"Don't lecture, listen": How Zohran Mamdani gained support among Trump voters

We've seen all those FAFO (F--k Around, Find Out) stories on progressive websites about Trump voters. But you won't find Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani using that acronym as he campaigns for mayor of New York City.

It might come as a surprise but we're now seeing the phenomenon of Trump-Mamdani voters – that is New York City residents who supported Trump last November and then turned around and voted for Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, in the June 2024 Democratic mayoral primary.

Here's how Mamdani explained the turnaround in a June 30 interview on MSNBC's "The Weekend" right after his stunning primary upset over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“So many of our victories were in neighborhoods that went for Donald Trump in the presidential election. We’re talking about College Point (in Queens) or Dyker Heights (in Brooklyn), so many of the same places we were told that we had now lost voters forever.

“What we found is that if you have a relentless focus on an economic agenda and you welcome people back, and you turn the political instinct from lecturing to listening, you can still have people come home to the Democratic Party, as long as you show them that's a party that will fight for working people, not those that are benefitting off of the struggles of working people."

When Mamdani launched his mayoral campaign in October 2024, the 33-year-old Queens state assemblyman's name recognition stood at barely 1%.

And just weeks later came Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 4 presidential election. Although Harris won New York's electoral votes, the state saw the largest swing in the country towards Trump – about 11 points.

Joe Biden won New York state by a 61% to 38% margin in 2020, but Harris' victory margin was reduced to 56% to 44% in 2024.

In New York City, the shift toward Trump was even bigger at 15 points (2020 - Biden 76%, Trump 23%; 2024 – Harris 68%-Trump 30%. And in Mamdani's home borough of Queens, the most diverse county in the U.S., the shift to Trump was even more dramatic at 21 points (2020: Biden 72%-Trump 27%; 2024 Harris 61%-Trump 37%).

And if you extrapolate to the national scale, Harris received 6 million fewer votes than Biden (75m to 81m), while Trump increased his vote total by 3 million (77m to 74m). Harris lost seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – by margins ranging from 1 point to 5 points.

After the election, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose NY-14 CD includes parts of Queens and the Bronx, went on Instagram to ask her constituents why so many of them voted for Trump, but supported her and other Democrats down ballot.

And a week after the election, Mamdani went to two areas in the Bronx and Queens that saw the biggest shift towards Trump and turned his interaction with these voters into one of his first campaign videos. He listened and learned from those encounters.

The first thing you notice is that these voters – nearly all of them people of color – do not fit the caricature of MAGA Trump voters. Many of them had voted for Democrats in the past and were open to doing so in the future when the right candidate came around.

One issue repeatedly raised was rising prices, and unfortunately these voters bought into Trump's faux populism. One young black male said: "The swing is because people want lower prices. They probably believe Trump will give it to them." Well Trump certainly didn't do that with inflation on the rise again, spurred by his delusional tariff policy.

The other issue that repeatedly came up was the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, and the failure of the Biden administration to stop shipment of bombs to Israel. But Trump has not done anything to rein in Bibi Netanyahu.

Then Mamdani asked one man the question on the mind of many Democrats after November: "What would it take for you to vote for a Democrat in the future?"

And the man replied: "Being able to pay attention to the regular Americans and their economic needs."

Mamdani then introduced himself as the candidate who advocates freezing the rent, making buses free and making universal childcare a reality.

His campaign has been laser-focused on affordability. On the front page of his campaign website, Zohran for New York City, he stated: "New York is too expensive. Zohran will lower costs and make life easier." He presented highlights of his platform: freeze the rent; fast, fare free buses; a Department of Community Safety; no cost childcare; city-owned grocery stores; constructing more affordable housing; cracking down on bad landlords, and raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers.

His campaign's focus on these issues resonated with Democratic primary voters, including many who had voted for Trump. An analysis by The Gothamist, a non-profit NYC newsroom, found that Mamdani won 30 percent of districts that Trump won in 2024. He received strong support from Asian and Hispanic neighborhoods as well as young people (including young Black voters). Harris had seen an erosion of support among these same demographic groups.

“ What Zohran's campaign did was not assume that anyone was beyond reach,” Ana María Archila, co-director of the New York State Working Families Party told The Gothamist.

The Gothamist went out to Hillside, Queens, an area featured in Mamdani's November campaign video, and had little trouble finding Trump-Mamdani voters.

Kamal Hossain, 69, said his vote for Trump, who ran on an anti-immigration platform, was a “mistake” that he said many people in his largely Bangladeshi community made.

“The way he was talking, I was thinking he might be a change. He might do something better. Now, definitely not, no more Republicans,” Hossain said.

In another story, an analysis by The Gothamist found that many Asian-American Trump voters chose Mamdani in the Democratic primary. The Gothamist wrote:

Interviews in two of those neighborhoods – Flushing, Queens and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn – revealed that many residents voted for both candidates in the hopes they would address the city’s affordability crisis.

Shirley Wong, 70, a Chinese-American resident of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, told The Gothamist:

“I liked his (Mamdani's) policies, mainly his support for education and affordable housing. He seems to listen to us.”

But less than a year ago, Wong cast her ballot for Trump. She cited the influx of migrants in her neighborhood, as well as the cost of living under President Joe Biden. But now, Wong said she regretted voting for Trump, citing the Big Beautiful Bill’s projected cuts to Medicaid.

“I changed my mind to choose someone who can help us,” she said, referring to Mamdani and his progressive platform. “He just needs to prove everything he’s saying.”

And in the general election campaign, Mamdani is working to expand the coalition that brought him to victory in the primary. But in doing so he has remained steadfast in his support for marginalized communities targeted by the Trump regime.

He declared that as mayor he would expand and protect gender-affirming care citywide, "making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs."

In last month's NYC Pride Parade, Mamdani waved a trans flag and received an enthusiastic reception as he marched alongside New York Attorney General Letitia James and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.

Mamdani, who would be the city's first South Asian and Muslim mayor, has also pledged to protect immigrant New Yorkers by ending any cooperation with ICE and strengthening the sanctuary city apparatus.

Last week, Mamdani concluded a "Five Boroughs Against Trump" tour, declaring that he's the strongest candidate to stand up to the president and his cruel agenda.

The tour took Mamdani to Staten Island, the only borough that Trump won in each of his three presidential campaigns. At an event held at a Turkish restaurant, Mamdani pledged his support for the borough's immigrant community.

Outside the restaurant, a small group of MAGA cultists, holding signs supporting Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, called Mamdani a "communist" and yelled obscene, hateful racist and xenophobic epithets.

Mamdani began his remarks by noting that Staten Island is the borough that has taught the city about "the possibility of free transit." The ferry, which connects the island with Manhattan, has been fare-free since 1997. Mamdani linked that to his proposal to make city buses fare-free.

"Despite the caricatures of this island and the borough, we know that progressive ideas have a home here, and an island that is not immune from the horrific crackdown we are seeing from the Trump administration," he said.

He added that Democrats should not be afraid to make their case in places like Staten Island which is home to people "who are passionate in their support for Donald Trump." He noted that some Staten Islanders voted for both him and Trump because of "just how suffocating this cost of living crisis is."

But then he emphasized that while Trump "ran on the promise of cheaper groceries," what he's delivered are cuts to SNAP food assistance benefits.

"What separates me from him, one of the key differences, is that I mean what I say. The reason that Donald Trump has threatened to deport me, to arrest me, to denaturalize me is because he knows that when we deliver on this platform it will throw into stark relief his betrayal of those same working class Americans on a message of affordability."

There are certainly many incorrigible, hardcore MAGA cultists who are blinded by their racism, xenophobia, and vulnerability to the stream of lies pumped out by right-wing media. But there are other Trump supporters who can be won over with the right messaging.

We've seen how some Democrats have failed to communicate with working class voters. They've relied too much on overly cautious, high-priced consultants paid for by wealthy donors. It's disgraceful that the two most powerful Democrats in DC – House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both from Brooklyn – have held back on endorsing Mamdani.

And to be fair, there are Trump-Cuomo supporters. They include real estate magnates and Wall Street tycoons.

Kathryn Wylde, CEO and president of the business-friendly Partnership for New York City, told the City & State New York website that the business community was "terrified' of Mamdani's rise, but she expressed the willingness to work with him.

While Mamdani was on his five boroughs tour, Cuomo was attending a fund-raiser before "a Trump friendly crowd" at the home of media mogul Jimmy Finkelstein in Southampton, Politico reported.

Politico wrote:

Andrew Cuomo's counting on President Donald Trump and top Republicans to tell the party faithful to vote for Cuomo for mayor if they want to stop Zohran Mamdani and not to vote for GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Super Pacs supporting Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, both running as independents, have been raising millions of dollars to fund anti-Mamdani ads. And the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post and Fox News are going all out to attack Mamdani.

But Mamdani's best shield from these attacks is his authenticity and ability to connect with ordinary New Yorkers. Just look at this video his campaign posted on social media this week in which he hangs out with a formerly homeless hotel housekeeper who turned her life around thanks to a union job. The Hotel Trades Council supported Cuomo in the primary, and then switched to Mamdani.

And Mamdani already has already drawn comparisons with the city's greatest mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, who came to office as a fusion candidate in 1933 when the city was reeling from the Great Depression, His predecessor, Tammany Hall Democrat Jimmy Walker, had been forced to resign by Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt due to a corruption scandal.

Harold Meyerson, in an article for The American Prospect, wrote:

In short, Mamdani’s coalition, like La Guardia’s, is a coalition of the city’s “outs,” whether by reasons of ideology, age, ethnicity, or immigrant or children of immigrant status. All have been outside the circles of political power, and by reason of economics, outside the circle that could easily afford to live in New York.

And like La Guardia, Mamdani is a talented politician, with a gift for communicating with all manner of voters, who is himself a child of immigrants. More specifically, he’s a child of immigrants who’ve long had minority status. ...

Should Mamdani be elected mayor in November, then, he will match his polyglot city of immigrants as no mayor has since La Guardia. Both of them, and both of their coalitions, can be loosely described as social democrats, but both of them can just as aptly be described as Ellis Island democrats, or more elementally still, as simply New York.