New Yorkers seem to still like Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and new polling data exclusively shared with Heard Around Town confirms it.
Pollster Bradley Honan (a proud subscriber to this newsletter) surveyed 416 likely Democratic voters in NYC and found that 64% of them held a favorable view of Mamdani, with only 32% having an unfavorable view. Those voters are even happier with how he’s handled his first six months in office, with 74% approving of the job he’s doing as mayor. (The poll has a margin of error of 4.6 points, which makes little difference when the numbers are this good for Mamdani.) The mayor’s impressive popularity seems to have rubbed off on NYC-DSA, his political home, with 54% of Democratic voters in NYC holding a favorable opinion of the Democratic Socialists of America and just 21% holding an unfavorable opinion of the socialist group.
The big question tonight is whether all those Democrats who love the mayor will come out and vote for his endorsed candidates. Mamdani endorsed three congressional candidates (Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander), along with six state legislative candidates running in open seats (Aber Kawas, Diana Moreno, Samantha Kattan, Brian Romero, Illapa Sairitupac and Eli Northrup).
For Mamdani, the most important race is probably the NY-7 primary, where Valdez is running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez – against Velázquez’s preferred successor Antonio Reynoso. The primary will be a direct test of Mamdani and NYC-DSA’s power and influence in a district that is almost tailor-made for the socialist group. NY-7 encompasses much of the so-called “Commie Corridor” full of young, left-leaning renters and counts more than 2,600 NYC-DSA members in good standing – the most of any congressional district in NYC.
Valdez has the mayor, the socialist left and UAW (which in NYC largely represents lefty workers at universities and public defender offices) on her side, while Reynoso has almost all of the institutional progressive left: the WFP, most unions, grassroots nonprofit groups and non-socialist progressive electeds like Jumaane Williams and Letitia James.
The difference between Valdez and Reynoso isn’t policy but political temperament: Reynoso is a typical progressive, but Valdez is a DSA member through and through who wants to work closely with the socialist group to build DSA’s power in Congress. If Mamdani and DSA can power her to Congress, it will cement his and DSA’s status as the leaders of NYC’s progressive movement – at the expense of the WFP – and start to nationalize the movement he’s already building in the city. If Reynoso wins, it’s a sign that the mayor and the socialists aren’t as powerful as they think and the institutional left still runs the show in NYC.
City & State: Heard Around Town: Can Mamdani pull it off?
By Peter Sterne
New Yorkers seem to still like Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and new polling data exclusively shared with Heard Around Town confirms it.
Pollster Bradley Honan (a proud subscriber to this newsletter) surveyed 416 likely Democratic voters in NYC and found that 64% of them held a favorable view of Mamdani, with only 32% having an unfavorable view. Those voters are even happier with how he’s handled his first six months in office, with 74% approving of the job he’s doing as mayor. (The poll has a margin of error of 4.6 points, which makes little difference when the numbers are this good for Mamdani.) The mayor’s impressive popularity seems to have rubbed off on NYC-DSA, his political home, with 54% of Democratic voters in NYC holding a favorable opinion of the Democratic Socialists of America and just 21% holding an unfavorable opinion of the socialist group.
The big question tonight is whether all those Democrats who love the mayor will come out and vote for his endorsed candidates. Mamdani endorsed three congressional candidates (Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander), along with six state legislative candidates running in open seats (Aber Kawas, Diana Moreno, Samantha Kattan, Brian Romero, Illapa Sairitupac and Eli Northrup).
For Mamdani, the most important race is probably the NY-7 primary, where Valdez is running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez – against Velázquez’s preferred successor Antonio Reynoso. The primary will be a direct test of Mamdani and NYC-DSA’s power and influence in a district that is almost tailor-made for the socialist group. NY-7 encompasses much of the so-called “Commie Corridor” full of young, left-leaning renters and counts more than 2,600 NYC-DSA members in good standing – the most of any congressional district in NYC.
Valdez has the mayor, the socialist left and UAW (which in NYC largely represents lefty workers at universities and public defender offices) on her side, while Reynoso has almost all of the institutional progressive left: the WFP, most unions, grassroots nonprofit groups and non-socialist progressive electeds like Jumaane Williams and Letitia James.
The difference between Valdez and Reynoso isn’t policy but political temperament: Reynoso is a typical progressive, but Valdez is a DSA member through and through who wants to work closely with the socialist group to build DSA’s power in Congress. If Mamdani and DSA can power her to Congress, it will cement his and DSA’s status as the leaders of NYC’s progressive movement – at the expense of the WFP – and start to nationalize the movement he’s already building in the city. If Reynoso wins, it’s a sign that the mayor and the socialists aren’t as powerful as they think and the institutional left still runs the show in NYC.
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