The Democrats have a huge political opening.
With President Trump under fire from all directions — including some in his own party — it’s a rare chance for the opposition to put some points on the board.
And who are the most prominent Dems right now?
One is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The other is Zohran Mamdani.
AOC is uber-liberal, and the New York mayoral candidate is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist.
Many party office-holders, not to mention media and political analysts, say the Democrats’ biggest problem is having lurched too far to the left. A fixation on pronouns, transgender sports and Palestinian rights.
Does that sound like where most of America is in the fall of 2025?
There are plenty of clickbait headlines out there about AOC weighing a presidential race. But what Axios’ Alex Thompson, who had the scoop, actually reported is that she’s considering a White House run or a Senate race, against Chuck Schumer. So not much has changed.
AOC, now in her fourth term, just barely meets the constitutional requirement that a president be at least 35.
But there’s no question that she’s a dynamic campaigner, prodigious fundraiser and social media phenomenon, with an aura of authenticity.
Even Trump told Fox News, ‘She’s got a little spunk, she’s got a little something.’ But, he said, ‘her philosophy is bad for the country. I don’t think that philosophy can come close to winning.’
It’s true that what plays in her Queens-Bronx district doesn’t necessarily play in Peoria. I think she would beat Schumer, an establishment figure who seems to read all his statements, but even in the state there are plenty of conservative regions between the Bronx and Buffalo.
On the House floor, the congresswoman condemned Charlie Kirk’s murder, but said:
‘We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was: a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted Black Americans the right to vote was a mistake, who, after the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, claimed that ‘some amazing patriot’ should bail out his brutal assailant, and accused Jews of controlling ‘not just the colleges — it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.’
She added: ‘His rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans.’
So she wouldn’t even vote for a symbolic resolution honoring Kirk, the 31-year-old victim of a targeted assassination. That sort of rhetoric excites her base but isn’t exactly a step toward unity.
Mamdani, who is very likely to become mayor, has a history of socialist rhetoric that he’s trying to soften without retracting it. The inexperienced assemblyman clung to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ — meaning, wipe out Israel — but now says he can see how it’s misinterpreted and won’t encourage its use. He insists that as mayor he would have Bibi Netanyau arrested if he came to the U.N.
And this isn’t ancient history. In 2022, he wrote on his website: ‘We need to dramatically curtail the power and presence of the N.Y.P.D.,’ cut the force by 1,300 officers through attrition, and cut police overtime and freeze hiring.
Why? ‘A racist police system’ aimed at controlling ‘Black & brown New Yorkers.’
Andrew Cuomo, who has been visiting mosques and churches, has turned much more aggressive, calling Mamdani ‘a man with no beliefs’ and ‘a hypocritical chameleon desperate for attention and adulation.’ But, of course, Cuomo was forced to resign as governor. No one remembers that he pledged to drop out of the race unless he was leading Mamdani by September.
The democratic socialist has a double-digit lead, which is why Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed him — she saw the train leaving the station. That prompted a swipe by President Trump, who regularly denounces Mamdani — which might not be helpful in New York City — said he’d have to look closely at federal money going to the Apple.
Trump already intervened in the mayor’s race by dropping an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams, though he failed to lure him out of the race with offers of an administration job.
AOC initially declined the back the long-shot Mamdani, the New York Times reports, but when he got hot she endorsed him as having the best chance to beat Cuomo.
The Republicans would like nothing better than to run against Instagram star AOC and Mayor Mamdani as the face of a hyper-liberal party.
And then there’s Kamala Harris, who’s out peddling her bridge-burning book ‘107 Days,’ starting with a Rachel Maddow sit down. I don’t think she could have beaten Trump in 1,000 days. Harris was a terrible candidate — cautious, risk-averse, hiding from the press for a month, unable to separate from Joe Biden.
I assume she has the self-awareness to realize another run for the White House would damage her further. The book takes shots at Biden (‘reckless’ to run again), Pete Buttigieg (couldn’t pick a gay guy), Josh Shapiro (wanted too much power), and Tim Walz (blew the veep debate). Some have clapped back, often through surrogates (Biden folks calling her a lousy VP).
To bring things full circle, Harris just endorsed Mamdani. But Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have not, undoubtedly for fear of being tied to whatever he does.
There are, of course, whole swaths of the country that want nothing to do with socialism or the far left.
Kamala Harris’ book focuses attention on the past just when the Democrats are desperate to turn the page.