Democrats tumble into extremism because they have no red lines. And true to form, after being leery of Mamdani, Dem governors (including Gov. Josh Shapiro) are tumbling over each other to hook up with the new rising star.
And take on Trump.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has spoken privately with several Democratic governors about how to take on President Trump and tackle other priorities, Axios has learned.
Mamdani talked on the phone with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday and with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on election night, three people familiar with their conversations tell Axios.
He chatted earlier with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, as was previously reported.
Gov. Gavin Newsom will presumably soon join the list. Probably followed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. They’ll correctly calculate that the current trajectory of their party makes Mamdani and his base of radicals more of an asset than the remaining decent people, not to mention Jewish Democrats, who object to that sort of thing.
In the bigger picture, they’re not worried about Republicans tarring them as the party of Mamdani. A number of Republicans were eagerly waiting for Mamdani to win so they could paint the whole party in his image.
Dems are fine with it.
After Obama gave Mamdani his blessing, Dems have gotten on board. Socialism is no longer off-putting to a lot of voters. And Mamdani has a better public presence than AOC who gets on a lot of nerves. Having him on the campaign trail will be a minus with a certain percentage of voters, but those are the voters, including their own, Dems are currently writing off. They’ll pay a price for that, but right now they’re heady with the prospect of cashing in on dissatisfied independents who aren’t happy with the economy, and not thinking long term.
So this is the party of Mamdani now.
