Veteran strategist James Carville warned on Wednesday how democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral primary may be a burden for the Democratic Party.
Mamdani, a Ugandan-born New York State Assemblyman from Queens, caused a major upset by defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for New York City mayor. Republicans and some Democrats have blasted Mamdani, warning he is a grim sign of America’s political future.
Carville, one of the most famous strategists in American politics, has been speaking about the Democratic Party’s need to ditch far-left politics since well before the 2024 election. He spoke about Mamdani’s surprising victory on his podcast with co-host Al Hunt, warning it may be yet another hurdle for struggling Democrats.
The strategist noted that Mamdani “has not walked back” calls for “global infitada” [sic]. Carville was referencing how Mamdani refused to disavow the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” which pro-Israeli supporters argue is a call for violence, and Israel opponents tout as a mere call to struggle against oppression.
“Maybe he’ll turn out to be a very skilled candidate that can skillfully navigate some of what I refer to as ‘esoteric’ positions,” Carville said, appearing to refer to Mamdani’s policy of government-run grocery stores, which bewildered the seasoned strategist.
“There’s a lot of baseball left here,” Carville said of the mayoral election. “We’ve got a lot of baseball left to play.”
Hunt argued that New York City is not a reliable indicator for America at-large, citing how many of its most iconic mayors did not represent a larger political shift outside of their city.
“However, I do believe that Republicans will jump on this,” he said.
He then appeared to refer to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s, R-N.Y., comment where she warned about Mamdani being a “radical, Defund-the-Police, Communist, raging Antisemite.”
Hunt denied that Mamdani is a communist, but argued, “he does have some issues that the Republicans will love to talk about.”
“I can’t imagine that any Democratic candidate anywhere in the country is going to be able to escape answering this question. I think the microphone’s going to follow him around. I think that they’re going to pound this home as hard as they possibly can,” Carville agreed.
A big part of the answer, Carville replied, is encouraging people to “look at our nominees in Virginia and New Jersey.”
However, he said, “Depending on who comes in a general election, there’s a lot of Democrats that are going to have a hard go at this. I think it’s a potentially damaging event.”
Both of the hosts drew parallels between former President Joe Biden and Cuomo being rejected as symbols of the Democratic Party’s past in favor of something entirely new.
“Sometimes the Democratic Party’s attitude is ‘take this and eat it, because you gotta eat it,’ and people don’t like that,” Carville said, arguing that mentality was enforced on Democrats with Biden and then with Cuomo.
The rejection of this, he said, goes beyond ideology and is a generational shift, one could either be positive or negative for the Democrats’ future.
“I think this guy creates probably more problems than opportunities for the Democrats,” Hunt later argued after criticizing his grocery store proposal as “not realistic at all.”
Carville warned that opposition to Mamdani is going to “keep unearthing stuff” from his past.
“I mean he’s gotta give an umbrella answer for all of this,” he said. “You know, Harris had the same problem.”
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