How the Mamdani win could shape the 2026 midterms

Traditional Democrats are keeping New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani at arm’s length out of fear that his hard-left policies will hurt their chances of reclaiming seats in 2026.

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Mamdani, 33, has made a splash in New York politics, managing to win the Democratic nomination for mayor with his policies on expanding affordable housing, increasing minimum wage, taxing wealthy individuals and corporations, creating city-run grocery stores, providing free childcare and more.

Republicans have capitalised on Mamdani's politics to paint him as a borderline communist with radical polices and affix him to other Democratic candidates. The polarising rhetoric around Mamdani has made some moderate Democrats fearful that a Mamdani win could deepen the identity crisis occurring in the Democratic Party and hurt their chances of coming back after their widespread losses in the 2024 election. “Mamdani is the greatest threat to Democrats probably since Ronald Reagan because he’s everything Democrats have been accused of being and in fact is — to the extreme,” Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic operative who is advising an anti-Mamdani group, told Politico.