New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate election victory in Michigan “is one that means so much to so many.”
El-Sayed, who will become the first Muslim U.S. senator in history, toppled former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in what was one of the most-watched contests of the election.
“I haven’t spoken to him yet. I’m sure he is quite busy. I’ve had the privilege of speaking to him in the past, and I have to say that his election is one that means so much to so many,” Mamdani said Wednesday.
“And to see to see that victory in the face that all that he had to reckon with over the course of that campaign, whether in terms of the extraordinary amount of money spent to oppose him or the racism and slander that he was met with on a daily basis, it is incredibly exciting to see as he said last night, that the good guys won,” Mamdani added.
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Mamdani added that “what last night showed us is that Americans are tired of being told that their needs are unrealistic by politicians who have been bought by the wealthiest people in the country.
“This country has elected a new generation of leadership, a generation with a mandate to lower the cost of living, to build, not bomb, to never betray the working people who entrusted them with power,” he added. “And I hear often that the politics that we’re fighting for here in New York City are not possible outside of city limits. And what last night showed us is that working people are the majority, whether we are speaking of Austin or Ann Arbor or Astoria, and it is time to put those same people first in our politics and last night shows us that it’s possible to do so all across the country.”
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Democrats regained control of the House and Senate during Tuesday’s midterm elections, but Mamdani said that “it is not enough for us as Democrats to win power.
“We have to use that power to deliver change that Americans can feel in their wallets,” he continued. “And to me, when you look at these campaigns, if we want to speak about James Talarico, he campaigned on a vision for universal childcare. If you want to talk about Keisha Lance Bottoms, well she campaigned on a vision of cutting red tape, to actually be able to build housing at the speed that’s needed.
“If you want to talk about Jocelyn Benson, she campaigned on a moratorium for data centers. These, to me, are examples of the kind of specifics. But again, what I’m excited to see now is a recognition that the work is only just starting and that this has to be delivered for working people across the country,” Mamdani declared.