Some Democrats are reportedly uneasy about nominee Zohran Mamdani’s chances of winning the New York City mayoral race on Nov. 4, with The Washington Post noting growing concern over the self-described democratic socialist’s rise.
“It’s one thing for Republicans to use absurd attacks calling Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi socialists to scare voters,” Fernand Amandi, a longtime Democratic strategist based in Florida, told The Washington Post. “It’s another thing to use an actual socialist to scare voters about the Democrats being the party of socialists, and that’s the concern about Mamdani.”
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey told The Washington Post that Mamdani holds “extremist views” out of step with the broader party, adding that he fears Republicans will use Mamdani as a “bogeyman” in attack ads before the 2026 midterms, stating: “If we’re focused on playing defense on Mamdani, that will be a … major distraction.”
Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York told The Washington Post he is a “democratic capitalist, not a democratic socialist,” calling socialism a “failed economic system” that “hasn’t ever worked in the history of the world.”
“That’s just not something that we endorse or support,” Suozzi told The Washington Post in an interview where he also vowed to fight socialism. “Mamdani, much like President [Donald] Trump, has properly diagnosed the problems that people are confronting in their daily lives. They have economic insecurity. They’re worried about the cost of living. He’s wrong about his proposed solutions.”
Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen of New York told The Washington Post she opposes many of Mamdani’s socialist policies and has urged fellow Democrats in Congress to declare, “We are not socialists.”
Today’s cover: Andrew Cuomo narrows gap against Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayoral race as Dem socialist’s lead cut in half: new pollhttps://t.co/kRKtKpqF61 pic.twitter.com/Hweh1SA8l7
— New York Post (@nypost) October 28, 2025
A Suffolk University poll released Monday shows Zohran Mamdani leading the New York City mayoral race with 43.8% support, 10 points ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, at 33.6%. On September 8, a Gallup poll found that only 42% of Democrats view capitalism favorably, while 66% hold a positive view of socialism.
Mamdani has vowed to raise taxes on what he calls “richer and whiter” NYC neighborhoods, make city buses free, and has said he believes billionaires shouldn’t exist—even in a city with more of them than anywhere else in the U.S.
