Progressive NYC mayor candidate Mamdani gains traction with free-services promises

Pledging a slate of free programs and services during his campaign for New York City mayor, democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani has propelled himself to be among the top candidates, even threatening the highly favored former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Mamdani’s campaign has gained significant traction in the New York City mayoral race. The Democratic primary election is on Tuesday, but results are not expected tonight due to the city’s ranked choice voting system complicating the balloting and vote counting.

Currently a New York state assemblyman, Mamdani has gained some recognition through endorsements from big-name figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. However, he has also gained notoriety in his own right due to a platform chock-full of free services that he has promised New York residents.

Mamdani has said he will fund his promised services by raising an extra $10 billion in city revenue by raising taxes on corporations and the top 1% wealthiest New Yorkers.

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A look through Mamdani’s platform, available on his campaign website, lives up to his socialist affiliation and Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez‘s endorsements.

He has promised to immediately freeze rent prices for more than 2 million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, implement free public transit, create a network of city-owned grocery stores that are “focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit” and institute free universal childcare for children from ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

He has also promised to create a New York City Department of Community Safety that he says will deploy outreach workers in 100 subway stations, expand gun violence prevention programs, and increase funding to “hate violence prevention programs” by 800%.

Mamdani has also pledged to champion a law to raise the minimum wage in New York City to $30 an hour by 2030.

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New York City mayoral candidates Brad Lander and Zorhan Mamdani appeared on “The Late Show” on the eve of the Democratic rank-choice primary. (Screenshot/CBS)

Another major…