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For Ms. Swoope, the DSA organizer canvassing in Bed-Stuy, Mr. Mamdani’s momentum has broken through the cynicism many young progressive voters have been experiencing during Mr. Trump’s second term. 

“Zohran was effectively a change candidate offering a positive message that was able to break through that cynicism,” she says.