Republicans are sounding the alarm on the New York City mayoral election, convinced that democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is on track to win—and scrambling to stop it.
With polls showing the 34-year-old leading comfortably, GOP operatives have shifted from mocking his candidacy to searching for any lever that might derail it.
President Donald Trump raised the temperature in the mayoral race Tuesday morning.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani greets supporters upon at a mayoral debate on Oct. 16.
The post marked a new low in the final hours of the campaign, underscoring how much the race has rattled Republicans from New York to Washington.
And GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee—who previously urged the Justice Department to investigate Mamdani and even floated the idea of deporting him—came out with more racist attacks against Mamdani on Monday.
“The 14th Amendment may allow Congress the authority to BAN Mamdani from office. I am looking into this,” he wrote on X.
Ogles’ warning followed an effort by the New York Young Republican Club to bar Mamdani from taking office if he wins. The group pointed to the 14th Amendment, banning anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”—a claim that legal scholars widely dismissed as baseless.
“There is a real and legitimate push to see the insurrectionist Zohran Mamdani either a) removed from the ballot or b) removed from office if he is to win,” Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club, told the New York Post.
Even governors are joining in on the political theater. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joked that he’d “impose a 100% tariff” on New Yorkers moving to Texas if Mamdani wins.
The panic has reached the top of the GOP food chain. Late Monday, Trump broke with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo—a Democrat running as an independent after losing his party’s nomination in June.
The logic was simple: Trump, along with tech billionaire Elon Musk, argued that a split on the right would hand Mamdani the mayoralty.
“A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, and Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani (left to right) participate in a mayoral debate on Oct. 16.
It was an unlikely moment—a Republican president and a Democrat-turned-independent governor suddenly uniting against a democratic socialist frontrunner. But for Republicans, Mamdani’s rise has transformed the mayor’s race into a national fight over the future of urban politics.
Regardless, Mamdani seemed unfazed. During a campaign event in Astoria on Monday, he said he’d long expected Trump to intervene.
“In these final days, what was rumored, what was feared, has become naked and unabashed,” he said, according to The New York Times. “The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him—not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration.”
And polls back up Mamdani’s confidence. A Nov. 2 Atlas Intel survey gave him 44% support, compared to 39% for Cuomo and 16% for Sliwa—a decisive lead heading into Election Day.
Beneath the polling lies a deeper Republican worry. With more than 735,000 New Yorkers already casting early ballots, GOP strategists fear that Mamdani’s rise could become more than a local upset; it could signal a broader progressive resurgence heading into the 2026 midterms.
Both Cuomo and Sliwa have tried to position themselves as the counterweight to that tide. On Monday evening, Cuomo brushed off Trump’s endorsement altogether.
“He called me a bad Democrat,” he said. “First of all, I happen to be a good Democrat and a proud Democrat, and I’m going to stay a proud Democrat.”
Mamdani at his primary election party on June 25.
Later that night, he took a more direct aim at his rival.
“When Mamdani is smiling, he’s lying,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani’s campaign, fueled by an army of volunteers and small donors, has proven hard to match. His agenda—freezing rents, expanding public transit, and creating city-owned grocery stores—has resonated with working-class and young voters who are frustrated by the city’s inequality and high cost of living.
Still, many New York Democratic leaders have kept their distance. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have remained silent, and Cuomo’s endorsement from outgoing Mayor Eric Adams injected a last-minute burst of establishment energy into the race’s final stretch.
But the bigger story heading into Election Day is the one unfolding on the right: a full-blown panic that a democratic socialist could soon govern the nation’s largest city. For the GOP, the stakes are existential. A Mamdani victory wouldn’t just shift New York’s politics leftward, but it could also mark a generational turning point for Democrats across the country.
As polls close Tuesday night, one thing is certain: This race has become a proxy fight for America’s political identity. And the Republican panic may be the clearest sign yet of which way the wind is blowing.
