• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

Mamdani Dearest

Democratic strategists and operatives are processing Zohran Mamdani’s shocking victory in New York in real time: the implications for incumbents, lessons for candidate recruitment, the challenge of managing the far left, and why the Israel issue isn’t going away. Herewith, some of their early takeaways.

Zohran Mamdani
Some operatives hope that members will learn from Mamdani's playbook of sincerity, creativity, and unscriptedness (i.e., authenticity), which means speaking your mind and being unafraid to make mistakes. Photo: Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Abby Livingston
June 30, 2025

As you’ve surely read everywhere during this off-cycle campaign season lull, Zohran Mamdani’s shock win over Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has progressives jubilant and moderates spooked. Where the Bernie Sanders left sees validation, centrists see mostly danger for their midterm hopes, which run through purple districts that may now be flooded with ads tying the party to the outré ideas of a 33-year-old democratic socialist. (The conservative internet is already all over his proposal to shift the city’s tax burden from the outer boroughs to “richer and whiter neighborhoods,” for example.)