Zohran Mamdani riding high despite New York Post’s daily demonization

The rightwing New York Post has attacked Zohran Mamdani as a communist, a hater of the police, an antisemite, a driver-away-of-billionaires, and as someone who isn’t very good at bench press.But six months into his mayoralty, Mamdani has so far succeeded where most of his predecessors have failed: he has bested the city’s most powerful tabloid.Despite enduring near daily criticism from the Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, since he launched his campaign for mayor in late 2024, Mamdani’s popularity in the city has grown in line with his influence – which saw the three candidates he endorsed for Congress win their primaries in June.“The New York Post is very influential, but there’s a real chance that it has met its match in Mamdani, that’s the shift here, and there’s never been a politician of his national stature and ability to combat the Post until he arrived on the scene,” said Ross Barkan, an author and columnist whose latest book, The Revolutionary: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics, will be released in October.Indeed, rather than Mamdani being diminished by rightwing attacks, a Siena University poll in late June found that Mamdani’s favorability had actually increased over the previous two months. About 58% of New Yorkers approve of the mayor, with only 26% disapproving – ratings that are better than the Democratic party as a whole.The popularity surge is not for want of trying from the Post, which publishes multiple pieces on the mayor every day. From Monday to Wednesday this week the Post has published 29 pieces that were tagged “Zohran Mamdani”, stories which ranged from criticizing the mayor over his stance on Israel, for his plans for public supermarkets, for his plans to invest more in public schools, over the spelling of a police officer’s name, for “ignoring Little Italy” on a map of New York’s immigrant neighborhoods, and for his wife going on holiday.Historically, the Post has managed to weaken liberal mayors. Bill de Blasio, a progressive, served two terms as mayor from 2014 to 2021, but parts of his agenda stalled in the face of relentless criticism – as did his subsequent bid for the presidency.“He did have relative popularity, but he was never beloved, and he did not have the same ability, unlike Mamdani, to exert his political will in various [political] races,” Barkan said. He said the Post had failed to find a line of attack that sticks and resonates with readers.“With De Blasio they had one, and it was very straightforward: the feckless liberal who can’t govern the city, doesn’t care about the city, he’s too busy trying to burnish his national image, and no one takes him seriously,” Barkan said.“They got that, and they got that quickly. Mamdani isn’t like that. He can’t run for president [because Mamdani is a naturalized American citizen], so he’s not distracted by the national spotlight. At the same time, he’s such a national figure, you can’t argue with a straight face that he isn’t relevant, and he isn’t taken very seriously by every Democrat across the country.”