“Focus, focus, and focus on affordability” in New York City.
Robert Wood, a 47-year-old writer and lead volunteer for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, believes that the key to winning voters in New York City’s tense election campaign is in the simple message.
Mamdani’s surprise victory in the June Democratic primary and his dominating lead in the polls ahead of the election day on November 4 have a symbolic impact that extends far beyond the city’s five boroughs.
A rebuke to the wealthy donor-dominated Democratic establishment has been deemed by many to be a path forward for liberal politics that was abandoned by US President Donald Trump.
Mamdani supporters are aware that he must actually make it into City Hall for a movement that has spread across the nation and indeed the globe to fully realize. That begins and ends with door-knocking: there is a lot of door-knocking.
A door opened to reveal Nadia on a windswept October day in a row of townhouses in the Crown Heights neighborhood, which Mamdani and her main rival Andrew Cuomo split in the primaries. She claimed she is already anticipating Mamdani.
We must ensure that our friends and families get out and vote, Wood argued, noting that a resounding mandate would boost Mamdani’s ambitious plans, which included increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers, to increase rent freezes on stabilized apartments, free buses, and universal childcare.
The governor and state legislators will have to veto hard-fought victories in order for execution.
Another man claimed to be unsure at a nearby, rent-stabilized apartment complex. Wood cited Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents in similar buildings, which account for about a quarter of the city’s housing stock.
The man is gracious but reluctant to say, “Thank you, I’m still deciding,”
Onika Saul, a 45-year-old property manager, was greeted down the street as she climbed a steep concrete stoop. She was concerned that “realism is kind of skewed” in Mamdani’s pledges.
Anyone can say anything, she said, but “action always speaks louder than words.”
“So I personally want to see more action than words because I have been so many times deceived by so many politicians and so many promises,” I say.
Wood, however, inserted. He described Mamdani’s activism as a state assemblyman, which included a hunger strike led by taxi drivers, and his arrest in front of US Senator Chuck Schumer’s residence in connection with the US’s funding of the Gaza war. He also noted that Mamdani has relied on small donations, in contrast to the donations made by billionaire business and real estate executives who have helped Cuomo’s campaign.
He also cited Mamdani’s vocal support for Palestinian rights, a rarity in mainstream US politics, as one of the most important issues in the race.
Wood said that Zohran is undoubtedly the only politician in the race to refer to what is happening in Gaza as a genocide.
Saul reaffirmed that it was a genocide.
Saul had her reservations by the conclusion. After all, Mamdani’s most important promises, such as universal childcare for children under five, do not directly apply to her. However, she claimed she would support his vision and vote for him.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply