Elections show New York voters want results, not rhetoric 

David Mirtz is a co-chair of the NYC Working Families Party

The historic election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to become the next mayor of New York City was an important win for progressives. It was a specific rejection of billionaire-backed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a demand for a politics that addresses the daily challenges of working New Yorkers.

Taken together with the impressive wins of Democrats across the country, it revealed a broad rejection of the Trump administration. It was a good night for those that value democracy and fight for policies that lift up working people.

Despite frustration among progressives with how the recent shutdown ended, the Democratic Party can be in good place to make gains in 2026 if it can accomplish two things. One is to ‘Stop the Steal’ of the elections that the Trump administration is putting into place by gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement and intimidation.

The second, controversial for donors but immensely popular among ordinary people, is to show it is willing to curb the political and economic power of corporations and billionaires. A power that has, over the last 50 years, rigged politics and the economy to their advantage at the expense of everyday Americans. 

Here in New York, the election of Working Families Party-backed mayoral candidates in Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse and wins that flipped legislatures in Onondaga and Dutchess counties and the city council of Troy, show that Mamdani’s win in NYC is not the whole story.

The lesson the Governor and state legislators of New York should take away from the recent elections is that voters from NYC to the North Country are thirsty for change that will tangibly improve their lives. It would be a mistake to assume voters continued support without delivering substantive improvements to people's lives even in the face of the Trump administrations attacks. 

The greatest defense against authoritarianism is voter engagement. The biggest challenge for democracy remains voter cynicism. At the heart of voter cynicism is the belief that politics doesn’t make a difference in their lives. If New York’s political leaders are serious about defending democracy, they must prove to voters that it does.

If state Democrats want to get voters to the polls, win back Congress and loosen Trump's grip on the federal government in 2026, they must make bold moves to better their lives. What Albany does matters. There are some basics it must come through on to guarantee that working families in New York don’t just exist but thrive. 

• In spite of Republican rhetoric about promoting and valuing families, they do nothing to actually support them. Governor Hochul should get behind Mayor-elect Mamdani’s call to establish universal pre-K in the city and go a step further and follow the lead of New Mexico as they move toward statewide universal childcare.

• Healthcare is one of the biggest drivers of financial crisis for working families. Health insurance companies won’t solve it. It’s time for New York state to step in and pass the New York Health Act to guarantee quality, affordable health care for all New Yorkers.

• A lack of affordable housing is pushing New Yorkers to leave the homes and communities they love. While increased supply can make housing cheaper, it doesn’t necessarily translate into real affordability. New York should move forward on the ‘Our Homes, our Power’ proposals from the Housing Justice 4 All coalition that help guarantee genuine affordability.

• Most New Yorkers recently received a one-time ‘Inflation Refund’ check from the Governor and Legislature. Albany should make  a long term commitment to people's pocketbooks by having the state move to a minimum wage of $30 by 2030. Raising the wage floor has proven to be a boost, not a burden to the economy.

• The Trump administration is turning Immigration Control Enforcement officers and the National Guard into shock troops of authoritarianism. The state should pass the New York for All Act and document ICE officers' unlawful actions. In addition, the state should take immediate steps to protect and strengthen local election sites and boards to ensure voting is accessible and free from intimidation.

For the moment, Governor Hochul has ruled out any ‘new taxes’. But making corporations and the obscenely wealthy pay their fair share is immensely popular, especially since it’s money they got by rewriting the rules, not hard work. Modest revenue raising proposals like the Invest in our New York Act are common sense first steps, not irresponsible or radical.

The Governor should move quickly to enact it. Wall Street as a whole has been getting a rebate on New York's 1905 Stock Transfer Tax since 1981, losing the state approximately 400 billion in revenue since. The Stock Transfer Bill would end the rebate and generate up to 14 billion annually.

Wall Street will surely cry Armageddon, but it did very well before the 1981 rebate was enacted. The London exchange has had a transfer tax since the 1600s and the Hong Kong exchange recently increased it’s to 1.3 percent. Both seem to be doing just fine.

With the Democratic brand struggling, voters are increasingly showing up on the WFP ballot line because they see it as a way to challenge the power of corporations and billionaires and put the interests of working people first. The WFP line has become a crucial tool for them to support a working people’s agenda and push back against authoritarianism. From 157K for Zohran Mamdani and 217K for NYC Public Advocate Jumanne Williams in NYC to the tens of thousands of votes that were the margin of victory in 26 races against Republicans across the state including a city council district in the Bronx and an Assembly seat in MAGA Congresswoman Elise Stefinak’s North Country backyard.

It would be a mistake to think progressives can win alone. In all but a few cases these votes were also votes for the candidate that ran on the Democratic line and as noted in a post election memo by WFP co-directors Jasmine Gripper and Ana Maria Archila, “These elections are reminders that [when] Democrats work closely with [the] WFP, instead of running away and running against progressives, we can wrest power away from MAGA and build governing majorities.” 

Mamdani’s win in NYC along with the other WFP aligned mayors and legislators across the state offers a new opportunity to break the fever of Trump authoritarianism by building broad governing coalitions that can deliver for working families. With an eye to next year's state elections, conservative pundits are already working overtime to argue against a constructive working relationship between moderates and progressives.

As if Governor Hochul is some kind of push over and mayor-elect Mamdani hasn’t shown a willingness to listen and build a constructive working relationship with Albany and the business community, the conservative Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas urged Democrats to resist Mamdani’s “populist brand of socialism” saying in the New York Times that “Mr. Mamdani seems to think the historic nature of his victory allows him to steamroll [the] state government.” What conservative thinkers like Nicole Gelinas omit is that if anyone has been steamrolled, it's the working people of New York and that even for voters who didn’t come out for Mamdani, affordability is front and center.

The Governor and other leading Democrats in the state should reject the Manhattan Institute's advice. There will be differences, including big ones, between moderates and progressives but working together we can help begin to turn the page on the Trump presidency and build a better state for all New Yorkers.