Zohran Mamdani talks party fights, potholes and Arsenal fandom

Zohran Mamdani is six months into running New York City, and he is already using City Hall as a launchpad for a wider fight inside the Democratic Party.

In a Rolling Stone interview at Gracie Mansion, the mayor spoke after endorsing a slate of democratic socialist candidates in New York’s June primaries. Rolling Stone reported that the candidates he backed won their races, including Darializa Avila Chevalier, a former field lead on Mamdani’s mayoral campaign who successfully challenged House Hispanic Caucus leader Adriano Espaillat.

Mamdani said the primary results showed that his campaign had grown into something bigger than one race. He told Rolling Stone the goal was to build a movement that would show up wherever there was “a fight for working people.”

A left flank with its elbows out

The interview put Mamdani squarely in the middle of the national Democratic argument between centrists and the left. Asked why he spent political capital against the wishes of the party’s centrist bloc, Mamdani said he had promised New Yorkers he would use every available tool to push an affordability agenda.

He also answered former Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison, who wrote on election night that people who “hate the Democratic Party” should not run for its nomination. Harrison did not name Mamdani or his candidates, according to Rolling Stone.

Mamdani said the party should be defined by its voters, not by consultants or donors. He argued that Democratic voters in New York’s 13th, 7th and 10th districts had shown what they wanted by choosing left-wing candidates.

Rolling Stone asked Mamdani about criticism aimed at Chevalier over past social media posts described in the interview as praising communist ideology, calling for police abolition and insulting Kamala Harris. Mamdani said he told Chevalier that such attacks happen only when a candidate has a chance to win. He called some of the backlash fearmongering and racism, and said district voters were focused on cost-of-living pressures.

City Hall receipts

Mamdani used the interview to sell his first six months in office as proof that democratic socialism can govern a city. He said his administration had paved more than 165,000 potholes, returned tens of millions of dollars to tenants and put New York on a path toward universal childcare.

He said the childcare plan would save parents more than $20,000 a year. He also claimed the city had recorded the lowest number of murders and shootings in its history while pursuing what he called an ambitious affordable-housing agenda.

On public housing, Mamdani acknowledged that the New York City Housing Authority has $80 billion in capital needs and that federal action is needed. Still, he said the city would not wait for Washington, adding that his administration had nearly doubled New York’s capital commitment to NYCHA.

He also pointed to a tenant lawsuit filed on his first day after inauguration. Mamdani said the legal action led the next owner of the building to agree to fix violations there and at other properties owned by the same real estate organization.

Suits, songs and soccer

The Rolling Stone interview also caught the mayor in lighter mode. Mamdani, an Arsenal supporter, teased the interviewer for backing Chelsea and England’s national team.

He said his uncle introduced him to Arsenal after he was born in Uganda, where he argued the London club has a large following because of its history of African players. He also named Radio & Weasel, Shamoon Ismail and Kacey Musgraves as current listens.

Asked about his habit of wearing suits, Mamdani joked that his closet repeats the same outfit. The politician’s uniform may be predictable, but his message to Democrats was not: he wants the party to fight harder, spend its power and prove it can make life cheaper for working people.

This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.