Current Affairs • Nov 5, 2025
Follow Mamdani’s Example
Watching Zohran Mamdani’s rise has been a strange experience for me. About a year ago, Current Affairs ran an interview with him in our print edition, entitled “Could a Democratic Socialist Mayor Be Just What New York City Needs?” As a socialist, I personally thought the answer to that question was “yes,” but I’m under no illusions about the difficulties leftists face in American politics. Mamdani’s campaign was a huge long shot, and other than Current Affairs, just about the only publications covering the campaign back then were Democracy Now! and Jacobin—who, to their credit, have followed Mamdani’s career from the start.