Some members of the Democratic establishment are aghast that far-left candidate Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral primary and are casting about for alternatives, according to a new report.
“He can’t be the future of the party,” one strategist said, according to The Hill. “He’s only going to be fodder for Republicans.”
Grant Reeher, director of Syracuse University’s Campbell Public Affairs Institute, said Mamdani is a walking, talking GOP campaign ad.
“If I put myself in the place of a Republican strategist, I’m wanting [Mamdani] to win,” he said.
“I can imagine the advertisement would be … a list of some of the most extreme things that he has stood for … and I would say, ‘This is what Democrats do when they’re left to their own devices,’” he said.
But if not Mamdani, who?
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s defeat at the hands of Mamdani in the primary has left him appearing vulnerable. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams was already on the outs with many Democrats who viewed his term with dismay. Both are running as independents.
Reeher said that as long as they remain on the ballot, Mamdani cruises to victory.
“You can’t have multiple alternatives,” he said. “I just don’t see any way that Mamdani doesn’t win unless one of these folks drops out.”
“If I was a Democratic strategist for the whole party in New York City, and I commanded authority, I would put Adams and Cuomo in a room, and I would say, ‘You guys are going to flip a coin,’” he said.
Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, said both Adams and Cuomo are “for a number of moderate voters, the business community, the real estate community, a firewall against more progressive politics.”
Former Republican Gov. George Pataki said one sign that establishment Democrats want an alternative is shown in the behavior of Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries, according to the New York Post.
“The mainstream media is not asking Jeffries, is not asking Schumer, is not asking Hochul, ‘Are you for Mamdani or not?’ Give us an answer. Don’t hide. They are all hiding,” Pataki said on WABC-AM.
“You can’t really have a party that stands for anything when you have a Marxist running, and the three main leaders in New York of the Democratic Party — Jeffries, Schumer and Hochul — are all hiding in the weeds. Make them come out of the weeds. Are you for [Mamdani] or not?” he said.
“If they endorse Mamdani, they have endorsed an anti-Semite Marxist. If they don’t endorse him, then they’re going to get primaried by all these left-wing radicals,” he said.
Independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden, barely at 1 percent support in the polls, said something — and someone — has to give to stop Mamdani, according to Newsweek.
“My understanding is that a lot of people have buyer’s remorse because the Democrats did a terrible job on opposition research during the primary,” he said, saying that as the general election nears, everyone except the front runner of the independents should drop out.
“We have to put our political ambitions in the backseat for the interests of New Yorkers,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Establishment Democrats Are Plotting Ways to Stop Zohran Mamdani: Report appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
