NN ONLINE:
New York mayoral election winner Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that he was ready to engage with his arch-critic President Donald Trump on the issue of cost of living.
The Muslim-American lawmaker, whose rapid ascent from rank outsider to mayor-elect has stunned observers, joked at a briefing that the “White House hasn’t reached out to congratulate me.” “I continue to be interested in having a conversation with President Trump on the ways in which we can work together to serve New Yorkers,” he said suggesting “delivering on his campaign promises around cost of living” as one.
Mamdani, like Trump, put the high cost of living, impact of inflation and elevated grocery expenses at the heart of his campaign which triumphed over former governor Andrew Cuomo’s platform. “I think the lesson for the president is that it’s not enough to diagnose the crisis in working class Americans lives. You have to deliver on addressing that crisis.”
Mamdani called out Trump for his own campaign promises to address the soaring cost of groceries, but seeking to suspend food assistance while in office under the government shutdown. After winning on promises to make city bus travel free, control rents and offer free childcare, Mamdani said “what scares Republicans across the country is the fact that we will actually deliver on this agenda.” Mamdani’s mayoral race win came despite fierce attacks on his policies and Muslim heritage from business elites, conservative media commentators and Trump himself.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said in a victory speech late Tuesday. Mamdani’s win, as well as the Democratic Party’s other victories in the governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, suggested a shift in political mood as the country looks toward next year’s midterm elections, when control of Congress will be up for grabs.
In another significant win for Democrats, voters in California approved a proposition to redraw electoral districts in a bid to neutralize gerrymandering efforts ordered by Trump in other states. Trump refused to take any blame for Tuesday’s results.
Mamdani on Wednesday introduced the five women who will co-chair his transition. Among them is Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden, and Maria Torres-Springer, who resigned her post as deputy mayor under outgoing mayor Eric Adams due to his engagement with Trump.
