Elections

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares59 Views

      in Elections

      Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old Politics

      by

      Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old PoliticsThe MSNBC anchor — and native New Yorker — Chris Hayes considers what Democrats can learn from the mayoral primary.This is an edited transcript of an episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the conversation by following or subscribing to the show on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.The Democratic primary that just wrapped up in New York was a collision between two very different candidates on almost every level: ideologically, outsider versus insider and name recognition. But it was also a collision that I think matters, for much beyond New York City politics, of two very different theories of attention.Andrew Cuomo ran a campaign that was based on a tried-and-true strategy of buying attention. He had this gigantic super PAC with tens of millions of dollars purchasing all the advertising money can buy, absolutely dominating airwaves with negative ads about Zohran Mamdani.Archived clip: In his own words, Zohran Mamdani wants to defund the police.Archived clip: Zohran Mamdani is a 33-year-old dangerously inexperienced legislator who has passed just three bills.Archived clip: Zohran Mamdani, a risk New York can’t afford.And then you had Mamdani, who was running a campaign on a very different theory of attention, a theory of viral attention, a campaign built on these vertical videos that, if you opened Instagram, if you opened TikTok, and you were in any way connected to his ideas or to New York City, this was all you saw.Archived clip of Kareem Rahma: So what’s your take?Zohran Mamdani: That I should be the mayor.Archived clip of Mamdani: New York is suffering from a crisis, and it’s called halalflation.Archived clip of Mamdani: Did you know that Andrew Cuomo gutted the pensions for hundreds and thousands of New Yorkers?Archived clip of Mamdani: Mr. Cuomo, and furthermore, the name is Mamdani. M-A-M-D-A-N-I. You should learn how to say it.”Attention works differently now. This is one of the core political theses of this entire podcast. It is laced through so many of these episodes.You just watched these two incredibly different attentional strategies collide. Cuomo got flattened. He got flattened. It was not close.There are things you cannot learn about how to win elections in other places from an off-year June Democratic primary in New York City using rank-choice voting.But there are things you can learn about how attention works right now — and that’s in a large part the subject of this conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares71 Views

      in Elections

      Why a Bill Nobody Loves Feels Inevitable

      by

      President Trump’s megabill makes many Republicans uncomfortable, but that probably won’t stop it from becoming law.The path for the One Big Beautiful Bill, as President Trump calls his signature domestic legislation, has not been linear.The bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts and cut into the social safety net to pay for it, barely passed the House. It was heavily rewritten in the Senate. In recent days, various provisions have been rejected by a key Senate official whose job is to make sure that lawmakers color inside the lines of such budget bills, leaving senators scrambling to add back in what they can.Then there’s the fact that, as my colleagues Carl Hulse and Catie Edmondson wrote today, nobody really loves the bill. But this is Trump’s Washington. And trifling matters like not knowing quite what’s going to be in the bill — and not particularly liking it — will probably not stop Senate Republicans from voting for it, potentially as soon as this weekend.I asked Catie, who has covered every twist and turn of this bill’s winding path, to explain how it became a policy grab bag, why it makes so many Republicans uncomfortable — and why none of that probably matters when it comes to its chances of becoming law.As we speak, Republicans are scrambling to save various provisions that the Senate parliamentarian believes run afoul of the rules governing budget bills. You’ve covered Congress since the first Trump administration, and you have seen a lot of sausage-making in that time. Is it always, uh, like this? We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares44 Views

      in Elections

      Major Unions Are Dropping Cuomo to Back Mamdani in N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race

      by

      The powerful hotel workers union and Local 32BJ are switching their endorsements to Zohran Mamdani, a sign that Democratic power brokers are coalescing behind him.Two powerful New York City labor unions that had supported former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in this year’s race for mayor have decided to abandon him and endorse Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assemblyman who has a commanding lead in the Democratic primary.The two endorsements, along with one from a third union that did not back a candidate in the primary, seemed to be a clear sign that traditional Democratic power brokers are beginning to consolidate behind Mr. Mamdani.Leaders of the three unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council; Local 32BJ SEIU, which represents doormen and other building workers; and the New York State Nurses Association, said they were supporting Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, because he had made affordability and working people his campaign’s centerpiece. They promised to invest in boots-on-the-ground campaigns to help him beat Mayor Eric Adams in November.The switch to Mr. Mamdani may be a nod to political reality. The general election is poised to be particularly heated, but the Democratic candidate for mayor is the generally considered the heavy favorite to win in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one.“We are confident that whenever we’re in a fight, Zohran will be on our side standing up for hospitality workers,” said Rich Maroko, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council’s president. “That’s why we are genuinely excited to endorse Zohran and ready to help him win in November.”The striking shift in union support came despite some effort by Mr. Cuomo’s camp to persuade labor leaders to hold off in moving to Mr. Mamdani, according to a person familiar with the discussions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares75 Views

      in Elections

      Supreme Court Punts Decision on Louisiana Voting Map Until Next Term

      by

      The justices asked that the case, which has implications for the political power of Black voters, be reargued next term.The Supreme Court declined on Friday to weigh in on Louisiana’s contested congressional voting map, instead ordering that new arguments be scheduled during its next term.There was no explanation offered for why the justices did not make a decision or set a date for new arguments. All but one paragraph in the six-page order was written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone dissent.Justice Thomas wrote that it was the court’s duty to hear such congressional redistricting challenges and that the justices had “an obligation to resolve such challenges promptly.”It is the latest twist in a winding legal battle over whether Louisiana drew congressional districts that fairly empower all voters after the 2020 census. The case has been closely watched, given that a decision striking down Louisiana’s map could affect the balance of power in the narrowly divided House of Representatives.For now, the state’s latest map, which the State Legislature approved in January 2024, will remain in place. That map paved the way for a second Black Democrat, Cleo Fields, to join Representative Troy Carter, a New Orleans-area Democrat, in the state’s congressional delegation. It was the first time in decades that Louisiana had elected two Black members of Congress, and allowed Democrats to pick up a second seat in the state.One-third of the state’s population is Black.“Although we hoped for a decision this term, we welcome a further opportunity to present argument to the court regarding the states’ impossible task of complying with the court’s voting precedents,” Liz Murrill, the Louisiana attorney general, said in a statement shared on social media.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares63 Views

      in Elections

      Nate Morris, Wealthy Business Executive, Enters Senate Race in Kentucky

      by

      Mr. Morris, a founder of a waste and recycling business, describes himself as the only political outsider in the field and an unwavering supporter of President Trump.A wealthy Kentucky business executive on Thursday entered the race to succeed Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, casting himself as the only political outsider in the field and an unwaveringly loyal supporter of President Trump.The executive, Nate Morris, announced his candidacy on a podcast hosted by the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. The race is expected to be among the biggest and most expensive Republican primary battles of 2026.While he is not as well known as two other Republican candidates — Representative Andy Barr of Kentucky, and Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general — Mr. Morris can use the wealth he earned as a founder of a successful waste and recycling company to quickly introduce himself to voters.“You’ve got two McConnellites that owe everything to Mitch McConnell versus the outside business guy that’s running as the MAGA candidate,” Mr. Morris said in an episode of “Triggered,” the podcast hosted by the president’s son, that was released on Thursday. “I think that contrast is going to be very, very striking to Kentuckians all over the state because they’ve had enough. They’ve had enough of Mitch.”Mr. Morris, Mr. Barr and Mr. Cameron are competing for support among Republican primary voters who have soured on Mr. McConnell, 83, a political titan in Kentucky who announced this year that he would not seek re-election after serving for more than 40 years in the Senate. They are also jockeying for the president’s coveted endorsement in a state that Mr. Trump won by 30 percentage points in 2024.On the Democratic side, State Representative Pamela Stevenson, an Air Force veteran and the minority leader of the Kentucky House, is also running for Mr. McConnell’s seat. She is expected to be a major underdog in the deep-red state.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares52 Views

      in Elections

      Have Millennials Finally Figured Out How to Topple Boomer Bosses?

      by

      It was a night when thousands of 20-somethings were glued to their laptop screens for a battle whose stakes were both immediate and metaphorical, a contest between experience and youth, veteran versus vitality. Mike Tyson, a decorated, tested legend of boxing, was taking on Jake Paul. Mr. Paul, decades younger and with fewer fights under his belt, radiated energy, but his reputation was based more on social media videos than prowess in the ring. The newcomer triumphed.Of course, in sports the advantages of being the scrappy, enthusiastic upstart in a fight with an old hand are obvious. There’s an energy that’s visible in quick leaps, fast punches, unflagging endurance. The same may be true in math, music or the arts. In politics, though, the fresh face is often written off. The median age of a U.S. senator is the age at which many American retire. The last two presidents were born before the invention of the transistor radio and the hula hoop.But some political contests force voters to laser in on whether all that grizzled experience is really what they want.New York’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday was one of those. The competition between the two front-runners, Zohran Mamdani, 33, and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, 67, played out not just on the plane of policy but also on the plane of experience versus enthusiasm: Did New Yorkers want a mayor who was relatively new to local politics, or someone whose record, scandals and all, was basically tattooed on the city’s brain? If New York is “a city for only the very young,” its politics don’t often seem so, shuffling well-known names around seats of power like musical chairs. What’s the value, some watching the mayor’s race wondered, in someone totally new?That question feels urgent on a national level, too, not long after a presidential campaign that featured a septuagenarian and an octogenarian, and weeks after the exodus of a lightning rod Zoomer from the Democratic National Committee.The dichotomy of wizened experience versus fresh-faced enthusiasm has played out many times in the business world, too — in corporate boardrooms, where silver-haired executives debated their firm’s succession; on startup teams, where founders scratched their heads over whether to bring in veterans or workers with fresh ideas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares63 Views

      in Elections

      Right-Wing Republicans in Congress Attack Mamdani With Islamophobic Comments

      by

      The responses to Zohran Mamdani’s showing in the New York City mayoral primary were the latest examples of how some G.O.P. lawmakers have grown more overt in using bigoted language and tropes.Representative Andy Ogles, a hard-right Tennessee Republican, on Thursday used Islamophobic language on social media to refer to Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, and said he should be deported.Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, implied that Mr. Mamdani was somehow tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred when he was 9. That came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, reacted on Wednesday to Mr. Mamdani’s apparent victory with an edited image of the Statue of Liberty clothed in a burqa.The responses to Mr. Mamdani’s electoral triumph were the latest examples of how far-right Republicans in Congress have become overt in their use of bigoted language and ethnically offensive tropes, in both casual comments and official statements.Mr. Mamdani, a three-term New York State assemblyman who is all but certain to win the Democratic primary for mayor, was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018 and, if elected, would become the city’s first Muslim mayor.There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen. But his shock win put him on the national radar, and some Republicans in Congress are now seeking to undermine him using a strategy similar to the racist one that Donald J. Trump employed against former President Barack Obama by questioning whether he was born in the United States.Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee wrote that Zohran Mamdani needed to be deported.Jason Andrew for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares56 Views

      in Elections

      Cuomo Doesn’t Blame Himself for Losing the Primary. Others Do.

      by

      Even some of his supporters say Andrew M. Cuomo ran an aloof campaign for mayor that underestimated his chief rival, Zohran Mamdani.For Andrew M. Cuomo, the rally rolling out a $20-an-hour minimum wage proposal was supposed to be a high point of his comeback campaign for mayor of New York City.It did not go particularly well. On the stage of a claustrophobic conference room in Midtown, the former governor flubbed two key lines, at one point promising to “combat affordability.” Many of the laborers paid by their unions to attend appeared uninterested, chatting in the back throughout the speech.And when it was over, Mr. Cuomo beelined to his waiting Dodge Charger, punched the gas past waiting reporters and made an illegal right-on-red turn.He made no further public appearances that day last month, even with Primary Day weeks away.Mr. Cuomo, who dominated New York for a decade as governor, entered the crowded field of Democrats back in March with the force of a steamroller and a commanding lead in the polls. He wore down the Democratic establishment until it lined up behind him, strong-armed unions and seeded a record-shattering super PAC that would eventually spend $25 million.But even some of his allies said that up close, the campaign sometimes looked more like a listing ship, steered by an aging candidate who never really seemed to want to be there and showed little interest in reacquainting himself with the city he hoped to lead.New Yorkers took note. And on Tuesday, a campaign that Mr. Cuomo, 67, had hoped would deliver retribution four years after his humiliating resignation as governor ended in another thumping rebuke instead. Voters preferred Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker whom Mr. Cuomo dismissed as woefully unqualified, by a comfortable margin.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More