'We made history.' What Zohran Mamdani's win means for Democrats and the Trump GOP

Z did it.

Facing a mountain of opposition from major Democrats warning against going too far to the left, Zohran Mamdani , a 33-year-old New York state legislator , pulled off one of the more incredible upsets in U.S. history by defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June 24 Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is now being heralded by the activist left and other prominent progressives as the type of youthful and bold candidate the party needs to pull itself out of the gutter .

"It's a wake-up call for the Democratic Party establishment, should they choose to listen," Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told USA TODAY.

"It's voters saying very clearly what they want and offering a direction for how the Democratic Party can start to win again."

President Donald Trump and his supporters are listening and watching, too. They appear to be salivating at the idea of branding the entire Democratic Party with Mamdani's views ahead of the 2026 midterms, when the GOP will be fighting against political headwinds and history suggesting their majorities are vulnerable .

"It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line," Trump wrote in a June 25 post to Truth Social , his social media platform, while flying back to the United States on Air Force One from the NATO summit .

The president piled on a series of insults toward the Democratic nominee for the nation's largest city, calling him a "100% communist lunatic" who is backed by congressional Democrats. "We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous," Trump said.

White House aides cast the race in less personal, but no less stark and eyebrow-raising terms.

"NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration," Stephen Miller , who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff, said June 25 in a post on X .

If elected this November, Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and is of Indian ancestry, would be the city's first Muslim and first Asian American mayor.

Within minutes of Cuomo's concession, other figures in the MAGA movement swarmed online to cast the Queens-based lawmaker as a threat to the city either using using his faith or immigrant background as a backdrop of their criticism.

"Introducing Zohran Mamdani: The muslim socialist candidate for resentful immigrants who hate the West," Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist, posted on X .

'New York is cooked': GOP, MAGA eager to leverage Mamdani backlash

Given Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants , his  assault on Columbia University and proposed cuts to  social welfare programs , the president, a New York City native, is expected to play a heavy role in the race.

Republicans have already begun to put a spotlight on many of Mamdani's more controversial views, such as his refusal to repudiate the pro-Palestinian phrase "globalize the intifada" and his calls to reconfigure public safety.

"New York City nominated a socialist, defund the police and antisemitic mayoral candidate," Republican Governors Association spokeswoman Kollin Crompton said June 25 in an email to USA TODAY.

Besides making Mamdani part of their own referendum, Trump's allies are looking to hound other Democrats outside his ideological orbit.

The governors association called out New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for embracing Mamdani , saying the pair "will continue destroying one of America’s most iconic cities" should he win this fall. Similar GOP-sponsored attacks have been aimed at other Democrats, such as New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, who is expected to be in a tight race against Trump-backed Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli this November.

Others are being less subtle and are telegraphing that this race will be focused on culture war issues, such as immigration and his Muslim heritage, which could taken an even uglier turn than it did during the 2024 election, when similar personal attacks were lobbed against former Vice President Kamala Harris' heritage .

Kirk, a voluble culture warrior on the right, defended calling attention to Mamdani's faith, saying it isn't "Islamophobia" to call out the Democratic nominee's values.

"It's cultural suicide to stay silent," he said.

Signs Democratic base is turning against establishment

Mamdani ran largely on the cost of living and took economic populist positions that raked in a coalition toppling one of the Big Apple's most formidable family dynasties.

Among progressives, Mamdani's win has drawn comparison to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's surprise victory in 2018 when she beat congressman Joe Crowley.

"Your dedication to an affordable, welcoming, and safe New York City where working families can have a shot has inspired people across the city," Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who endorsed Mamdani, said in a post on X . "Billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won."

AOC's win was followed by similarly progressive-minded candidates across the country who won during that midterm election and assembled as "the Squad" in Congress.

But that did not translate into a decisive shift to the left nationally, which was exemplified in the 2020 Democratic primary for president, when voters chose Joe Biden over more progressive contenders.

Less than 12 hours after Mandami's win, moderate figures appear split on whether to embrace him.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, congratulated the assemblyman, but other Democrats are openly warning against his views.

Rep. Lauren Gillen, D-N.Y., said in a statement that Mamdani was "too extreme" and echoed many of the talking points GOP groups have made, saying his criticism of Israel has been "antisemitic" at a time when attacks against Jewish Americans have been in the national spotlight.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who is Jewish, said he was "profoundly alarmed" at Democrats embracing the mayoral candidate given his views on Israel and capitalism. He said he hopes Mamdani "will continue to evolve in ways that provide much needed reassurance to people committed to a free from prejudice, market economy as an American ideal."

Taylor, of the PCCC, an influential progressive group with more than 1 million members, said the Democratic Party establishment has long been viewed by the base as actively working to "undermine and defeat young, popular, charismatic candidates" because of their anti-corruption, anti-war and anti-corporate positions.

"If the party wants to win again, we have to invest in charismatic, populist candidates that are embracing policies that are popular," she said. "And this is the future for the Democrats, and they can get on board or they can become irrelevant."

These divides come as Mamdani faces a steeper summit to climb as both the flag-bearer for the left against scandal-plagued incumbent Eric Adams − who earlier this year exited the Democratic Party to run as an independent − and the new favorite boogeyman for the MAGA movement.

During the 11-candidate campaign for mayor, Mamdani pushed for raising $10 billion in revenue by raising taxes on individuals and businesses to help pay for his ambitious goals, such as eliminating fares on city buses, freezing costs at all rent-stabilized apartments, and establishing city-owned grocery stores.

He also wants to establish a new community safety department that investments in citywide mental health programs and crisis response, and he supports tough code enforcement on landlords.

Asked how the party outside of New York should discuss the primary result, Democratic strategist Nina Smith said elected officials and candidates can't tiptoe around it.

She said Democrats should spend less time taking ideological litmus tests and responding to culture wars crafted by Trump and his allies and speak to the larger referendum about rising prices that Mamdani's campaign focused on.

"Cost, cost, cost − that is the issue for the 2026 election," Smith said. "We need to figure out how we show up and say we have the solutions. ... Let the public know that they can trust us to do so. Any tap dancing makes us look untrustworthy."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Wake up call.' What Zohran Mamdani's win means for Democrats and GOP