CNN
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Want to know how much Republicans are eager to turn Zohran Mamdani into the face of the Democratic Party? Look no further than two of the biggest names eyeing bids for New York governor next year.
“He will be the single most effective foil for Republicans nationally,” Rep. Elise Stefanik told CNN. “It is the encapsulation of where today’s Democrat Party is, how far left they have shifted and how radicalized they have become. Every Democrat, not just in New York but across the country.”
In the hours after Mamdani’s apparent victory, Stefanik and Rep. Mike Lawler quickly moved to tie Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to the 33-year-old Democratic socialist.
“A radical, antisemitic socialist was just nominated to be the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City – and Kathy Hochul didn’t lift a finger to stop it from happening,” Lawler, who is mulling a run for governor, wrote on X.
President Donald Trump joined in the pile-on, calling Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic.”
“We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.
Those missives reflect a broader push within the Republican Party to link Mamdani and his progressive policies to Democrats not just in New York but nationwide. National Republicans, and some Democrats, think Mamdani’s approach and his policy ideas – a rent freeze and new public housing, city-owned grocery stores and free buses, finances by tax hikes on the wealthiest – will be unpopular with swing voters outside of New York City.
Mamdani, who is a longtime critic of Israel, rejects allegations that he is antisemitic and has proposed increasing funding for hate crime prevention. Some national GOP criticism of Mamdani, who would become the city’s first Muslim mayor if he wins in November, has invoked Islamophobic tropes.
Laura Loomer, the far-right provocateur who once posted a video claiming the September 11, 2001, attacks were an “inside job,” wrote on X, “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame.”
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted an edited photo of the Statue of Liberty covered in a burqa, writing “This hits hard.”
Republican strategists view New York State, which will feature races for governor and several competitive House districts next year, as fertile ground for attacks on Mamdani.
Running against the state’s largest city is a longtime political strategy in New York. New York City and the rest of the state have often fought over funding and their divergent politics. These days, the antagonism from suburban and upstate voters toward the city is higher than ever, even as the share of the electorate they make up is lower than ever.
Notably, two House Democrats representing parts of Long Island, east of the city, criticized Mamdani on Wednesday. The top Democrats in the House and Senate, New York City residents Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, said they spoke to Mamdani and praised his campaign but stopped short of endorsing him.
Hochul, a Buffalo native, also praised Mamdani for having “built a formidable grassroots coalition” without endorsing him.
Several Republicans see Hochul as a mark in next year’s midterms after she won her first full term in 2022 by just six points.
Stefanik, who represents a mostly rural swath of the state stretching to the Canadian border, began fundraising off Mamdani’s win and argued Hochul is in “full blown panic mode.”
“This is their home state,” said Stefanik. “This is because of their weakness, their weakness on combating antisemitism, their weakness standing up to the radical communist far left, and Democrats are going to try to run, but they can’t hide. They own this, unless they disavow this individual. They own this.”
The National Republican Campaign Committee posted an image linking Mamdani to several vulnerable House Democrats in New York, including the two who eventually distanced themselves from the Democratic nominee, Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi.
NRCC Chair Rep. Richard Hudson said Mamdani will be part of the GOP’s playbook heading into next year’s midterms as the “new face” of the Democratic Party along with two other high-profile liberals and people of color: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed and campaigned with Mamdani, and Jasmine Crockett.
“They try to lie about us. We’re going to tell the truth about them – who they are, what they believe, who the leaders of their party are. It’s Jasmine Crockett, AOC. It’s Mamdani,” Hudson said. “These are the folks that are generating all the excitement. This is the direction they’re moving in. Voters need to know that.”
Some Republican strategists believe the mayoral campaign could also affect this fall’s race for governor in New Jersey, where a large part of the state shares a media market with New York City.
Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli declared Mamdani’s victory “proof that the modern Democratic Party has lost its mind.” Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee, has yet to weigh in publicly on the results.
Democratic strategist Lauren Hitt said Republicans often “pick whoever the most recognizable figures are” and zero in on them. She noted Republican attack ads often paired Ocasio-Cortez with Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, even though the three lawmakers have sharply different approaches and bases within the Democratic Party.
“Republicans are always going to call Democrats socialists. They’ve been doing it for decades. They’ll do it for decades more,” said Hitt, a former spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez and adviser to a PAC opposing Andrew Cuomo’s bid for mayor. “I think the party sort of over-correcting to avoid that would generally be a mistake in playing on Republican turf rather than acknowledging the tremendous success and positive lessons to be taken from Mamdani’s win.”
But Dave Carney, a longtime Republican strategist, argued tying Mamdani and his policies to Democrats nationwide could have more of an impact than past Democratic foils.
“This guy could be the mayor of New York City, which is one of the most powerful mayors legally in the country. He has a tremendous amount of influence. I don’t think anybody thinks he was kidding on the things he wants to do,” said Carney. “They should take every opportunity to remind voters in the more, still-normal part of the country that this is what the Democrats have become.”
