Progressive Politics

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign struggled to win “the Black vote.” That was part of the narrative that emerged after Mamdani’s surprising win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Though Mamdani, a state assemblymember, decisively triumphed over his chief opponent, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the young democratic socialist’s performance in majority-Black precincts proved to be a weak spot.

The so-called Black vote, in other words, doesn’t need to shake out the way it frequently has in the past; all indications are that it won’t.

Mamdani is the candidate that has shown he can seize on young voter enthusiasm — and with young Black voters, themselves no monolith, offering Mamdani an opening. True, some of these younger voters are moving toward the Republican Party, but it’s also true that young Black Democrats are more likely to hold more progressive views than their older counterparts.

Indeed, young Black voters appear to have gone decisively for Mamdani in the primary. According to one primary exit poll (with a small sample size), about 70 percent of Black voters under 50 voted for Mamdani citywide. There’s no reason to think he will lose that support in the general, and if he can continue to increase young Black voter turnout, he may not need the older ones.