Zoomers and Millennials have transformed public policy into an endless wish list
Zohran Mamdani’s presumptive victory will make history: if elected in November, he will become New York’s first Muslim and first Indian-American mayor. Powering his win in the Democratic primaries was a massive surge of young, urban, progressive voters changing the city’s political future. But beneath the energy and hope lies something more troubling: a generational embrace of a politics of entitlement, poised to undermine not only the city’s finances but also the values that have historically bound together American civic life.
The city’s youth voting base turned out in force: voters aged 18–29 gave Mamdani the win. Mamdani outperformed opponent Andrew Cuomo by an average of 13 points in counties with median incomes above $117,000; conversely, Cuomo dominated in lower-income areas. The Mamdani voters are also mostly college educated, as he won 60 percent of the vote of four-year-college graduates. Most surprising, Mamdani beat Cuomo by 18 points among native New Yorkers.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Spectator (paywall)
______________________
Santiago Vidal Calvo is a Cities policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Vilda Westh Blanc is a Collegiate Associate at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
