🇺🇸 U.S.: "Turn the volume up."

🇺🇸 U.S.: Partial transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech after being elected mayor of New York City

Here is the partial text of the victory speech, verbatim from The Guardian, with specific words and phrases highlighted for semiotic analysis below:

1️⃣ What is happening?

On 24th October 2024, New York State assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced his candidature for mayor of New York City. At the time, Mamdani was a political unknown with no major recognition in the United States, let alone New York City. In the months since, Mamdani ran a slick campaign culminating in several viral moments including a scavenger hunt.

After unexpectedly beating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the primaries, scrutiny on Mamdani’s policies increased, particularly his plans to build more affordable public housing, freeze rents, create a chain of city-owned grocery stores to maintain low prices, make bus fare free, and tax New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year a flat 2% rate.

Mamdani was then subjected to smear campaigns from his rivals and their supporters in the lead up to the mayoral elections this week, including several Islamophobic attacks. Yet despite his ethnic make up (Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian heritage parents), recent 2018 naturalisation, ‘elite’ background (Mamdani’s mother is an award winning and commercially successful director, while his father is a Columbia University academic, with both parents being Harvard alumni), very public Muslim faith (Mamdani has been critical of U.S., Israeli, and Indian leadership with regards to their treatment of Muslims), and calling himself a ‘democratic socialist’ (dirty words in American politics), Mamdani received just over 50% of the votes, becoming the first candidate since 1969 to cross 1 million.

In his victory speech, he name-checked both his rival Cuomo and former New York City resident Donald Trump in a celebratory, populist, yet combative speech.

2️⃣ What was written, and to whom?

Mamdani’s victory speech was likely written by himself, his team, and his speechwriter, though I can’t find precise authorship online. The speech pulled multiple duty; celebrating with voters, diminishing his rivals, while butting heads with Trump along with members of his own party who did not support him (more on that below).

DECONSTRUCTING THE TEXT

🗝️ Unlocking Meaning

Famous Democratic Party endorsements for Mamdani came from senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and several other individuals and organisations. Crucially, Mamdani was not endorsed by the two most senior leaders in his own party: speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate minority leader and long time New York democrat Chuck Schumer. Mamdani only received a last minute endorsement from house minority leader and fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries.

Mamdani’s victory, marginal as it were, is still representative of the democratic process. However, his success within his own party may be less clear. Mamdani’s victory speech is therefore more interesting to analyse if you believe his intended audience was the existing old guard of the Democratic Party.

So what is his message to the Democratic Party, still suffering from the 2024 general election where they lost all arms of government to the Republican Party? Conventional wisdom states that Mamdani’s victory on an overtly socialist platform in America’s largest and arguably most important city forces the Democratic Party to adopt a more populist, left-wing message nation wide. The party needs Mamdani’s socialist fringe message to speak to all American voters come 2028 to stand a chance of winning back the presidency.

👑 Power Play

But that’s not the whole story.

Alongside Mamdani’s election victory this week, the Democratic Party also won two other elections in Virginia and New Jersey on more centrist platforms. In the other two states, which have had Republican victories in the past, both candidates were establishment backed moderates focusing on less left-wing policies.

All three candidates still hammered home the state of the economy and cost-of-living crisis as central to their campaign. So while the party may have found some focus and success in their message, their approach to deliver that message splayed across a spectrum.

With the success of the more party-centric candidates in states that are less Democratic strong holds than New York City, the elder guard of the party were understandably hesitant to publicly endorse the socialist-left-wing policies of Mamdani. It’s clear that the party isn’t yet ready to make Mamdani’s approach representative of Democrats nationwide. With mid-term elections coming up in 2026, when historically incumbent administrations have lost power, the Democratic Party will be keen to showcase a united front that will galvanise voters and win them seats, just like Mamdani did.

For now though, Mamdani joins Sadiq Khan of London on the very short list of Muslim, South Asian mayors of Alpha++ cities.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Tell me your reasoning. In next week’s issue, I’ll highlight the most thought-provoking responses.

LAST WEEK’S RESPONSES

This comment was left in response to last week’s Signpost on the fall of Prince Andrew. All I will say is that a uniquely French solution, as innovative as it is, doesn’t always work.

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