Mamdani to Democrats: Campaign on Delivering Affordability, Then Deliver Quick

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took to social media to announce the beginning of his expansion of universal child care. He pledged to save families $20,000 per year. 

On day 8 of our Administration, @governor.ny.gov and I announced the beginning of universal childcare in NYC. No longer will New Yorkers be forced to choose between starting a family and continuing to live in the city they love. This only happened because of you.

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) 2026-01-10T00:59:39.721Z

Democratic Socialist Mamdani must work with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a traditional Democrat, to enact his plans for expanding pre-K and 3-K services. The effort is pulling Hochul to the left and shows that Mamdani can work with more conservative Democrats to deliver on the affordability promise for New Yorkers. 

Rachel Cohen Booth covered Mamdani’s child care plans prior to the inauguration. She described the possibilities and the pitfalls involved in delivering child care services at this scale.  

The mayor’s three main campaign promises were free universal child care, a rent freeze on rent-controlled apartments, and fast and free bus service. Now we’ll watch how long it takes to appoint a pro-tenant majority to the Rent Guidelines Board so that he can freeze the rents. As far as delivering on fast and free bus services, Mamdani must wrangle with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The MTA is controlled by the state legislature and the governor. The cost to the MTA budget for free bus rides would be $600 million per year. Replacing that income is a sticking point for delivering on this promise. 

All of these efforts will attract opponents who want to see Mamdani fail for political reasons. 

Republicans, some Democrats, and certain factions in the business community want the mayor to fail, to prove in general that providing government services doesn’t work. In considering free buses and free child care, the word “free” is what bothers the opposition the most. 

The young mayor seems poised to rely on his network of almost 100,000 activist supporters to help him fight entrenched interest groups. When Barack Obama rode to victory in 2008 on the backs of a huge organized base, he didn’t ask them to do anything except to give money after he assumed office. He leveraged his coalition to win the election, but not to govern. It will be fascinating to see whether Mamdani can leverage his supporters to help him govern. 

Mamdani also ran on opening city-owned grocery stores in food deserts. This very reasonable proposal was painted by Mamdani’s establishment opposition as communism. Perhaps this is why candidate Mamdani stopped pressing this issue and closed his campaign promoting only the three main campaign promises cited above. But don’t be surprised if the mayor finds a way to deliver on this promise as well. 

Establishment Democrats like David Plouffe and Rahm Emanuel have been adopting Mamdani’s affordability message. It’s a sign that they recognize now that Bernie Sanders has been right about so much and that Mamdani has shown how focusing on the real needs of voters is a winning approach. 

The marriage of conservatism and neo-liberalism brought us 45 years of wealth transfer from the 99 percent to the 1 percent. 

Our ridiculous health care system is designed to enrich corporations at the expense of citizens. Middlemen skim profits while denying claims and increasing costs. Our Department of Defense can’t pass an audit. So many of the government’s activities are shrouded in secrecy. Elected representatives are cashing in on their service by practicing insider stock trading. By some mysterious mechanism, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s net worth “increased from $700,000 before she joined Congress to approximately $22 million today,” according to Yahoo Finance. 

Voters are sick of it all. 

Can the Democrats recognize the opportunities before them and follow the path lit by Mamdani and Sanders? Who will take up this change-agent mantle? Will it be a person of conviction or a corporate opportunist looking to co-opt the message?  

While you’re here enjoying DonkeyHotey’s latest cartoon, please take a moment to read these articles on related topics: 

• In Spite of Scrutiny and Sabotage, Zohran Mamdani Must Succeed
• In Topsy-Turvy World, Trump Drives MTG from Congress and Embraces Mamdani
• Other DonkeyHotey cartoons

The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Zohran Mamdani caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 2.0) and classroom (German Gomez / Pixabay).