I worked my first New York City mayoral race as an 11-year-old handing out campaign literature for John Lindsay. Back then, the idea that the Democratic Party could nominate a 33-year-old socialist promising city-run grocery stores, free buses, universal child care and a $30 an hour minimum wage would have been unthinkable.

It would have been equally inconceivable that New Yorkers could nominate a candidate who refused to disavow the anti-Semitic slogan “globalize the intifada” during the primary, has joined in anti-Israel protests and once called the NYPD “wicked and corrupt.” A candidate who has proposed shifting the tax burden “from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

But the unthinkable has happened. The Zohran Mamdani victory in the Democratic mayoral primary last month was a big surprise for the New York political class, but it also sent shock waves rattling Democratic leaders coast to coast. With the national Democratic Party leaderless and adrift, desperately looking for a more effective message to take on Donald Trump, the Mamdani win signals that progressives may have moved from pushing a compliant president to the left, to embracing one of the most radical and controversial candidates to hit the national stage.

Part of the Democrats’ problem is their lack of ideas, choosing instead to rant against what they call Trump’s “dictatorship” and call for those in the party to fight harder. They have become little more than the anti-Trump party, while their criticism has been an unending political temper tantrum that is costing them in the polls. The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found Democrats’ job approval slipping 2 points since June to 40 percent.

But is Mamdani’s extreme socialism the answer or just fringe politics? Is his primary win a one-off election that signifies little, or is this extreme candidate in the process of defining a new Democratic Party committed to an even more radical progressivism?

It’s a serious problem for Democrats struggling to come to terms with the Mamdani candidacy. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have all held back their endorsements as pressure builds for them to get on board. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement Monday of his intention to stay in the race, running as an independent, only complicates Democratic leaders’ dilemma.

Party officials are in the same boat. When asked by PBS NewsHour about Mamdani’s initial refusal to denounce anti-Semitic chants, DNC Chair Ken Martin whiffed, saying, “You know, there’s no candidate in this party that I agree 100 percent of the time with, to be honest with you. … We’re a big tent party.” 

Mamdani’s views would require a tent the size of Madison Square Garden.

Another party chairman, Lee Atwater, once faced a similar situation when former Klansman David Duke won a state legislative seat in Louisiana. His response was to ask the Republican National Committee to “excommunicate” Duke, which they did unanimously.

It’s hard to imagine most of America embracing proposals so far out of the mainstream. Mamdani supports seizing the means of production, extreme rent control and a major focus on redistribution of wealth. Layer on top of this his unwillingness to condemn the anti-Semitic concept of global intifada or say whether he believes Israel even has the right to exist as a Jewish state.

The die-hard democratic socialist has also made disturbing statements about the police, calling to defund the police and saying “police do not create safety … for many, many people across the city and the state, police actually create and amplify violence.” He also favors sending “crisis responders” instead of cops to handle domestic violence incidents.

It’s beginning to look like Democrats are facing a potential inflection moment for the soul of the party.

Part of the Democratic Party’s problem is its inability to find a charismatic, more mainstream leader to lead them out of the wilderness. But a bigger obstacle is their unwillingness to accept the rejection of Democratic progressive ideas at issue in the last election and now in NYC’s mayoral race — ideas represented by President Joe Biden’s unpopular move to the left over his four years in office.

The progressive wing has yet to understand the scale of the rejection by voters of the Biden policy agenda and its continued unpopularity, even with Biden in the rearview mirror.

But east of the Hudson, progressivism is apparently alive and well in the Big Apple, where Mamdani is more than doubling down on the Biden policies. He’s putting them on steroids. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is back in a major role in New York, playing kingmaker as Democratic leaders, financial titans and anti-Mamdani power brokers wring their hands. Liberal teachers and other unions are rushing to endorse the new Democratic flavor of the month, socialism, while much of the rest of the city bemoans their choices in this November’s election.

More chaos is the last thing New York City needs.

But the New York mayor’s contest isn’t the only important race up this fall. Two gubernatorial elections will also be decided in New Jersey and Virginia. Democrats are leading in both. That’s not unexpected, but one wonders how the two more traditional Democratic nominees — both women, both with experience in Congress, one a Navy vet and the other a former CIA officer — will fare with the media focus on Mamdani’s extreme positions.

A Mayor Mamdani would also be an unforced error by Democrats and a gift for Republicans in the upcoming 2026 congressional elections. This remains a center-right country, and a socialist agenda is not what voters are looking for. They made that clear in 2024. Mamdani’s focus on “affordability” is a smart play, but only if his solutions are based in reality, not a dorm room mentality bearing little resemblance to how the world works.

If Mamdani’s socialist policies become the national electorate’s view of the Democratic Party as a whole, it’s hard to see how the party digs itself out of its current hole. A New Yorker once joked, “There’s New York, and then there’s everybody else.” What he forgot was just how big “everybody else” is.

What plays in NYC may not play in Peoria — and most points west of the Hudson.

David Winston is the president of The Winston Group and a longtime adviser to congressional Republicans. He previously served as the director of planning for Speaker Newt Gingrich. He advises Fortune 100 companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and public policy issues, as well as serving as an election analyst for CBS News.