How Zohran Mamdani Is Winning And What Labour Must Learn
Mamdani has yet to fully implement the cost of living policies that catapulted him into the Mayoralty, but he has maintained and expanded support while actively building them out.
βAmong those registered voters who voted in the November mayoral election, Mamdaniβs support is stronger, with a net 26-point positive approval rating (55% approve, 29% disapprove), compared to a more modest nine-point net positive rating among those who did not vote (35% approve, 26% disapprove),β
Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling
He has grown support despite not delivering policy by cultivating a strong following among working class and young activists by intentionally breaking with mayoral traditions:
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The Met Gala Boycott:Β His decision to skip the Met Gala to instead highlight garment and warehouse workersΒ on social media went viral. On Instagram, his tribute to the workers who “keep the industry running” received nearly 60,000 likes, with supporters calling it “pure class” and “actual culture.”
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May Day Celebration:Β He became the first mayor in over a century to officially celebrate International Workers’ Day, delivering a rally speech in Washington Square Park that focused on taxing the wealthiestΒ and expanding union power.
The challenge now isnβt whether Mamdani understands the crisis. Itβs whether these interventions can be rolled out fast enough to match the sheer level of economic pain working people are experiencing.
Mamdani understands the cost of living crisis is political
Whatβs remarkable is that Mamdani already understands symbolism alone isnβt enough. Unlike performative liberal politicians obsessed with branding, Mamdani has spent months developing practical cost-of-living infrastructure designed to directly confront corporate greed.
And unlike most centre-left politicians who endlessly βconsultβ while people struggle, Mamdani is already rolling out publicly backed supermarkets across New Yorkβs boroughs, with city-owned grocery stores planned for each borough to challenge corporate supermarket monopolies and lower food prices.
Think about how radical that is in 2026.
While neoliberal governments all over the Western world insist the βmarket knows bestβ, Mamdani is openly arguing that affordable food is too important to be left entirely in the hands of massive corporations driven purely by profit.
Heβs treating food security as public infrastructure.
Thatβs why the idea resonates so deeply with working people.
Because everyone understands the supermarket duopoly is ripping them off.
Everyone understands corporations have used inflation as cover for price gouging.
And everyone understands governments have largely stood by and done nothing while families sink deeper into desperation.
Mamdani is proving there is another option:
- Use the power of the State to directly compete against monopoly power.
- Lower prices.
- Expand access.
- Force the private sector to stop exploiting people.
Thatβs not βextremismβ.
Thatβs government remembering what itβs supposed to do.
And ordinary people understand immediately why that matters.
Because when inflation bites, when rents explode, when power prices rise and when wages flatline, nobody cares about Treasury jargon or neoliberal sermons about βmarket confidenceβ. They care whether they can feed their kids.
Thatβs why Mamdaniβs support keeps growing.
Not because he has implemented every promise yet, but because voters believe he is genuinely trying to fight for them against concentrated wealth and corporate power.
That authenticity matters.
Especially to younger voters who have inherited a rigged economic system where home ownership is fantasy, stable employment is collapsing, climate change is accelerating and billionaire wealth keeps exploding while everyone else drowns in debt.
Mamdani speaks to that anger instead of pretending it doesnβt exist.
And crucially, he offers solutions that materially improve peopleβs lives.
Not tax tweaks.
Not focus-grouped slogans.
Not empty managerial politics.
Actual interventions.
Thatβs the difference.
Mamdani is treating inequality like an emergency.
Most centre-left parties now treat inequality like an unfortunate side effect of the market.
Voters can feel the difference immediately.
This is the lesson Labour still refuses to learn
Look at how heavily hit whΔnau are by the current levels of inequality and poverty generated by the cost of living crisis in New Zealand.
We need universal public services to counter poverty and inequality by guaranteeing a baseline level of dignity and security, alongside new ones like:
- Longer parental leave that can be accessed by a direct family member.
- Nationalising ECE so working mums and dads arenβt paying an arm and a leg just to go to work.
- Free public transport to subsidise workers, cut emissions and free up roads.
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Iwi/State-backed supermarket chains in every major city to directly compete against the supermarket duopoly and permanently lower food prices.
- Free breakfast and lunch in every school.
This is what the modern Left should sound like.
Confident enough to use the power of the State.
Bold enough to confront monopolies.
Ambitious enough to build universal public services people can actually feel in their daily lives.
Because the Right understands something Labour still struggles with: politics is emotional before it is intellectual.
People support leaders who make them feel seen.
People support movements that reduce fear.
And right now millions of New Zealanders are terrified.
Terrified of rent.
Terrified of grocery bills.
Which is why ideas like publicly backed supermarket chains resonate so strongly.
People are sick of being trapped between corporate monopolies fixing prices while politicians stand around shrugging their shoulders.
Terrified of losing jobs.
Terrified their children will never own homes or live securely.
Mamdani isnβt winning because heβs βfar Leftβ. Heβs winning because he is materially confronting the cost of living crisis while other politicians are still commissioning reports about it.
Heβs winning because he is offering working people relief while openly naming the billionaires, monopolies and corporate interests making life harder.
That clarity is powerful.
And if Labour wants to survive Election 2026, it needs to stop sounding like cautious accountants managing decline and start sounding like a movement willing to materially improve peopleβs lives again.
Because hope beats austerity every single time.
People donβt want miracles.
They want rent they can afford.
Food that doesnβt bankrupt them.
Childcare that doesnβt consume an entire wage packet.
Public transport that works.
Time with their kids.
Security.
Dignity.
Mamdani understands that.
The question is whether Labour does.
Every time I see an image of Mandamiβs kind and smiling face, his election to office and his enactment of his policies I get a ray of hope. We lost such a figure when Efeso Collins died. Who will take his place in NZ politics.
Does Labour understand? No they do not.
This is what worries me. That Labour has lost touch with all its basics.
University education is good, but they aren’t in parliament just to represent the tertiary educated. They must bite the bullet and become pro-union, pro-worker.
They need the numbers too. They need to appeal to as many as they can.
They need to start talking policy now for those people to give it plenty of time to sink in.
Anyone in Labour who has work experience beyond university and parliament must come forward and be seen as advocating for ordinary New Zealanders, the people who have to get their hands dirty and get no perks.
What Labour must learn before the election.
Quite frankly the Labour party is about as far away from Mamdani and what he campaigned on and is implementing they might as well be on the moon.
Mamdani’s policies will never be allowed the air supply to ever be implemented in the safest unregulated capitalist nation on earth let alone surviving the right wing execution squad that is rolled out anytime its suggested that perhaps our economic system should be reformed to benefit everyone or there is the slightest hint of a progressive thought or idea is given serious consideration.
Post the general election in November or sooner once thing is certain. A vote for what you think is center left will still continue to be a vote for the status quo that is failing you and so many other whanau.
2023’s then Labour government ( with an historic majority ) did not implement or reform the economy in the interests of working people. Their answer to the severity of the cost of living rises was GST off your avocado’s and onions. And the then PM Hipkins had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even permit that as a policy he would support.
If the current regime survives for a second term it will be down to the failure of a credible real left progressive alternative that delivered this atrocious government in the first place.
We need a Green /Bown government to get anywhere close to this .Tax cuts are the last thing we need as they just lead to the mass sackings we are seeing now and increased poverty .
US corporate Democrats haven’t learned a damn thing from him, and I doubt if our equivalent β whatever that is β will learn anything either.
This election year, any time a politician says Tax Cut. Agree!
No GST On Food.
That was not a good call by Labour in 23 and will not work this time around ,
Reckon about 90% of the population would welcome ‘no gst on food’.
Every government for the last 40 years should be ashamed they taxed groceries.
This govt gave tax cuts to wealthy landlords and continued to tax the food of the poorest among us. (Sorry not the poorest among us, not bottom feeders, but lotto winners.)