Teflon Zohran? Mamdani’s best friends were his opponents.

Zohran Mamdani ran on the populist message that New York City was being run for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. 

Now, with the dust settling and Mamdani headed for Gracie Mansion, it is pretty clear that his best helpers were the men running against him and their campaign teams. Again and again, they seemed determined to prove that he was right — that New York City was no longer a city for everyone.

Their relentless personal attacks had the boomerang effect of making you feel kind of bad for the guy, and quite possibly driving more voters his way.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) strategy wasn’t unlike the Democrats’ constant attacks on President Trump during the 2024 campaign — the fearmongering, charged labels like “fascist” or “Nazi,” the threats to move out of the country, the portrayal of him as an existential threat, the personal invective and gutter politics. All of it helped feed the populist resentment that in the end probably pushed more voters towards Trump.

Similarly, everything they’ve thrown at Mamdani has bounced back. Teflon Zohran?

Michael Bloomberg, Bill Ackman and friends raised tens of millions of dollars for Cuomo’s super PACs since July, a new record for outside spending. Weekends ago, they spent $3 million in two days. And they kept the pressure on to force Republican Curtis Sliwa out. 

For most voters, all this just confirms Mamdani’s diagnosis of the city’s political economy. Polls found Mamdani’s positions on affordability and left-leaning economic policies broadly supported across voter groups. And New Yorkers hate the influence of big money, especially when big money wants Trump to send in the National Guard if their candidate of choice loses the election. The candidate opposed by that donor class thus gains credibility.

Cuomo’s campaign produced an endless list of self-sabotages. One of his biggest gifts to Mamdani was famously accusing him of “occupying” a rent-stabilized apartment. He demanded Mamdani “move out,” and called him “disgusting.” 

But hang on — in retrospect, by arguing that his $2,300-a-month rent is “affordable,” Cuomo inadvertently proved Mamdani’s point that the city is unaffordable.

In a now-infamous radio interview, Cuomo asked listeners to “imagine Mamdani in the seat” if another 9/11 happened, then laughed along when the host joked that Mamdani would be cheering. It was an opportunity for Cuomo to show the kind of decency that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) displayed in 2008 when he pushed back against voters who suggested Barack Obama was a terrorist and then said he was an “Arab.” Cuomo, choosing alarmism, blew that opportunity.

And what possessed his team to release the AI “criminals for Zohran Mamdani” video depicting Mamdani supporters as the scum of the city? Bill Ackman called the ad “a bit of humor” and “worth a watch.”

Cuomo failed to absorb the big lesson from a year ago: The attempts made by Kamala Harris and all her supporters to suppress the Trump vote — demonizing him, dragging him through court battles — empowered him, fueled his campaign, and drove him to victory. Harris never fought on the issues. Trump’s rhetoric about immigration, the economy, and woke ideology appealed to voters.

Cuomo’s campaign only proved what Mamdani tried to dislodge: the failing status quo of the Democratic Party. Paranoia and personal attack, time and again, fail. Here, it gave Mamdani credibility with the working-class voters of the city’s Democratic electorate who, although not uniformly left-leaning, are acutely aware of who benefits from the current system.

Mamdani campaigned to unify. Days before the election, he tried his hand at Tai Chi with seniors on the Lower East Side. “[They’re] the ones facing so many of the pressures of this affordability crisis,” he said. 

Meanwhile, at an upscale event in Tribeca, Cuomo warned that New York City “won’t survive a Mamdani victory.”

Democrats will figure that many voters were just anti-Cuomo, or duped by populism, or otherwise misled — that they didn’t attack, attack, attack hard enough. (Maybe New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Cuomo should have hosted a joint Hamptons cocktail fundraiser.) 

But the real reason was that Mamdani campaigned for a counterculture, and that Democrats need to speak more directly to the working class. This will continue to vex the party establishment. When Cuomo’s team touted a donor surge after Adams dropped out of the race, Mamdani replied, “While I’m fighting for Eric Adams’ voters, Andrew Cuomo is fighting for Eric Adams’ donors.”

May all the richies and real-estate power brokers behind the Cuomo PACs rest easy. We’ll see what Cuomo has to say about them in his inevitable “107 Days”-style book tour.

William Liang is a writer living in San Francisco.