Zohran Mamdani's City Council Problem
What the socialist mayor will need to do
Colossus is nearly here! The reviews have started to roll in, and they’re excellent. Alexander Sorondo calls it “smart, tight, compassionate and brutal.” John Pistelli declares Colossus is “as well as an American novel … also a Greek and a Jewish tragedy about the inevitability of sons rising against fathers and of fathers striking back.”
Preorder it now! And come down May 11th, where I’ll be in conversation with the legendary Shadi Hamid in Manhattan. Tickets are still available, but they’re going very fast.
Last week, at a party for media and public relations professionals and people adjacent to those fields, I was told by a friend that Zohran Mamdani had endorsed Lindsey Boylan for an open City Council seat in Manhattan. I didn’t quite believe it. DSA hadn’t endorsed Boylan, she wasn’t really a frontrunner, and she had, at one point, mounted a congressional challenge against the liberal lion Jerry Nadler. Boylan is best known for accusing Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment and triggering his political collapse. Boylan served Cuomo in high-level administration roles, and once she left that world, she pivoted left. In 2025, she joined DSA, and she was an enthusiastic Mamdani supporter. I believe people are allowed to change their political views over time. But, among some on the left, I do know skepticism of Boylan remains.
The endorsement surprised me because it seems to carry more downside than upside for Mamdani, and unless Boylan pulls off the upset in the April 28th special election, I am going to classify it as a real political mistake. It’s one he can certainly overcome—he’s relatively popular and he’s racked up tangible policy accomplishments already—but it will have represented a needless setback. The decision, to be honest, left me wondering if he was getting the best political advice.
Here’s the quick state of play, and why Mamdani might be headed for an entirely unnecessary defeat.
