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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani warned of a “withering faith” in democracy to deliver for working-class Americans in a new interview with Time Magazine.
“Democracy is not just under attack from authoritarianism from the outside,” Mamdani told Time Magazine. “It’s also under attack from a withering faith on the inside of its ability to deliver on these material challenges in working-class people’s lives.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary and has previously called for city-run grocery stores and defunding the police.
Mamdani also spoke to Time about the Democratic Party’s struggles.
Zohran Mamdani attends an event at the National Action Network House of Justice in Harlem, Manhattan, New York, United States on June 28, 2025. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“I think the most important thing is that people see themselves and their struggles in your campaign,” he told Time.
He said the larger struggle for the Democratic Party was to make sure that they’re “practicing a politics that is direct, a politics of no translation, a politics that when you read the policy commitment, you understand it, as how it applies to your life.”
Time reported that Mamdani was still adjusting to his “new reality,” as an emerging politician and potentially the next mayor of New York City.
“I already miss being outside,” he told Time.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s mayoral nominee in New York City, speaks to reporters on August 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“I now go to cemeteries a lot between meetings,” he said, referring to them as “parks without people.”
A New York Times column published Thursday detailed how Obamaworld operatives were starting to coalesce around Mamdani and have been in communication with his campaign behind the scenes.
Former President Obama reportedly called Mamdani after his Democratic primary victory in June, offering advice about the importance of governing and giving constituents optimism in dark times.
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Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a Democracy Forum event held by the Obama Foundation at the Javits Center on November 17, 2022 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Patrick Gaspard, who has served in several high-profile political positions, including advising Obama’s 2008 campaign, has been informally advising Mamdani on the side and recently introduced Obama campaign architect David Axelrod to him, the Times report revealed.