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New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s campaign is studying another far-left figure’s rapid rise in city politics – not to emulate it, but to avoid the missteps that earned him the “America’s Worst Mayor” moniker, according to a new report.
Mamdani has a lot of parallels with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. While Johnson is not an explicit member of the Democratic Socialists of America, as Mamdani is – according to the group’s New York chapter – the two exude similar progressive politics.
But, Johnson – despite holding office in a city without a single Republican alderman – has earned reported single-digit approval numbers, following his rise from teachers’ union organizer and Cook County legislator to the Windy City’s mayorship.
Those snafus are something Mamdani’s campaign wants to avoid, according to NBC News.
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Zohran Mamdani and Mayor Brandon Johnson (Reuters)
NBC News cited a source close to both Democrats’ camps, who said Mamdani is “tracking Johnson’s challenges” and instead hopes to be more like another progressive with a less nationally-infamous track record: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
The source told NBC News that Johnson “lost the plot” and suggested Mamdani is more “pragmatic” than the firebrand Chicagoan.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune editorial board has warned New York City voters against selecting Mamdani, writing they’ve “seen this movie before and the ending isn’t pretty” – referring to Johnson.
Johnson has repeatedly clashed with reporters at press conferences, branded ICE officers as agents of “terrorism,” and characterized President Donald Trump as a neoconfederate dictator.
When Trump called Mamdani a communist, he responded that he is getting used to having Trump criticize him.
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He told “Meet the Press” in a more measured response in June that he is a democratic socialist “in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King from decades ago.”
In an interview with NY1, Mamdani also highlighted how he is only two years younger than Wu was when she began her own mayoral campaign, contrasting younger Democrats like himself and the Beantown mayor with old guard like Andrew Cuomo.
“I think what we see in our politics is a desire to turn the page on the failed leadership that delivered us these crises,” he said.
Like Johnson, Mamdani’s rise was similarly sudden.
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He emigrated from Uganda at age 7, later had brief stints with MoveOn and other activist groups, was elected assemblyman in 2020 and is now the frontrunner for America’s largest city’s mayorship.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has repeatedly called for Mamdani’s critics to unify behind his Republican candidacy to save New York City, in his words, while Cuomo remains in the race, albeit as an Independent.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign and Johnson’s office for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Marc Tamasco contributed to this report.
