Zohran Mamdani stopped by The Daily Show to speak with Jon Stewart about running for New York City mayor and the state of the Democratic party. With only eight days left for the election, Stewart asked Mamdani what he needed to do to “close the deal.”
“It is in many ways the same thing that got us here, which is canvassing,” Mamdani replied. “For all of the rallies, on commercials, on debates, it really comes back to people speaking to other New Yorkers about the city that we all love. We have 90,000 volunteers right now on the campaign.”
“What do New Yorkers love more than anything?” Stewart replied. “It’s strangers coming to the door or calling them.”
“We’re often characterized as being rude,” Mamdani noted. “I will tell you that New Yorkers have been so kind in the experiences they’ve had with our volunteers. Because what they’re speaking to is another New Yorker. And it’s an understanding politics is not something you have. It’s something that you do. And in this moment, where politics has become just another word for division, for not just Republicans but also Democrats, these New Yorkers are ones who understood that you never hate someone more than before you know them.”
He added, “And knocking on that door, having that conversation doesn’t just win the election for us. It also starts to build the city that we want to live in.”
Mamdani reflected on his priorities if he gets in office, which include affordable housing, safety, and ensuring people have jobs that “pay them enough to stay in the city.” “It’s not all going to be about a fight for funding or a fight for transforming city government in the ways that are only big,” he said. “It’s also the ways that are small. The efficiency of the bureaucracy.”
Midway through the interview, Stewart acknowledged that it surprised him that the Democratic establishment has not embraced the energy Mamdani has created amongst voters. “Is that something that has bothered you?” Stewart asked.
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“It’s interesting in many ways because our politics and the media that covers it is often focused on the question of endorsements,” Mamdani replied. “And it’s part of what gave [Andrew] Cuomo the sense of inevitability in the primary. He just seemed to pick up all of these different endorsements. And I think what we showed, in many ways, was that the days of endorsements deciding elections, those days have come to an end. It’s the people who build up a campaign.”
He added that he appreciates House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries giving him a reluctant endorsement at the last minute, but he also appreciates that when the two have spoken “it’s been about: how do we deliver for our shared constituents?”
“We’ve been telling them again and again that all we have to offer is not Trump,” Mamdani said. “But this is also the city that created Trump. We have to reckon with that.”
Mamdani also explained that after many claims that Democrats had trouble motivating votes, he’s found it to be the opposite.
“After the presidential election, there were all these obituaries written about the Democratic Party’s ability to motivate young votes,” Mamdani said. “And there’s just this condescension in the language that we use about young people. And I can just tell you that what we found in this campaign is that young people have been at the heart of believing that something could be more than this. I would say throughout the primary, this quote from Ed Koch, ‘If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. 12 out of 12, see a psychiatrist.’ And I’m in Washington Square Park, I’m filming a video with David Hogg, and this young guy comes up to me and goes, ’12 out of 12, baby, send me away!’”
From Rolling Stone US
