Zohran Mamdani, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez united on Sunday for a huge rally in Queens, casting Mr. Mamdani’s once unlikely candidacy for mayor of New York City as a powerful step forward in the Democratic efforts to push back on President Trump.
With early voting underway this weekend, Mr. Sanders described a win by Mr. Mamdani, a Democrat, as Mr. Trump’s “worst nightmare.” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez promised that there “will be a day after” the Trump administration.
And Mr. Mamdani, speaking to a stadium of cheering supporters in Queens, said he would build a city that would offer a rebuke to the Trump agenda.
“While Donald Trump’s billionaires think they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses,” he said. “Let us win a city hall that works for those straining to buy groceries not those straining to buy our democracy.”
For Mr. Sanders, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Mamdani and their democratic socialist allies, it was a moment that felt like stepping into power, a time when Mr. Sanders predicted victories for the liberal candidates from “California to Maine.”
The event drew a crowd more typical of a national race than a municipal one, with the 13,000-seat stadium nearly filled. Supporters cheered speeches from democratic socialist officials, rousing calls to action from liberal clergy and the chants of a self-described resistance chorus.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said a victory by Mr. Mamdani in New York City — the biggest city in the nation and the center of the financial world — would not only send a message of defiance to Mr. Trump but bolster their brand of progressive populist politics across the country.
“We set the bar for America and I’m talking to you, Donald Trump,” she said. “There has been a day before his presidency and there will be a day after, and it belongs to us.”
They were also joined by a trifecta of New York power brokers — Gov. Kathy Hochul; Carl Heastie, the Assembly speaker; and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader — who received a tepid response from the crowd.
As Ms. Hochul spoke, the crowd broke into a chant of “tax the rich” — a reference to proposals championed by the new mayor and opposed by the moderate Democratic governor — nearly heckling her off the stage. “I hear you,” responded Ms. Hochul, trying to calm the crowd.
Mr. Mamdani emerged on the stage to join Ms. Hochul and the other state leaders, clasping the governor’s hand and thrusting their arms upward in partnership, cushioning the blowback and allowing her to walk off to some applause.
But as the stars of the liberal world reveled in the moment, they were contemplating what awaits after the Nov. 4 election, if they win, when Mr. Mamdani and his movement will face a far tougher challenge than even a long-shot campaign: running the largest city in America and proving to the political world that their liberal agenda can be replicated across the country.
Mr. Sanders, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and their democratic socialist allies in elected office have crafted legislation, pushed Democratic policy to the left and periodically driven the national political conversation. But their movement has never captured an executive position with as much power as the mayor of New York City.
“The stakes are high for the movement and for democratic socialists in general,” said Julia Salazar, a democratic socialist state senator in New York, who spoke at the rally. “It’s certainly consequential politically but also consequential in a material way for millions of people.”
A decade ago, Mr. Sanders’s come-from-behind presidential primary bid pushed democratic socialists from the fringes into the political mainstream. In 2018, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory and social media savvy expanded their power, growing their clout on Capitol Hill and in state governments across the country.
Now, should he win, Mr. Mamdani will face the biggest opportunity to put their policies into practice.
But his opponents, including some Democrats, believe that Mr. Mamdani can just as easily become an example of the failures of democratic socialism.
“There are two tests: the basics of running the city day to day and then the socialist-plus promises that he’s made a lot of which are not only unattainable and impossible but insane,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat who represents the city’s New Jersey suburbs and opposes Mr. Mamdani’s bid.
In other cities, democratic socialists have found their goals stymied by the same forces that impede many politicians, such as a finite budget, difficulty building alliances and government dysfunction.
If elected, Mr. Mamdani will assume the mayoralty having set an extraordinarily high standard for his own success. His meteoric rise through the race has been fueled by a promise to make the city more affordable through four signature policy proposals. He has promised universal child care, free buses, city-owned grocery stores and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments.
At his rally in Queens, those promises were a central part of the pitch from all three main speakers, printed on a banner positioned right behind them.
But voters are likely to assess his performance on rather prosaic concerns, including trash, crime, schools and, of course, rats.
“In local government, the people hold you accountable for everything from picking up the trash, for crime problems, for the quality of education their kids receive for traffic jams — blame the mayor,” Mr. Sanders told the crowd, recalling his own experience as mayor of Burlington, Vt. “That’s what mayors have to deal with, and it is not easy.”
Since winning the nomination, Mr. Mamdani has made a conspicuous effort to expand his appeal. He has shed some liberal positions he held in the past, promised to apologize for comments calling the Police Department racist and announced that he intended to ask Jessica Tisch, the billionaire heiress appointed by Mayor Eric Adams who has pushed for stricter criminal justice laws, to stay on as police commissioner.
He has also distanced himself from specific policy goals of the democratic socialist movement, differentiating his platform from the group’s national agenda.
“I am both a democratic socialist and I’m also a Democrat,” he told The New York Times. “One is a description of my political ideology, the other is a description of the party that I belong to.”
But even as he stands on the precipice of running the nation’s financial center, he is not shrinking from his roots in democratic socialist and left-wing organizing — a point made obvious by his late-stage appearance with the biggest stars of the progressive left.
Their support is a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Mamdani, who has described Mr. Sanders as “the single most influential political figure in my life.” His 2016 presidential run inspired Mr. Mamdani to formally join the Democratic Socialists of America.
Both Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez have thrown their political might behind Mr. Mamdani’s bid, headlining splashy campaign rallies and hosting private meetings to advise him on campaign strategy. In an interview with The Times last month, Mr. Sanders called Mr. Mamdani and the political energy he had inspired “the future of the Democratic Party.”
Representative Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, noted that some of the proposals being pushed by Mr. Mamdani had been implemented in other cities, including in his own district, which includes Austin and San Antonio.
But those plans have not received the same level of scrutiny as Mr. Mamdani is likely to face.
“New York City is New York City,” said Mr. Casar, who has spoken with Mr. Mamdani about his campaign and policy agenda. “Through his campaign and what he can achieve as mayor, Zohran can show how big ideas aren’t just for progressives but the overwhelmingly amount of people.”
Even in New York, Mr. Mamdani’s plans will face serious obstacles. His four core policy proposals could cost nearly $7 billion every year, exceeding the Police Department’s budget and representing a 6 percent increase in the city’s nearly $116 billion budget. He has proposed paying for his plans by raising income taxes on wealthy residents and corporate taxes on businesses, moves Ms. Hochul opposes. She did, however, express openness to his plans for universal child care when she endorsed his candidacy last month.
Other powerful figures in New York politics have been slow to embrace Mr. Mamdani’s bid. Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand — powerful allies in Washington whose backing could very well be crucial to his success as mayor — have refused to support him.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, waited until a day before early voting began to endorse his campaign, saying in a statement that he expected “areas of principled disagreement” with Mr. Mamdani, should he win.
For his part, Mr. Mamdani has tried to signal that he recognizes the importance of making good on his big promises, even if it involves expanding his ideological tent.
“The most important thing is delivering,” he said in an interview on the New Yorker podcast. “If that is your framework, then you have to be willing to listen to everyone who can bring you closer to that.”
He has met with skeptical rabbis and business leaders, as part of a charm offensive to build relationships with those who have opposed his bid. And he has said he would be open to other sources of revenue for his plans, rather than raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and corporations.
But he has never wavered from his embrace of the political message of Mr. Sanders, the most prominent democratic socialist in the country.
At his boisterous rally, Mr. Mamdani cast himself in Mr. Sanders’s image, saying the senator’s first presidential campaign established his political beliefs and the foundation of his mayoral bid.
“I stand before you tonight only because the senator dared to stand alone for so long,” he said. “I speak the language of democratic socialism only because he spoke it first.”
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
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