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As Zohran Mamdani declared victory in New York City, former DNC vice chair David Hogg told Fox News Digital that Democrats heading into the midterms should focus on restoring voters’ faith in the American Dream.
After losing up and down the ballot in 2024, Democrats secured victories in the most-watched races of this off-year election cycle — from a socialist shockwave in New York City, Democratic-led redistricting success in California and gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia.
“No other city is like New York City,” Hogg said Tuesday night. “No other state is like Virginia or New Jersey. The lesson that will be learned here tonight is not that every policy in New York should be replicated around the country. It’s that listening and telling voters what you are actually going to do to lower prices works.”
The former DNC vice chair, who stirred up a Democratic Party rift earlier this year when he vowed to invest millions to primary older, incumbent Democrats in blue congressional districts, was among those celebrating Mamdani’s success in New York City’s high-stakes mayoral election Tuesday night.
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“Having a clear message, asking them what you can do for them and wanting to genuinely serve them and actually delivering on that, does work,” Hogg told Fox News Digital.
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New York City’s mayoral race exposed an ideological and generational divide within the Democratic Party.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from office in 2021 amid multiple controversies, including several sexual harassment allegations which he has denied, was staged to land his political comeback this year.
But plan was interrupted when Mamdani shocked the political establishment and won the Democratic primary in June.
A self-described democratic socialist, Mamdani will be New York City’s youngest mayor in more than a century. His campaign focused on affordability, vowing to deliver fast and free buses, free childcare, rent freezes and city-run grocery stores to New York City.
“The truth is, there’s a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now,” Cuomo told Fox News last week. “You have an extreme left. Radical left. Bernie Sanders, AOC — Mamdani is just the banner carrier for that movement — versus the mainstream moderate Democrats.”
Hogg, who endorsed Mamdani’s campaign ahead of the primary, told Fox News Digital that Mamdani’s success signals less about socialism and more about how to run a successful campaign.
“I think the lesson you learn here is not about policy, it is about tactics,” he said. “It’s about listening. It’s about clearly communicating what you’re going to do to actually address voters’ main concerns, and in New York City that may be somebody that’s a lot more to the left, like Zohran, but in Virginia maybe somebody who is a lot more moderate, like Abigail. I think that’s totally fine.”
Heading into the midterm elections, Hogg said Democrats “need to show voters how we are the party of the working class by talking about policies that directly address the economy and making their life easier.”
“What this election is about is making the American Dream possible again,” Hogg said.
Hogg was ousted as DNC vice chair earlier this year following a procedural challenge to his candidacy, which came on the heels of announcing his outside political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, would invest $20 million into primary challenges against incumbent Democrats he claimed were “asleep at the wheel.”
“While this vote was based on how the DNC conducted its officers’ elections, which I had nothing to do with, it is also impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote,” Hogg said in May.
Hundreds of supporters celebrated Mamdani’s win at the Brooklyn Paramount theater on Tuesday night, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Attorney General Letitia James, actress Cynthia Nixon, anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil and Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza.
Mamdani will be the first millennial mayor of the nation’s largest city. He made strategic use of social media throughout his campaign, including TikTok, to build a recognizable brand and motivate a swath of low-propensity voters.
Like President Donald Trump in 2024, Mamdani centered his mayoral campaign on affordability, vowing to deliver a New York City that voters could actually afford to live in.
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