He can’t be president because of the Constitution, but in many ways, Mamdani stands where Ronald Reagan did in the mid-1960s as he began his quest to become California’s governor.
Like it or not, Democrats’ hopes in 2026 and beyond depend on a successful administration in New York City led by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
This much we can be sure of: Republicans will do everything they can to make the incoming mayor the face of the Democratic Party. Democrats inside and outside New York could try, in vain, to run away from him. A better use of their time and energy is to lend him every ounce of support and expertise he’ll need to prove himself an effective manager who earns high marks from New York’s notoriously tough electorate.
If the national story becomes that Mayor Mamdani is doing a good job and New Yorkers like him, it knocks a lot of wind out of Republican attacks. Not only those aimed at Mamdani specifically, but also the broader claim that left-leaning policy is inherently reckless or that a new generation of Democratic leaders can’t handle complex executive roles.
In many ways, Mamdani stands where Ronald Reagan did in the mid-1960s as he began his quest to become California’s governor.
Like Mamdani, Reagan faced a barrage of attacks painting him as an inexperienced extremist, a Trojan horse for darker forces. “If Ronald Reagan ever becomes Governor of California, the extremist movement in America would have a new lease on life,” warned Governor Pat Brown, whom Reagan ultimately defeated. The East Bay Labor Journal declared that “powerful extremists are backing him.” Democrats, fresh off beating Barry Goldwater in 1964, saw a chance to marginalize this new, fringe conservatism further and tie it to Republicans nationwide like a cinder block. Even moderate, Rockefeller Republicans ran from Reagan, waiting for him and his ilk to be exorcized from the party, convinced they’d never win while the GOP lurched right.
“In a line that could apply to Mamdani, Brands added, “One of Reagan’s secrets of success was that he was an optimistic conservative. That’s a rare thing in American politics.”
Faint echoes of today’s centrist Democrats can be heard in the opposition Reagan faced from fellow Republicans at the time, like Caspar Weinberger (who eventually served in Reagan’s White House). He told columnist David Broder that Reagan’s conservatism was really just “mail-order fraud.”
Despite all this, Reagan kept going. How?
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian H. W. Brands put it this way: “Reagan was an effective conservative… Barry Goldwater made liberals happy, because Barry Goldwater was an off-putting individual… Reagan comes along with the same message, but he has an appealing face.” In a line that could apply to Mamdani, Brands added, “One of Reagan’s secrets of success was that he was an optimistic conservative. That’s a rare thing in American politics.”
The campaign attacks failed, and Reagan won. More importantly, he governed as a relatively pragmatic chief executive who managed the nation’s largest state with perceived competence.
“I think he was a pretty good governor,” two-time Democratic governor Jerry Brown once recalled. Lou Cannon, a reporter who covered Reagan in Sacramento, pointed to the progressive tax increase Reagan backed to close deficits and said, “It showed how practical he was when the rubber met the road. He gave conservative speeches, but his actions were more pragmatic.”
If this sounds familiar, it should. As a candidate, Zohran Mamdani has spent little time chasing culture-war trophies and has accepted the need to moderate some views if he’s going to be an effective mayor. From pledging to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, to decidedly not backing the Democratic Socialists of America call to decriminalize misdemeanors, Mamdani has recognized which fights aren’t worth having if you want to govern well.
Instead, he’s focused on “quality of life” and on-the-ground reforms that change how the city operates and delivers for those most in need. Everything points to Mamdani recognizing, as Reagan did, that the path to durable success runs through competence and visible results. You compromise on some things to build the political capital to achieve others. Is it worth maintaining NYPD staffing levels to collect the goodwill needed to provide free city buses? In Mamdani’s view, the answer appears to be yes.
For a 34-year-old with no executive experience, that’s a mature and shrewd read of the job.
Of course, party allies can only do so much. Ultimately, Mamdani must prove himself in office. If he cannot, Republicans will hang him around every Democrat’s neck, trying to force them off their own message.
Still, if Democrats “pre-run” from Mamdani before he’s even had a chance, they’ll make his job harder and increase the odds his administration won’t have the support it needs to succeed –handing the GOP an easy cudgel.
Why any candidate would purposely do that is beyond me.
“Republicans, too, had their fits and starts with Reagan – turning him down in 1976 for Gerald Ford and trying their best to stop him in 1980.”
Unfortunately, Democrats have a poor track record in recent years of rallying around and supporting their own. There’s a straight line from the PUMA’s (“Party Unity, My Ass”) who refused to support Barack Obama after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries, to “Bernie or Bust” supporters who refused to back Clinton when she beat Bernie Sanders in 2016, to Andrew Cuomo and his supporters refusing to rally around Mamdani, in this past election.
Republicans, too, had their fits and starts with Reagan – turning him down in 1976 for Gerald Ford and trying their best to stop him in 1980. Yet, once he was the presidential nominee and president, Reagan could count on nearly all of them, the aforementioned Weinberger included. The result was a dramatic (and worse, in my estimation) remaking of government and courts that has lingered for 45 years, and a landslide reelection.
Because he is not a natural-born citizen, he won’t be a candidate for President. Still, Mamdani, if successful, could usher in an era in which Democrats win by returning to their roots of proposing — and delivering on — bold, systemic change to address everyday struggles that all Americans face. Wouldn’t that be nice?
It’s time for a lot of Democrats to swallow their pride, especially the ones who worked so hard to defeat Zohran Mamdani. His success is now tied to their success in 2026 and beyond. If John Kennedy’s truism about economics can be transposed to politics, a rising tide can lift all boats.
And right now, the tide starts at New York Harbor.