New York City has elected a democratic socialist as its next mayor.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won with a progressive platform focused on making the city more affordable, through free bus service, frozen rents, universal childcare and a higher minimum wage, among other ideas.
The state assemblymember represented both the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party on the ballot. He quoted prominent late-19th and early-20th century socialist Eugene Debs in his victory speech Tuesday night. And he is a longtime member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Its New York City chapter played a key role in Mamdani's campaign, providing an early endorsement and a legion of volunteers for canvassing and fundraising — and raising its own profile in the process.
"Since [Mamdani's] primary win in June, Democratic Socialism has soared in popularity here and across the nation," the NYC-DSA tweeted after his general election win. "Our unprecedented growth is a testament to our vision and our ability to inspire renewed hope and political engagement from the working class."
As Mamdani's campaign pushed democratic socialism further into the mainstream, it has also raised questions about what the political ideology is — and isn't.
Most notably, President Trump has frequently and falsely criticized Mamdani as a communist in the lead-up to the election. Mamdani refuted that characterization in a June appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, to which he responded, "I am not."
Mamdani went on to describe his brand of democratic socialism, a term that is largely up to interpretation.
"When we talk about my politics, I call myself a democratic socialist in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. King from decades ago who said, 'Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country,'" he said, referring to a 1961 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. "And as income inequality has declined nationwide, it has increased in New York City. And, ultimately, what we need is a city where every single person can thrive."
What is democratic socialism?
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of democratic socialism, though its adherents broadly support the government taking control over certain sectors of the economy, such as health care and utilities, to benefit the public rather than private corporations.
"We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation," reads the DSA's website.
The DSA, which has been around since the 1980s, calls itself the largest socialist organization in the U.S. It says it has more than 80,000 members organized into campus and community chapters across all 50 states.
The group says its members are socialists because they reject an international economic order sustained by things like private profit, discrimination and violence "in defense of the status quo," and instead envision a more equitable and humane social order "based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms."
Democratic socialists often distance themselves from historic examples of socialism and communism, which have had largely negative connotations in the U.S. since the Cold War era. Proponents also say democratic socialism goes further than "social democracy," which often involves a strong welfare state operating under capitalism.
"We believe there are many avenues that feed into the democratic road to socialism," the DSA says. "Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in the dustbin of history."
The Communist Party USA says that while it shares some values of democratic socialists — like opposing war and wanting higher minimum wage — it believes those can only happen through a fundamental restructuring of society.
Many democratic socialists acknowledge that radical transformation won't happen in the short term, so they use tools like organizing, lobbying and protesting in hopes of making change within the existing system, at least for now.
"As we are unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow, DSA fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people," it explains, naming single-payer Medicare for All and the Green New Deal as examples.
Why is democratic socialism on the rise?
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont put democratic socialism on many peoples' radars during his 2016 presidential campaign.
While a registered independent, Sanders has described himself as a democratic socialist for decades, the ideology shaping his stances on everything from poverty to health care to higher education.
Sanders is not a member of the DSA. But his candidacy is credited with boosting the organization's membership and visibility, just in time for the first Trump presidency.
Holly Otterbein, an Axios reporter who has covered the rise of socialism, told NPR's It's Been a Minute earlier this week that she saw the biggest increase in DSA membership after Trump's 2016 win.
"When I've talked to people who have become members of the DSA or DSA leaders, they felt like that 2016 election sort of discredited the Democratic Party in their eyes," she said.
Many young voters have become discontented with the Democratic Party, a trend that has continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, economic turbulence and now Trump's second term. All of that has fueled the democratic socialist movement.
"Socialism is a recurring talking point for people that still can't find ways to get out of the economic precarity that their generation and the immediately prior generations couldn't get out of," Lex McMenamin, head of the politics section at Teen Vogue, told It's Been a Minute.
A Gallup poll released in September found that roughly two-thirds of Democrats view socialism positively, up from 50% in 2010, even as Americans as a whole continue to view capitalism more favorably.
What could Mamdani's win mean for the movement?
Recent years have seen the elections of DSA members including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez — as well as the NYC-DSA — endorsed Mamdani before the primary in June, and have headlined rallies with him in the months since.
After Mamdani's win on Tuesday, an NBC reporter asked Ocasio-Cortez how she would define democratic socialism.
"To me, it's this radical idea that working people have economic rights," she said, listing housing, a livable wage, health care and child care as examples.
Political scientists have cautioned that Mamdani's approach may not be a winning blueprint for democratic socialist candidates running outside of New York City, where registered Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans. But supporters see lessons in his success.
"He had to defeat a Republican and the old guard of the Democratic party at the same time," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN, referring to Curtis Sliwa and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "And he still won resoundingly.
"And I think the message that that sends is that the Democratic Party cannot last much longer by denying the future, by trying to undercut our young, by trying to undercut a next generation of diverse and upcoming Democrats that ... our actual electorate and voters support."
NYC's DSA is already touting Mamdani's victory in recruitment efforts, calling it just the beginning. Notably, Mamdani stressed during his campaign that his platform differs from that of the DSA, and has taken a more moderate stance on issues like eliminating misdemeanor offenses and defunding the police.
McMenamin, of Teen Vogue, says Mamdani's mayorship could change what socialism means to people, depending on how he governs.
"I think people are going to really want to talk about socialism if some of these policy changes actually start coming into effect," McMenamim adds. "And so what could happen in New York over the next year could make a big change for people in all 50 states."
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