Shortly after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race, CatholicVote Senior Political Advisor Steve Cortes is asking conservatives to reflect on a pressing question: What can they learn from Mamdani’s win?
In a Nov. 5 RealClear Politics commentary titled “Explaining Mamdani’s Appeal to the Young, With Polling,” Cortes argued that while Mamdani’s “Marxist answers are wrong and immoral,” his rise reflects voters’ economic frustration and disillusionment with the political establishment.
“It’s a sad day for the de facto capital of the world, New York City,” Cortes wrote, adding that “those of us on the populist right should not merely shake our heads and bemoan the extremism of Mamdani.”
Instead, he said, conservatives must “understand his appeal” to “counter his un-American ideas and continue to build on our 2024 triumph — to earn further big gains nationally among young voters for patriotic populism.”
Cortes identified three main factors driving Mamdani’s appeal: economic anxiety, digital media dominance, and a growing desire for leaders to focus on the home front.
Affordability
First, Cortes said, young Americans are struggling with a financial system that they feel is working against them.
“Most young citizens have not benefited from the huge run-up in asset prices in recent years,” he wrote. “Without substantial holdings of equities or real estate, they struggle to deal with sky-high costs for the staples of life. Even worse, the job market gets substantially tougher for young adults, adding even more angst.”
While many voters initially blamed Democrats for “the pain of Bidenomics,” Cortes said that frustration has begun shifting toward Republicans.
Cortes cited an online nationwide survey TIPP Insights conducted for his organization, the League of American Workers, which indicated that only one in four young adults rated President Donald Trump’s economic performance as “good” or “excellent,” while 54% called it “poor” or “unacceptable.”
“Mamdani smartly dove into this issue,” Cortes wrote. “All his alleged solutions will only make inflation worse, of course, from ‘free’ public transit to lavish benefits for illegal aliens. But regardless, he fixated on what matters to voters, especially young ones.”
Media skills
Secondly, Cortes credited Mamdani’s fluency in digital media with helping him capture young voters’ attention.
“Media savvy combined with lots of ludicrous promises of freebies forms a pretty powerful approach in this populist age,” he said.
Citing TIPP Insights data showing that only about one-third of young adults view legacy media favorably, Cortes said that young voters “are especially receptive to the heavy use of new/alternative media,” particularly on streaming platforms like TikTok.
Focus on home
Finally, Cortes highlighted Mamdani’s focus on local priorities over global entanglements — a message that resonated strongly with younger voters, who increasingly favor a non-interventionist approach.
During a July mayoral debate, Mamdani was asked where his first foreign trip as mayor would be. While other candidates named Israel or Ukraine, Mamdani replied simply, “I would stay in New York City.” The exchange was clipped and widely circulated on social media for months.
“That answer clearly appeals to young voters, who are decidedly non-interventionist abroad,” Cortes said, citing the TIPP Insights survey, which found 69% of young men think the U.S. “intervene[s] too much in foreign conflicts.”
According to the same survey, only 26% of all young adult males think the U.S. should stay involved in Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy do not reach a deal soon.
Cortes noted that the non-interventionist outlook extends to young voters’ increasingly critical view of Israel. According to the TIPP Insights survey, only one in four young voters views the country positively, while 52% hold a negative opinion.
That sentiment, Cortes said, may explain why Mamdani “did not generate the blowback he deserved for extremist postures,” including support for a pro-terror figure linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
While calling Mamdani a “dangerous Marxist,” Cortes argued that Republicans should take lessons from his victory.
“Establishment Republicans have no effective answer to this kind of populism, because their default is always ‘cut taxes for the wealthy and go to war,’” he concluded. “The MAGA movement has a very different vision, one that can appeal to reasonable young people in increasing numbers, to continue this patriotic populist surge for decades to come.”
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