If New York makes socialist Mamdani mayor, red states are true winners | Opinion
States spend a lot of money and effort recruiting from each other, launching billboards and glossy magazine ads to persuade businesses to relocate.
If Texas (or Florida or the Carolinas) are spending a dime in New York, they should immediately cancel their contracts. Red states can’t possibly articulate why companies should flee the city any better than its own voters did Tuesday night.
Democratic primary voters in New York City have nominated Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker. He claimed victory over several rivals, primarily retread Andrew Cuomo, who somehow thought a campaign was a good idea just a few years after he had to leave the Governor’s Mansion in disgrace.
Mamdani is a committed socialist — and not in the casual way that Republicans label many progressive Democrats. He wants to control more rent prices in the city. He seeks to spend millions to open government-owned grocery stores. He vows to make child care and bus rides free and dramatically boost the minimum wage.
Mamdani is on the far left on more than just economics. He’s advocated defunding the police — he now says they have a “critical” role to play in a reimagined Department of Public Safety. He vows to end all city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The grocery scheme drives home how radical he is, though. Nearly 40 years ago, before Mamdani was born, a Houston-area supermarket was crucial to helping a leader of the Soviet Union realize that his country’s communist system could not compete with the American free-market model. Russian President Boris Yeltsin marveled at the thousands of products available in 1989 — more, he said, than top Soviet leaders could access — and the lack of long lines, an ever-present plague for average Soviet citizens.
Not even two years later, the USSR collapsed, and the failed experiment of nearly a century of European communism was done. Apparently New York schools don’t teach any lessons about that.
Contrast Yeltsin’s realization about the deprivation of his people under the system he supported with Sen. Bernie Sanders, America’s most famous socialist, once complaining that Americans have too many choices of deodorant.
Growth is in places like Texas, as blue states struggle
Red states have been on a long winning streak. For decades, most of the substantial growth in the U.S. has occurred in states where leaders don’t tax and regulate business into oblivion, especially Texas and Florida. Those states have benefited from the decline of New York, California and Illinois, where high taxes and big regulation have led exasperated business leaders and citizens to seek sanity elsewhere.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office issues statements about economic victories so often that it’s hard to keep up. Just Tuesday, he noted Texas again led the nation in job creation in May and touted a magazine’s recognition that the state still has the best overall climate for business.
One of the nation’s leading CEOs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase, included in his annual message to shareholders a long message about the company’s work in Texas, calling it a “great place to do business that values the power of free enterprise and partnership across sectors.” His company is based, of course, in New York.
To be fair, Mamdani identified concerns that plague red states, too. Housing availability and prices are problems in Texas, and everyone feels the pinch of years of inflation (which was, let’s never forget, fed by Democratic policies). It’s just that economic dynamism works every time it’s tried, while even a once-committed communist like Yeltsin died knowing that state control does not.
And Mamdani deserves recognition for his political triumph. He clearly saw an opening among voters battered by the cost of living to the point that they were willing to consider such a far-left, inexperienced candidate. His communication style was fresh and effective, his campaign smart and focused. And beating the scion of one of the state’s most noteworthy political families, even with Cuomo battered by scandal and general dislikability, was historic.
Can Zohran Mamdani win New York’s general election for mayor?
Some New Yorkers are probably holding out hope that Mamdani can be stopped in the general election. That will feature the current mayor, Eric Adams, running as an independent; Republican Curtis Sliwa of Guardian Angels fame; and perhaps Cuomo in another independent bid. But the Democratic nominee will always hold a significant advantage in a New York race.
For Democrats elsewhere, though, this is a clanging alarm bell. If the party’s base is ready to lurch left in response to another Donald Trump victory, any efforts to moderate will be overshadowed by Sanders-style socialism. It’ll play great in New York and Portland, but not in Virginia, Wisconsin and other places where national elections are decided — let alone the swing districts Democrats need to retake the House in 2026 and try to crimp Trump’s policies in the remainder of his term.
While those concerns play out, many New Yorkers with the ability to flee will no doubt seek to do so. Wealth and capital are mobile these days.
So, Gov. Abbott, charge up your phone. It’s time to start calling executives who want sane, safe governance for their companies and employees.
Start with the grocery store chains.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 11:52 AM.
