Is advocating for trans people an immediate campaign killer for Democrats? Zohran Mamdani just proved that might not be the case.
While the final count will be released next week, Mamdani, a democratic socialist endorsed by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is poised to capture the New York City Democratic mayoral nomination, besting disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
And the 33-year-old Assembly member from Queens did so with a campaign that was explicitly supportive of trans people.
We’ve seen a pile of op-eds and analysis since the 2024 presidential election arguing that Democrats should not talk about trans issues if they hope to win back America. Even representative Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, argued for appeasement. And just this week, Evan Low, the leader of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund—the largest PAC dedicated to electing LGBTQ2S+ people to office—said that Democrats “are running to serve the people, not to distract on issues that divide.”
And this has been a common talking point since Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, with the latter running an extensive and expensive ad campaign casting Harris’s support of trans and non-binary people in a negative light.
But Mamdani’s recent triumph in the New York City mayoral primary might suggest another way. He included specific platform points dedicated to LGBTQ2S+ issues, including a promise of $65 million to trans healthcare; he spoke at a trans town hall and pledged to make New York City a sanctuary city for queer and trans people.
Mamdani’s surprise primary victory, and potential triumph in the mayoral race in November, could be proof that a Democrat can win without abandoning LGBTQ2S+ people.
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