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By Max Hudgins
“We’re assured victory,” one of Zohran Mamdani’s canvass organizers told me.
We were nearly halfway done knocking on doors on a Sunday afternoon and had just received a severe tongue lashing from a man we believed was a landlord.
“At this point,” he continued, “it's just a matter of how much we can win by.”
Mamdani is poised to become the first socialist (in his own words) mayor of New York City. He’s young, charismatic, progressive – and a winner in front of the camera. He celebrates the fact that he rents, rather than owns, and uses public transportation.
He hasn’t been without controversy – like advocating for higher taxes on “richer and whiter” neighborhoods, not condemning the “intifada,” and labeling the NYPD "wicked & corrupt" – but, unlike his opponents, he’s neither haunted by the Covid ghosts of New York’s nursing homes nor does he don a beret and suit, yammering nonstop about which crime bosses have tried to kill him.
He’s different. That seems to be one of the main reasons why so many New Yorkers are voting for him.
Yet in a strange way, the race mirrors 2016: An upstart outsider representing radical change versus the establishment embodied.
But Trump managed to capture the “basket of deplorables” vote and win the workingman. Zohran says he represents the working class and, to prove it, is promising them a gift basket of handouts, full of goodies like free buses and childcare.
But is that true?
Despite Zohran’s working-class rhetoric, he was raised a member of the city’s elite – and it was not the poor, but the yuppie urban middle-class who carried him to victory in the June primary. Alleged sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo, his primary opponent, outperformed in lower- and higher-income areas. While Cuomo’s campaign has since been reduced to AI-generated political pigswill, Mamdani’s 50,000 door knockers are still pounding the pavement. So I spent a weekend with them to see what typical New Yorkers loved and loathed about the man.
Now, if you’re looking for a rabbit-hole article on Mamdani’s policies, you won’t find much of it here. You can check out the deep-dive we did into some of his more controversial statements. And if you’re looking for an exposé, where I spent months undercover, spying on Mamdani’s campaign, you won’t find that either. I only spent a weekend with Mamdani’s door knockers. But I believe what I learned in just those two days sheds much light on the controversial candidate and his campaign.
On the first day volunteering, I met my canvassing partner – a two-year veteran of the Mamdani movement and one of the canvassing organizers – at a Harlem cafe at around three in the afternoon. It was a Sunday, and the whole weekend had been tainted by the weather. The rain clouds had rolled in Friday night and plunged the five boroughs into an early taste of winter without so much as a hint of fall.
My partner was one of the more normal political fanatics who showed up that day.
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Editor’s Note
Thank you for reading, and to our reporter – the third Max – for taking a weekend to understand the Mamdani movement a bit better. If you have thoughts, criticisms, or compliments for him, please send them here.
A lot of replies to yesterday’s article on athlete pay. Here is a sample of those emails:
Angel wrote:
I think one big aspect that you overlooked is that athletes typically come from backgrounds where they are very underprivileged. For example V.J. Edgecomb, a rookie in the NBA, grew up with scarce electricity and allegedly had to brush his teeth by candlelight. This is a big contrast to most CEOs who grew up in affluent or middle class families. People have less sympathy for CEOs because they likely had an easier path in life that set them up for success. Athletes have to go through rigorous training that takes hard work, dedication, and discipline. It is much easier to empathize with athletes and celebrate how they changed the whole trajectory of their life (and their families life) by dedicating their lives to the sport. I can't speak for all athletes but they also typically try to give back to the community now that they have a voice and the money to try and make a difference in the world.
I see the point you guys are making though, I would like the people working for these organizations getting a little more of a cut especially because there's clearly not a lack of money to go around.
Luke said:
The only league it bothers me at all is the NBA where regular season wins and losses aren't taken seriously. It seeems fairly common for role players to get a bag and coast. NFL is mostly players who make a couple million for 2-3 years and put their body on the line at a completely different level with non guarenteed deals. NHL is the same way and they had to work their way through the minors. Same with baseball to a degree but there should be a salary cap. All these players get paid this because they effect wining which has a positive impact on the community. If teams lose, players without guarenteed deals get cut, and others traded, and ridiculed. I don't care if a ceo gets paid a ton if the company is successful and a positive/neutral impact. What I think pisses everyone off is seeing job cuts or environmental abuse to pinch pennies while the top of the latter feasts. The top of the line guys - Lebron/mahomes/etc mean so much more to their city than any CEO would and their economic impact - getting people to come out to games/sports bars is real. This comes from someone growing up in Cleveland through the Lebron and non Lebron years. Overall, I even feel much more comfortable with high end athletes making top of the line money over actors/musicians/streamers(?) but would be interested to see those comparisons.
David said:
The high pay of stars and athletes is sickening to me. I appreciate their talent, understand the equity arguments but don’t see the relative worth. Where does all this money come from? It eventually rolls down to the consumer who is making a lot less, and is supporting these stars whether they like them or not. Maybe it will reach an equilibrium but it’s does not seem positive to society in the meantime. I stopped watching professional sports years ago because of this and am now facing it again with college sports thanks to the NIL. Not saying we need to repeat the days of the Gladiator but this bubble is not sustainable.
And Ruth wrote:
As far as I’m concerned, both athletes and CEO’s are overpaid! It takes many people for a healthy, industrious society and I believe there should be a much smaller gap between your highest and lowest employee. A CEO without faithful workers is worthless. Keeping in mind that athletes typically have a much shorter “career” than a CEO, I understand that their salaries appear bloated. That being said, no one is worth 20, 30, 40 million dollars a year! It raises the cost for the average person to even attend the events, and we have much more important things in this country that need our attention right now. A country that can pay these kinds of salaries should not have homelessness, millions of people needing SNAP benefits, and unaffordable basic human rights! Our priorities are confused!
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Enjoy your weekends!
—Max and Max
