Former New York Gov. David Paterson (D) on Sunday compared Zohran Mamdani’s success as the city’s Democratic mayoral candidate to the political rise of President Trump a decade prior.
“The support that Mamdani is receiving … the number of people he’s registering, the number of people who go to his rallies … if I blinked my eyes 10 years ago, there was another person who was able to do that, and his name is Donald Trump, whose political ideology is the polar opposite of what Mamdani’s might be,” Paterson told host John Catsimatidis during the radio show “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM.
“It is demonstrating a new campaign style, where you speak as verbosely as possible … Donald Trump invented this,” he added.
Mamdani beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in the primary and has targeted disenfranchised voters, earning a large audience with progressive policies that include proposals for free rent, city-run grocery stores and costless childcare.
The measures have been heavily criticized by Republicans and establishment Democrats alike, who’ve all said the plans fall out of the scope of the mayorship.
“You don’t lead this city from a soapbox. You lead it with action, not rhetoric,” incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (D) said while kicking off his independent reelection bid.
However, Mamdani, who currently serves as a New York assemblymember, said his policies are more than possible.
“Freezing the rent, that’s not something that requires any fiscal output from the city. It’s something that’s determined by the Rent Guidelines board, composed of nine members. The mayor picks each of those members, they determine, each year whether rents rise or whether they stay the same,” Mamdani said during an appearance on CNN.
“A previous mayoral administration froze the rent three times. So, this has clear historical precedent,” he added.
While on the show, the Democratic socialist also explained how he plans to activiste city owned an operated grocery stores.
“City-run grocery stores. I proposed a pilot program of one store in each borough. These are five stores in total. The total cost of this is $60 million. This is less than half the cost of what the city is already sent to spend on a subsidy program for corporate supermarkets that has no guarantee of cheaper prices or collective bargaining agreements or even acceptance,” Mamdani said.
Paterson said the proposals are gaining traction early in the race and noted that Mamdani will be “a difficult candidate to beat” in November.
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