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    Zohran Mamdani’s identity may seem complex but to Ugandans he is simply their ‘own son’

    Amid the trees clustered with jackfruit and the boda boda motorcycles weaving precariously around Kampala’s congested roads earlier this year was a campaign poster for Katongole Singh, an immaculately coiffed candidate who positively beamed alongside the president, Yoweri Museveni.With a Sikh Indian surname and an indigenous Ugandan first name, Singh is no rarity in the Ugandan capital, where people of Indian descent have lived for more than 125 years. Many people here boast a multi-hyphenated “African Indian” identity – as indeed does the Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the 33-year-old running for mayor of New York City.Mamdani – who made shock waves this summer when he defeated Andrew Cuomo to win the Democratic primary, setting himself up for a likely victory in the mayoral race this November – was born in Uganda, and moved to New York when he was a young boy. In July Mamdani even returned here for his marriage ceremony, a sprawling three-day affair in Kampala.The same month, the New York Times reported that an anonymous source – alleged to be Jordan Lasker, a well-known eugenicist and neo-Nazi – had hacked internal data showing that on an application to Columbia University in 2009, Mamdani had identified his race as both “Asian” and “Black or African American”.The story sparked outrage from some critics who alleged Mamdani was weaponising identity politics in order to gain preferential access to the prestigious university. (He was not accepted.)Mamdani said he had ticked what he described as “constrained” boxes to capture the “fullness of my background”, and that he did not see himself as African American or Black, but as “an American who was born in Africa”.In Kampala, however, it is clear that Ugandans of Indian descent are unquestioningly considered African – both by Black indigenous Ugandans and by themselves.View image in fullscreen“We have people from India with Ugandan indigenous names, and they speak the Ugandan language,” said Sarah Kirikumwino, a 20-year-old communications student. “They will tell you they actually do not know anything about India because they were born here.”Be that as it may, Indian cultural influence is easy to identify here, not least through food. Near Kampala’s Acacia mall, a Black Ugandan woman selling chai made the sign of the cross before dipping her vegetable samosa into an emerald green chutney.“Asian cuisine such as samosas, chapatis and chai is very well integrated into Ugandan society,” said Aman Kapur, a Kenyan restaurateur of Indian descent, who catered for Mamdani’s wedding. “They were introduced here in the early 19th century by the Asians who were brought in to work.”Mamdani’s mother, the Oscar-nominated film director Mira Nair, is Indian. His father – the post-colonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani – was born to Indian parents in India.Kapoor said Mamdani’s wedding feast was as mixed as the heritage shared between him and his American-Syrian wife, who he met on Hinge: a smorgasbord of Mediterranean, Indian, Pakistani and Ugandan cuisine, including servings of rolex – a staple Ugandan street food of chapati rolled around eggs, which shares the same name as the Swiss watch.The backlash Mamdani faced over his identity reminds Mark Niwagaba – a student at Kampala’s Makerere University – of the “birther movement” conspiracy theory, in which Donald Trump claimed Barack Obama wasn’t a natural born citizen, as the constitution requires of presidents.“Obama’s dad was of Kenyan origin and the mum was Hawaiian – he wasn’t Black enough, and he wasn’t white enough,” the 24-year-old said at an open-mic poetry night at Kardamom and Koffee, a cafe Mira Nair is said to frequent. (Obama’s mother was born in Kansas and studied at the University of Hawaii.) “Mamdani seems to face the same challenge.”The history of Indians in Uganda has not been without strife. South Asian migrants – most of them Indian – were brought into the country by British colonial powers as indentured labourers from 1894. It was Ugandan Indians who built a 600-mile railway that linked Uganda’s side of Lake Victoria to the port of Mombasa in Kenya.View image in fullscreenFavoured by the British to manage tea and coffee plantations, they quickly established successful businesses and gained affluence while Black Ugandans struggled.Then in 1972, Idi Amin expelled about 50,000 Ugandans of south Asian origin, giving them 90 days to leave.Nevertheless, despite now making up less than 1% of the population, Ugandans of Indian descent remain a thriving community here, contributing 60% of tax revenues. From signs for the billion-dollar Madhuvani group to hotels like the four-star Fairway Boutique hotel – one of Uganda’s first hotels, founded by the Jaffer family – the affluence of Ugandans of Indian descent can be seen across the capital.Many have lived their whole lives in Uganda and are accepted as African. Yashwant Patel, 71, who was born in Kampala and now lives in Birmingham, in England, recalls childhoods spent swimming in Lake Victoria, sprawled across the city of Entebbe, and eating mangoes and guavas.“Nobody looked at us like we were invading the place,” Patel recalls. “On the way to Entebbe … you could buy a whole basketful of mangoes which we would eat. I can still remember the juice! And the mango seeds were of course brought from India. Although I hadn’t been to India, my mother and father would say, ‘this is like being in India!’”Many people here consider Mamdani absolutely African. “Our own son is taking up a big position in the US, and we Ugandans are very happy with that,” said Fred Ndaula, a Ugandan tour guide in Kampala. “They are Ugandans. This is their country.”Identity in the US can be complex, however, and not everyone agrees that Mamdani has the right to claim an “African” identity. “African American” is often used to specify the people of Black African descent who were violently amputated from their history and their ancestry through the transatlantic slave trade.View image in fullscreenThe case of Rachel Dolezal – an academic and former president of a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – is one infamous example of a white woman who masqueraded as Black until she was exposed in 2015.“This has generated African-American resentment, and therefore not a surprise that Mamdani’s attempt to accurately reflect his complex heritage on a form designed for binary Black/white thinking would ruffle many US African-Americans,” said Dr Kim D Butler, a Black historian and associate professor at the department of Africana studies at Rutgers University.But Mamdani, she added, “is more closely connected to a specific African country than I have yet to discover for my paternal ancestors, who worked the land of a revolutionary war officer, having left a land whose name we no longer remember these 200+ years.”She added: “‘He’s not really African’ conveys a subtle message we have heard spoken about us – “We’re not really American.”Indeed, Indians from Africa do not always fit easily into US racial categories, notes Amishi Aggarwal, an Indian researcher at the University of Oxford who has been working with refugee communities in Uganda.He points to one of Nair’s films, Mississippi Masala, as a reference point. The film follows a Ugandan-Indian family forced to flee Amin’s Uganda for the US, where one of the daughters falls in love with an African American man played by Denzel Washington. The film shows the racism expressed by her family – even as they face racism, too, as immigrants in the deep south.“There’s a lot of dynamics around caste and class within the Indian-Ugandan community as well, and there can be internal racism,” says Aggarwal.Mamdani’s own history is even more complex: his family moved from Uganda to South Africa, where his father Mahmood taught at the University of Cape Town. The young Mamdani’s affinity to his African Ugandan identity could be attributed in part to the work and activism of his father, the prolific author of several books including on colonialism, the Rwandan genocide, Darfur and the so-called war on terror.Mahmood picked up that activism after moving to the US, where, inspired by Uganda’s independence movement in the 1960s, he joined the civil rights movement and was involved with the Montgomery bus boycotts. He also named his son Zohran Kwame after Ghana’s first democratic president, the icon of Pan-Africanism Kwame Nkrumah.Historian Shamil Jeppie, who worked with Mahmood at the university, first met Zohran Mamdani as a child there. As an anti-apartheid student activist, Jeppie saw not only how race was weaponised by the apartheid regime, but how centuries of migration and mixing of communities created multi-hyphenated identities and communities like his own that couldn’t be understood in the global north.“‘African’ is not a race,” said Jeppie. “Africa is a continent, a space. It’s not co-terminous with race, language or religion. It is populated by all varieties of languages, religion and ethnic groups.”He says it’s no surprise Mamdani’s identity is too complex to fit neatly into a box on a university application. “‘African’, ‘Asian’, ‘Muslim’ – for us Africans, these are not contradictions at all.” More

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    Eric Adams says he’s staying in New York mayoral race amid dropout talk

    The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, announced Friday that he is going to stay in the fall’s highly anticipated mayoral race, just days after reports that Donald Trump was encouraging him to do so in order to help fellow independent candidate Andrew Cuomo gain more votes against the frontrunner, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.“I am running for re-election,” Adams confirmed to reporters during a news conference outside the Gracie Mansion mayoral residence.“There has been so much speculation, communications, announcements of what I’m doing, no matter what I have stated over and over again publicly. So I want to be clear with you. I am in this race, and I’m the only one that can beat Mamdani,” Adams remarked.The announcement came as the US president – a native of New York City – had reportedly been pushing Adams, who has been polling in the single digits, to ditch his campaign for re-election. Trump had reportedly even floated a potential ambassador post in Saudi Arabia to Adams in order to convince him to drop out.Adams denied those claims, saying Thursday: “I have never been promised a job.” At his renewed campaign pitch Friday, Adams did not take questions from reporters.He instead pointed at a mayoral polo shirt and said he intended to wear it “another four years”. He also insulted his rivals as “spoiled brats” who were not working-class New Yorkers like he and voters were.Sources told ABC News that Trump’s team has been hearing from Republican donors in the city pleading with Trump aides to get involved in the New York City mayoral race, citing fears that Mamdani, who has had a commanding lead in polling, could win the November election.There is a suggestion that Cuomo could consolidate enough support to challenge Mamdani if Adams – who won the 2021 race to become mayor of one of the world’s biggest cities as a Democrat – and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, were to drop out of the race. The New York Times reported that there have been talks in the Trump administration about also finding a job for their fellow Republican Sliwa to get him out of the race.Mamdani’s team on Friday issued a statement saying: “Zohran’s running to serve New York, not do the bidding of an authoritarian president and his billionaire friends.“City hall should belong to the people – that’s what our city deserves and what Zohran’s campaign is all about.” More

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    Adams denies being offered Trump job in exchange for quitting mayoral race

    Eric Adams, the embattled mayor of New York, has denied having conversations with Donald Trump about being given a government job in exchange for dropping his re-election campaign.Politico reported on Wednesday that Adams has been offered a position at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, citing a person with direct knowledge of the offer. The mayor met with the president’s team during his visit to Florida on Monday, according to the person.The New York Times also reported that advisers to Donald Trump “have discussed the possibility” of giving Adams a position, in an attempt to thwart Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic socialist who is currently the frontrunner to be elected mayor in November.According to the Times, “intermediaries” for Trump have spoken to “associates” of Adams about leaving the race. Adams, who has proved to be deeply unpopular among New York Democratic voters and is running as an independent candidate, is trailing Mamdani in the polls, and is draining support from former governor Andrew Cuomo, also running as an independent.There is a suggestion that if Adams, a centrist Democrat, and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, were to drop out of the race, Cuomo could consolidate enough support to challenge Mamdani. The New York Times reported that there have been talks in the Trump administration about also finding a job for Sliwa to get him out of the race.“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he will not respond to every rumor that comes up,” said Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, told the Guardian.“He has had no discussions with, nor has he met with, President Donald Trump regarding the mayoral race. The mayor is fully committed to winning this election, with millions of New Yorkers preparing to cast their votes.“His record is clear: crime is down, jobs are up, and he has consistently stood up for working families. Mayor Adams is focused on building on that progress and earning four more years to continue delivering for the people of New York.”Sliwa told Politico he had not spoken to the White House and would not want a job anyway.“I have not been contacted by the White House, and I’m not interested in a job with the White House,” he said in a statement.“My focus is right here in New York. I’m the only candidate on a major party line who can defeat Mamdani, and I’m committed to carrying this fight through to election day. The people of New York City deserve a mayor who truly cares.”Mamdani, meanwhile, has been keen to underline his rivals’ associations with Trump, who is deeply unpopular in true-blue New York City.“Today’s news confirms it: Cuomo is Trump’s choice for Mayor. The White House is considering jobs for Adams and Sliwa to clear the field,” he wrote on X. “New Yorkers are sick of corrupt politics and backroom deals. No matter who’s running, we will deliver a better future on November 4.”On Tuesday a poll found Adams with 9% of the vote in the election – Mamdani was at 42%, Cuomo 26%, and Sliwa 17%. More

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    It’s time for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to step down | Mehdi Hasan

    In a recent podcast conversation, the former spokesperson for Jeb Bush sat down with the leader of the House Democrats. Guess which one of them endorsed the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York?“I was a Republican up until two minutes ago and I’m a capitalist, and I had Zohran on … it’s not really a close call, is it?” Tim Miller said to Hakeem Jeffries on his Bulwark podcast, to which a defensive-sounding House Minority leader replied: “What I can say is that he’s the only one I’m scheduled to talk to.”Time and time again, Jeffries has refused to endorse his own party’s official candidate for mayor in his own city, two months after Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York by double digits – including Jeffries’ own congressional district by eight points.This is the same Democratic party leader who has insisted in the past that progressives should “vote BLUE (no matter who)”. But centrists? Apparently, they’re under no such obligation.Jeffries is not alone in his brazen hypocrisy. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader who represents the state of New York and lives in the city of New York, has also refused to endorse his own party’s official candidate for mayor of New York.If you want to understand why the Democrats are polling at their lowest point for more than three decades, look no further than these two uninspiring Democratic leaders in Congress.If you want to understand why 62% of Democratic voters say “the leadership of the Democratic party should be replaced with new people,” again, look no further than Jeffries and Schumer.Week after week, month after month, they embarrass themselves, undermine their colleagues and demoralize their voters. Theirs is a record of cowardice and capitulation.Let’s start with Jeffries. In February, the hapless House minority leader wondered aloud: “I’m trying to figure out what leverage we actually have. They control the House, the Senate. And the presidency. It’s their government. What leverage do we have?” It was a shrug of impotence; a sign of pre-emptive submission only weeks after Trump’s inauguration.That same month, just days before Bernie Sanders began his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in front of packed arenas across the country, Jeffries “quietly met with more than 150 Silicon Valley-based donors … in tony Los Altos Hills”, reported Politico, in order to “mend fences” with the billionaire big tech bosses.In April, when Democratic members of Congress such as Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Maxwell Frost were visiting El Salvador and raising the issue of Kilmar Ábrego García’s detention, the Bulwark reported: “The minority leader has discouraged further excursions to the country” (reporting that Jeffries later denied). Subsequent polling suggests those trips helped change public opinion on immigration and, especially, on the fate of Ábrego. Jeffries, though, can claim no credit for that shift in American sentiment.In June, in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to file ludicrous charges of assault against the Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver after a protest outside an immigration detention center, the dead-eyed Jeffries appeared on CNN with host Dana Bash.
    BASH: You previously warned that the administration charging members of Congress was a, quote, ‘red line’. What are you doing now that the red line you talked about has apparently been crossed?
    JEFFRIES: We will make that decision in a time, place and manner of our choosing. But the response will be continuous, and it will meet the moment that is required.
    BASH: What exactly does that mean? Have you not decided how to respond?
    JEFFRIES: We will respond in a time, place, and manner of our choosing if this continues to happen.
    Bash looked bewildered. And we’re now coming up to three months since Jeffries made those bizarre, tone-deaf remarks. Has the time not arrived yet? Has he still not found the place?Last month, Jeffries refused, again, to endorse Mamdani but then went further, telling CNBC that Andrew Cuomo’s baseless attack on Mamdani’s rent-stabilized apartment was a “legitimate issue” and that his campaign was “going to have to address it”. Can you imagine a Republican leader in Congress going on live television to throw their party’s mayoral candidate under the bus in this way?Jeffries has become almost a parody of a weak, spineless Democratic leader. When he was asked recently about Trump’s fascistic deployment of troops to the streets of Washington DC, his response was to praise the DC attorney general’s “strongly worded letter”.Well, you know who else likes to bring a “strongly worded letter” to a gunfight with Republicans? Yep. You guessed it. Chuck Schumer. The Senate minority leader bragged to CNN earlier this year about how he had reacted to Donald Trump’s attack on US universities by sending him “a very strong letter just the other day”.To be clear: Schumer’s record on resisting Trump and fighting back against his authoritarian takeover of the US government has been as feeble and feckless as Jeffries’.Remember that cringe chant of ‘We will win’ and ‘We won’t rest’ that he led outside the Treasury building in February, as Elon Musk’s Doge teams rampaged through the federal government?Or when he shamefully backed down from a confrontation with Trump over a government shutdown in March and earned the scathing soubriquet “Surrender Schumer”? (One anonymous House Democrat joked at the time that the Senate minority leader’s popularity was “hovering somewhere between Elon Musk and the Ebola virus”.)How about when he told NPR that same month that accusing Israel of genocide – now the view of 77% of Democratic voters – was antisemitic, or when he declared to the neoconservative Brett Stephens that his job was “to keep the left pro-Israel”?Who can forget also his hawkish denunciation of “Taco Trump” in June for not being “tough” enough on the “terrorist government” of Iran, just weeks before Trump illegally bombed Iran?It makes no sense to me that Schumer is still the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. The party lost the upper chamber on his watch, under his leadership, but Schumer chose to stay on and his colleagues let him. But when you lead your party to defeat in an election, shouldn’t you … lose your job?As for Jeffries, the Democrats may win back the House of Representatives next November on the back of an anti-Trump wave, but what then? What vision will a Speaker Jeffries offer? What resistance will he provide to the wannabe dictator in the White House? What actual plan does he have to preserve and protect democracy in 2028?Since Trump was inaugurated for a second time in January, Jeffries and Schumer have demonstrated time and again that they are not built for this particular moment. While Trump seeds the ground for an American dictatorship, these two top Dems pine for bipartisanship. While millions of rank-and-file Democrats across the country say they want leaders who will fight, Jeffries and Schumer fold. While younger Democrats like Mamdani and AOC offer energy and charisma, these two lackluster leaders in the House and Senate offer cringe chants and even cringier photo ops.It is past time for both Jeffries and Schumer to step down and step aside. This fascist moment, this age of Trump, demands outspoken, unrelenting and fearless opposition. Whether you are a Democrat, or simply a democrat, we all deserve better.

    Mehdi Hasan is the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of the media company Zeteo and a Guardian US columnist More

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    Gavin Newsom is taking the fight to Trump – but for whom is he fighting? | Arwa Mahdawi

    Every time you think US politics could not possibly get any stupider, it does. Today’s instalment of “we live in hell, where politicians are passing around the last remaining brain cell” comes via New York and the latest shenanigans of the city’s mayor, Eric Adams. Desperate to distract voters from a steady stream of scandals, the latest of which involves a former aide giving a reporter a crisp packet filled with cash after an Adams mayoral campaign event, he is trying hard to flex his social media muscles.This weekend, Adams joined Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who is running as an independent in November’s election, and others in mocking Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic Democratic candidate and frontrunner, for his weightlifting efforts at a community event. Adams posted a side-by-side video on X of himself and Mamdani bench-pressing with the caption: “67 vs. 33 … The weight of the job is too heavy for ‘Mamscrawny.’ The only thing he can lift is your taxes.” This post was quickly deleted and replaced with one that got Adams’s age right: he is 64.Inventing childish nicknames for your rivals? Classic Donald Trump. Getting basic facts embarrassingly wrong? Super Trumpy. Obsessing over your manliness, rather than focusing on issues voters care about? Trumpy to the max.Adams isn’t the only politician emulating the president’s idiosyncratic communication style. Across the globe, we are witnessing the seemingly unstoppable rise of the trollitician. From the Australian senator Ralph Babet tweeting tirades about “woke ass clowns” to the US vice-president, JD Vance, insulting the IQs of his detractors, an increasing number of politicos seem to be operating like attention-seeking edgelords rather than dignified statespeople. If it worked for Trump, their reasoning seems to go, they too may have a shot at shitposting their way to the top.Playing Trump’s social media game rather better than anyone else at the moment is Gavin Newsom. In recent weeks, the governor of California, clearly readying himself for a 2028 presidential run, has been giving his caps lock key quite the pounding to troll Trump by adopting his social media vernacular. “TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN … THE MAN LOOKED LIKE HE’D JUST EATEN 3 BUCKETS OF KFC WITH VLAD,” reads one mocking tweet from the governor’s press office this month.Newsom has also opened an online “Patriot shop”, poking fun at Trump’s tasteless merchandise. There are red-and-white baseball caps emblazoned with “NEWSOM WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!” and tank tops proclaiming “Trump is not hot”. There is also a Bible priced at $100 (£74). It’s sold out, but if God is good, and supply chains oblige, it will be back in stock soon.Some of Newsom’s posts have been very amusing; they have certainly generated a lot of publicity for him and delighted many liberals. I am no Newsom fan – he has flip-flopped opportunistically on transgender issues and taken a questionable stand on pro-Palestine campus protests – but it’s refreshing to see energy from the opposition. The Democrats are losing voters at a staggering rate and the party’s out-of-touch leaders can’t seem to pull themselves together to challenge Trump effectively. By contrast, Newsom seems ready for a fight.This isn’t to suggest that snarky tweets are the way to defeat Maga. Newsom has said his bombastic posts are meant to shine a light on Trump’s unpresidential behaviour: “If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president.” But it doesn’t matter if you shine a stadium’s worth of floodlights on a problem if people wilfully avoid looking. You can’t shame many of Trump’s supporters because they have no shame; you can’t use logic with people in a personality cult.Crucially, however, Newsom isn’t stopping at mean tweets. He has shown that he will not just sit down and whine as the Republicans use dirty tricks such as redrawing the voting map in Texas; he will try to use the same redistricting tactics in California. Newsom has grasped what so many other Democrats are loth to admit: you can’t keep playing by the same old rules when the other side has ripped up the rulebook.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionUltimately, though, being willing to fight isn’t enough. To win, Democrats need to show normal people that they will fight for them. People don’t want silly tweets and underhand tactics; they want politicians who will lower the cost of living and direct taxes towards healthcare and infrastructure rather than bombing starving children in Gaza. Running on popular policies and seemingly authentic empathy is what has made Mamdani – who is still being shunned by Democratic leadership – such an effective candidate. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist More

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    Trump casts home-town shadow as he weighs role in New York mayor’s race

    Millions of people will go to the polls in New York City in November, but in a closely watched election for mayor it’s a high-profile, highly unpopular former New Yorker who is attracting most of the attention.Donald Trump, who spent nearly seven decades in New York before leaving town after his first term as president, is the ghost at the feast in America’s biggest city, a looming presence as he weighs whether to insert his considerable heft into the race.In recent weeks, Trump has taken an increased interest in his home town’s mayoral election and is considering whether to back a candidate, according to reports. It’s a development that adds another layer of complexity to a race that has already seen it all: from the leading candidate, Zohran Mamdani, being threatened by Trump with deportation, to an apparent attempt at bribery via cash stuffed into a bag of potato chips.Trump had a phone call about the race with Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic New York governor and Mamdani’s rival, in recent weeks, according to the New York Times. It came as wealthy New Yorkers are seeking to thwart Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic socialist who delighted the American left when he defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary. Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid a sexual misconduct scandal, is attempting to revive his dream of becoming mayor by running as an independent.The president also has links to the incumbent, Eric Adams, who has benefited more than most from Trump’s re-election. Adams, a Republican turned Democrat turned independent, was charged in September last year with accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials in exchange for favors. In April this year, the justice department, headed by Trump loyalist Pam Bondi, successfully lobbied for the case against Adams to be dropped – a move which came after Adams took a more hardline, Trumpian stance on immigration.So far, neither man has successfully won over Trump, and a White House official told the Guardian that the president has said he does not intend to get involved. But the speculation of a presidential incursion just won’t go away.Trump has said Cuomo should stay in the race, and even praised Adams in a recent press conference – during which he also described Mamdani as a “communist”.“You have a good independent running: Mayor Adams who is a very good person. I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem and he was unfairly hurt,” Trump said.The intrigue comes as Mamdani, who has terrified New York’s powerful real-estate lobby and billionaire class by promising to freeze rent prices and raise taxes – slightly – on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers, is on the verge of running away with the race.For weeks, polls have shown Mamdani ahead of Adams, Cuomo and the Republican Curtis Sliwa. A survey this week showed Mamdani winning 42% of the vote, with his nearest challenger Cuomo on just 23%. The poll, published by AARP, showed that Mamdani’s support would increase if Cuomo or Adams dropped out.Cuomo and Adams have shown signs that they may be open to Trump. In audio obtained by Politico, Cuomo told Trump-friendly donors in the elite enclave of the Hamptons that the president was likely to intervene in his favor in the election.Cuomo predicted to donors that Adams would drop out, and said that they could negate the impact of Sliwa, who has said Trump should stay out of the race.“Trump himself, as well as top Republicans, will say the goal is to stop Mamdani. And you’ll be wasting your vote on Sliwa,” Cuomo said. A spokesman for Cuomo, whose lawyer turned governor father at one point worked for Fred Trump, the wealthy real-estate developer who handed over his business to his son, Donald Trump, in the 1970s, told the Guardian the story was “overblown”.“The governor was asked what he heard to be a hypothetical about how it could become a two-person race and was speculating,” Rich Azzopardi said.“We’re not asking for or expecting help from anyone – he [Cuomo] also said the mayor would have to drop out and the mayor said he wasn’t going to. Governor Cuomo is the only chance to beat Mamdani and ensure the greatest city in the world stays the greatest city in the world.”View image in fullscreenStill, with Mamdani comfortably leading in the polls, and Adams and Cuomo seemingly cannibalizing each other’s support, the rightwing elite in New York are becoming increasingly desperate for a Trump intervention.The New York Post, the rightwing tabloid that Trump is known to read, sent a message directly to the president earlier in August, running an editorial with the headline: “President Trump, do what’s right for NYC and endorse Mayor Eric Adams for re-election.”But that wouldn’t necessarily be helpful, said Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist and founder of Trip Yang Strategies.“Donald Trump is one of the least popular individuals in New York City history. Anyone who Donald Trump wants, supports, is automatically going to be a loser in the New York City mayor’s race. He is beyond toxic,” Yang said.Trump won just 30% of the vote in New York City in 2024, a remarkable low for someone born and raised in the city. Although, it does suggest he is more popular than Adams, whose job approval was at a record low of 20% earlier this year.Adams and Cuomo are deeply flawed candidates. Cuomo was plagued by scandal in his final term as governor, stepping down after he was accused of sexual harassment by 11 women, most of whom worked for him. He attempted to defy the odds by entering the New York mayoral election, and was originally the frontrunner, but ran an anonymous race, relying on tightly controlled press conferences over in-person appearances. Despite wealthy backers – some of whom had donated to Trump – pumping millions into his campaign he finished a distant second to Mamdani.While those corruption charges against Adams were dropped, questions remain over the kind of people the mayor surrounds himself with. Multiple people linked to Adams have been charged with corruption, and in a bizarre incident just this week, a volunteer on his campaign, Winnie Greco – who until last year served as Adams’s liaison to the Asian community – handed a reporter from the City a bag of Herr’s ripple potato chips containing a red envelope full of cash. A lawyer for Greco, who has been suspended by the Adams campaign, told the City that the money-in-a-potato-chip-bag ruse was a misunderstanding.“In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude,” the lawyer said.In a statement to the Guardian, Adams said: “I have not been accused of any wrongdoing, and my focus remains on serving the 8.5 million New Yorkers by making our city safer and more affordable every day.”Earlier this month, Adams left some wiggle room when asked if he would accept an endorsement from Trump, telling 77 ABC: “I want New Yorkers’ endorsement. I think the president’s going to make a determination on what he’s going to do in his race.” Cuomo has said he would not accept an endorsement.That’s probably wise given Trump’s unpopularity, but there have been suggestions that the president could weigh in behind the scenes, with the New York Times reporting that donors and allies of Adams and Cuomo have “pined” for Trump to intervene.Yang thinks that wouldn’t work.“Sometimes you could pull that off in a very local race that doesn’t get any attention. But look: the New York City mayor’s race, for us here in New York, this is our Super Bowl. Any type of private phone call, private meeting, it’s already shown that it gets leaked immediately to the press,” he said.“It would actually be net negative. It would be a good thing for Mamdani. You can buy a lot of things, but you cannot be associated with Donald Trump in New York City if you’re trying to win an election.”What is clear is that if the election happened today, rather than on Tuesday 4 November, Mamdani would win. And so far the questions about Trump’s links with Adams and Cuomo have seemed to be a blessing for the frontrunner.Mamdani responded to the leaked Cuomo audio this week, writing on Instagram: “This is not just a shady backroom deal by a cynical politician, it is disqualifying. It is a betrayal. Donald Trump is sending masked agents to rip our neighbors off the street, gutting the social services so many New Yorkers rely on, and threatening to deport me for having the audacity to stand up to him and his billionaire friends.”Mamdani added: “The job of New York City mayor is not to be a jester for a wannabe king, it is to protect the people of this city.”With less than three months to go, it remains to be seen whether Trump will move to select a jester, or whether he will leave the people of New York City, the city that spurned him, alone. More

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    Zohran Mamdani leads in fundraising for New York City mayoral contest

    Zohran Mamdani pulled in almost double the funds of his nearest rivals for New York City mayor between early July and mid-August, as the candidates prepare for the crucial post Labor Day push to the November poll.New York’s City’s campaign finance board said on Saturday that the democratic socialist, who won the Democratic party nomination in June against former state governor Andrew Cuomo, raised $1,051,200, with an average donation of $121 recorded equally from donors in and outside the state.Cuomo raised $541,301, with an contribution size of $646. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, running as an independent, raised $425,181, with an average donation of $770. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa brought in $407, 332.Mamdani’s fundraising dominance is mirrored in a polling advantage. Last week, a Siena poll placed him at 19 points ahead of Cuomo, his nearest rival, who is also running as an independent. A 12-poll average from Decision Desk HQ puts Mamdani ahead of Cuomo by 13 points.Mamdani, who has proposed rent freezes on almost a million rent-stabilized apartments in the city, free buses and childcare, city-run grocery stores, and elevated taxes on Columbia and New York University to subsidize city colleges and trade schools, has been consistently ahead in fundraising over rivals.In March, he asked his campaign’s grassroots supporters to stop donating, and directed his primary campaign staff to encourage supporters’ focus to volunteering efforts. His campaign funds on hand are put at $4.4m, and his campaign is eligible for $2.2m more in matching public funds.Last week, it was revealed that the anti-billionaire candidate had received a donation of $250,000 to a political action committee from Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of late hedge fund billionaire Jamie Simons.Adams is barred from receiving matching campaign funds, the city campaign finance board having found he had violated related laws. Cuomo has begun transferring money from a $7.5m state campaign account to his city campaign account and has $1.2m on hand. Cuomo is in line for a payout of about $400,000 from public funds.Pressure on the two trailing candidates, Adams and Sliwa, to step out of the race is likely to increase next month, but both have said they are unwilling to do so.Last week, Adams repeated his resistance to dropping out after a close adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was indicted for allegedly running a political-favors scheme that included receiving seafood and an acting role opposite Forest Whitaker.Politco reported last week that Cuomo told supporters at a fundraiser he expects Republican leaders, including Donald Trump, to urge Republican voters to switch from Sliwa to stop Mamdani, whom Trump has branded “a 100% Communist Lunatic”. Mamdani has said he is “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare”.Cuomo said on Friday that “a lot is going to happen” between now and the November vote. “I don’t think the public even knows who the assemblyman is, what he represents, what his positions are. So I think the more they find out about him, the less they’re going to like him, and … his appeal is going to drop dramatically.”Mamdani, meanwhile, has accused Cuomo of lying about his coordination with Trump and says the former governor, who bitterly clashed with Trump while in office, is now seeking the president’s help.“It’s par for the course for Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said on Tuesday. More

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    ‘A new political era’: fresh Democratic faces seek office to prevent their party from ‘sleepwalking into dystopia’

    Earlier this year, Liam Elkind seized an opportunity to ask his longtime congressman, Jerry Nadler, what everyday New Yorkers like himself could do to help Democrats stand up to Donald Trump. Nadler’s response, according to Elkind, was to “donate to the DCCC” – the group that helps House Democrats keep their seats. Deeply unsatisfied, the 26-year-old decided to run for office against the 17-term incumbent.In Georgia, Everton Blair also sought answers from his long-serving congressman, David Scott, at a panel event earlier this year. When Blair asked him about Democrats’ legislative strategy, the 80-year-old lawmaker was dismissive. “I don’t know who sent y’all,” he said. Blair, 34, is now making a bid for Scott’s seat.Jake Rakov began to worry when he noticed his former boss, 70-year-old California congressman Brad Sherman, repeating the same anti-Trump talking points he’d deployed eight years prior. To Rakov, 37, it was a sign that the Democratic party’s ageing establishment “wasn’t going to learn”. He is now one of two millennial-aged Jakes challenging Sherman.View image in fullscreenA year after Joe Biden’s age and fitness for office emerged as a major liability in the 2024 presidential election, followed by Trump’s return to power , demand for generational change has reached a fever pitch. A wave of younger, social-media savvy candidates, frustrated by what they see as an ossifying, out-of-touch Democratic establishment, is launching primary challenges against some of their party’s most senior incumbents.The insurgents charge that party elders have failed to act with urgency as Trump targets Democratic cities, voters and values, and they say they’re no longer willing to wait their turn.“If what happened last year was not a wake up call for the Democratic party that we need to do things differently and that we need to let some new voices in, then we should all be deeply worried about the future of the Democratic party,” said Luke Bronin, a 46-year-old who is running against Connecticut congressman John Larson, 77.The 119th Congress is the third oldest in US history, and three members – all Democrats – have died in office this year. More than a dozen House Democrats who will be 70 or older by election day 2026 are facing challengers, according to an analysis by Axios, though not all have said whether they plan to seek re-election.But the push to replace longtime incumbents isn’t just about age, says Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a former chief of staff to New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is running for the San Francisco congressional seat long held by the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.They say it’s about energy, vision and, crucially, how hard they’re willing to fight – which could explain why octogenarian brawlers like Maxine Waters haven’t faced calls to step aside while some relatively younger members, such as 50-year-old André Carson, have drawn challengers.“It’s being a part of a system for so long you just don’t actually think it’s your job to renew it,” Chakrabarti said.View image in fullscreenPelosi, 85, who stepped down from her leadership position to make room for a new generation in 2022, has not yet said whether she plans to seek re-election. ​A spokesperson for Pelosi declined to comment.While their campaigns are ​​textured by local​ issues and cultural references – Elkind touts his go-to bagel order (un-toasted everything with whitefish salad) and Chakrabarti pitches a publicly owned utility for San Francisco​ – their broader ​messages chime: Democratic elders have grown complacent, clinging to a broken status quo​ – with devastating consequences.Democrats’ popularity has cratered to record lows and the party has bled voters – especially young people, first-timers, and Black and Latino Americans.But the incumbents are pushing back. They argue their years of experience have delivered tangible results. “These guys would start off with zero seniority, just when the district needs the most help,” Sherman, the California congressman, said in an interview. He dismissed claims he’s been timid on Trump, noting he introduced articles of impeachment against him in 2017 and, earlier this year, confronted the president at an in-person briefing on the Palisades fire that devastated parts of his district.“The key to fighting Donald Trump is beating him in the 2026 election,” Sherman said. “If we don’t take the House back in 2026 we may not have elections in 2028.”Many challengers align politically with the incumbents they’re trying to unseat – several have voted for their opponent in the past. They argue the intraparty divide is not left-versus-center but a clash between “the fighters and the folders” – those who see the Trump era as a troubling but passing chapter and those who see it as a constitutional emergency that will determine the survival of American democracy.The younger candidates say the party needs to “meet voters where they are” – on social media, on podcasts, at red county diners and rambunctious town halls. They want leaders who can speak plainly about the ways the Trump administration is hurting working-class Americans – and how Democrats would help.But they also say it can’t only be about Trump. The party needs a full-scale reimagining of what Democrats stand for and how they communicate that to voters – a type of messaging they’ve struggled to articulate in the Trump era.Democrats haven’t always embraced primaries. They can be costly and time-consuming, and create headaches for general election races. But in the midst of deep party introspection and generational friction, more are embracing the contests as a way forward.Groups such as Leaders We Deserve, led by former Democratic national committee vice-chair David Hogg, are actively backing young candidates challenging “asleep-at-the-wheel” incumbents. The effort sparked an internal firestorm and ultimately led Hogg to step down from his role at the DNC.Republicans are watching the primary battles unfold with glee. “Democrats are engaged in a battle between the socialists and the party dinosaurs – and it’s only getting uglier,” Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the national Republican congressional committee, said.Next year’s elections will test Democrats’ desire for generational change but it may not resolve their identity crisis. Some districts will elevate centrist candidates, while others might embrace a democratic socialist. Some crave an anti-establishment streak, ideology aside.And some veteran lawmakers have already chosen to relinquish power. In May, Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky announced that her 14th term representing Illinois’s ninth district would be her last, saying in a statement: “It is now time for me to pass the baton.” Before she made the decision public, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old progressive political influencer, had already launched a campaign for the seat, asking Democrats: “What if we didn’t suck?”Primed for Congress, but not waiting for an openingAmong the contenders in Democratic primaries are local and state political leaders for whom Congress makes sense as a next logical step. In years past, they might have opted to wait for a retirement and then seek an endorsement from the outgoing congressman. Not any more.View image in fullscreenAt 46, Luke Bronin has a lengthy résumé of service: a lawyer, former Obama administration official, navy reserve intelligence officer and, most recently, mayor of Hartford, Connecticut. But he stresses that he’d also bring “an outsider’s commitment to making some bigger changes”.Bronin has spoken with Larson, the longtime incumbent in Connecticut’s first district, including an hourlong conversation in recent months. What was missing, he said, was any recognition that the job has fundamentally changed since Larson arrived in Washington in 1999.“I didn’t hear a sense of urgency that we need to hear from every single member of Congress,” Bronin said.Bronin thinks Democrats need to be “relentless and clear” about the ways Trump is making life worse for Americans, and “equally relentless and clear” about the Democratic party’s vision for improving their daily lives. He wants to see “an intense focus on issues like housing and healthcare and childcare”, and for Democrats to spread these messages in friendly and unfriendly forums.In a statement, the Larson campaign said the district needs a “proven fighter” to protect against Trump’s attacks on social security and Medicare.“That’s Congressman Larson. That’s why he’s backed by progressive groups, labor, and working people alike,” the campaign said. “What they don’t need is someone pretending to be a new voice who’s actually been in politics [for] decades that’s always been more focused on running for higher office than delivering results.”Chakrabarti, who has spend much of his political career working to elect progressives to Congress, said he began to seriously consider a run himself after listening to a New York Times podcast interview with Pelosi just days after the November election. He had expected Democrats’ crushing defeat to trigger a reckoning – but instead heard a defense of the status quo.It confirmed for Chakrabarti what he had long feared: the Democratic party was “sort of sleepwalking into this dystopia”.But progressives like Chakrabarti take hope from the success of state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary this summer.“When I look at the moment today, the appetite for change, it completely dwarfs what I saw in 2018,” Chakrabarti said, referring to the election year in which Ocasio-Cortez toppled one of the most senior House Democrats as a political unknown.“We’re at the point of a dawn of a new political era.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe crowded primariesSeveral candidates have filed to run in Georgia’s 13th district, a solidly blue area in the Atlanta suburbs, a sign of the vulnerabilities among older members and the enthusiasm to replace them. Scott, who has served in Congress since 2003, has not yet announced whether he will run again. Questions over his health and fitness for office have become public fodder – he lambasted a photographer for taking a photo of him in a wheelchair last year.Some are younger than the average age in Congress (58.9); all are younger than Scott, 80. One contender, state senator Emanuel Jones, is 66. In 2024, Scott fended off a crowded field of primary challengers to keep his seat.Jasmine Clark, 42, was first elected to the state house in Georgia in 2018. She has a PhD in microbiology, an expertise that has served her well in analyzing bills and communicating during the pandemic. If elected, would be the first woman with a science PhD in Congress.View image in fullscreenShe wants the district to have a fighter who can call out the rampant misinformation and disinformation coming out of the Trump administration. The Atlanta area is feeling the consequences of this information environment, she said, pointing to a shooting earlier this month at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by a man alleged to be fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine.“When you have the same people in the same place for a really long time, that stagnation leads to stagnation of ideas as well,” she said. “There should be a healthy turnover, where you still have institutional knowledge while ushering in new ideas. But for whatever reason, we don’t really see that in Congress.”View image in fullscreenEverton Blair, who served on the Gwinnett county board of education, is touting his deep ties to the district where he was born and raised. He sees a lot of opportunities left on the table because of inactive representation.“There’s a general sense of despondency and just apathy right now that we address and we combat by bringing those very voices and people back into the conversation and making sure that they feel represented well,” Blair said.“The leaders who got us into this mess are not the leaders who can get us out of it,” he added.Scott did not respond to a request for comment.In California, Jake Rakov, who served as a deputy communications director for Brad Sherman, the 15-term incumbent he’s challenging, is making a similar case. He hasn’t spoken to his old boss in years, but he has been talking to the congressman’s constituents. Many, he said, are shocked that any member – let alone their own – has been in Congress for nearly 30 years.“We’ve got people in office who’ve been there since the 1990s and are still legislating like it’s the 1990s,” he said, adding: “It is so antithetical to our idea of a representative democracy that it just is immediately offensive to people when they hear about it.”Sherman has also drawn a challenge from Jake Levine, a veteran of the Biden and Obama administrations whose mother lost her home in the January fires. “It’s time for something new,” Levine says in his campaign launch video.Sherman argued that calls for generational change aren’t new. Estimating that he’s taken about 5,000 votes in Congress over the past decade, the overwhelming majority of which his challengers would agree with, Sherman asked: “If you did something right 5,000 times in a row – 100% of the time – is there any chance that you should get fired?”The upstartsUpstart candidates traditionally face steeper challenges against incumbents, but, with the help of slick online content, they’re finding new ways to gain traction. In an Arizona special election earlier this year, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer and activist, came in a distant second behind a longtime Democratic official whose father held the seat until his death – but she still managed to win more than 22% of votes.Katie Bansil, a 34-year-old political newcomer who works in finance, is challenging congressman Frank Pallone, 73, in New Jersey’s sixth congressional district over his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Since launching her campaign, Bansil, who immigrated to the US from the Philippines and grew up in New Jersey, says she’s seen a growing desire for new leadership.View image in fullscreen“I started calling him ‘the asterisk’, because a lot of people have told me, ‘Oh, I just vote for the guy that is labeled as the incumbent,’” she said. “But I think people are actually waking up to the truth about what’s going on.”A spokesperson for Pallone said the congressman has “proven himself to be an effective champion of progressive causes”.“With daily assaults from the Trump administration on our democracy and institutions, Pallone will continue to use every tool to stop the Republican authoritarian agenda of stealing from the poor to give to the rich,” the spokesperson said.Liam Elkind, the challenger to Jerry Nadler, announced his campaign with a splashy video that opened with dirt being shoveled into a grave and his voiceover: “The Democratic party is dying.”“Our system often tells people to wait their turn,” Elkind said. “And look where we are.”A Rhodes scholar, Elkind founded the non-profit food delivery service Invisible Hands during the pandemic. He says that work – along with own experiences as a young person living in one of the most expensive cities in the world – would shape his approach to the job.Like many his age, Elkind doesn’t have health insurance. When he recently went to get a vaccine and was told it would cost $500, “I turned my ass around,” he quipped. “But look, that’s the day-to-day lived reality of a whole lot of people in this country.”View image in fullscreenA spokesperson for Nadler emphasized the congressman’s political strength, noting that he won his most recent election with 80% of the vote.“But this is the great thing about America, it’s a democracy – hopefully still – and anybody can run,” Robert Gottheim, the spokesperson, said, adding that Nadler would “put his over-30-year record of accomplishments against anyone including someone who appears to have no record of accomplishment to speak of”.Elkind said he voted for Nadler and respected his long record as a progressive voice for New York. But, he argued, the moment demands new energy and a break from the past.“The house is on fire, and we need leaders who can meet this moment,” he said. “We deserve to know that the next time a child is kidnapped off of our streets, that our congressman will be on that street in the next hour with a megaphone demanding that child’s release and then will travel to whatever foreign gulag the president has decided to stash that kid in.” More