But the broader landscape suggests that the establishment is short on ideas and energy, while the populist left is brimming with both. As Cohen noted, the establishment loves to fixate on the rough edges of insurgent candidates, but it's not like the figures they've rallied around in recent years — Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Andrew Cuomo — have been charismatic or free of baggage. For now, the Democratic electorate is forgiving of newcomers who bring energy and new ideas, and suspicious of anyone who smacks of the old guard.
Perhaps then several major Democrats did Mamdani a favor by not endorsing him even after he won the party primaries, most notably New York's two U.S. senators. Kristen Gillibrand, who apologized for Islamophobic remarks she made shortly after he won the Democratic primary, was not in the race, while Chuck Schumer, the party's Senate leader, highly recommended that he did not vote for the Democratic candidate at all. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents one of the Brooklyn districts, proposed only lukewarm approval late last month. Whether any of this bothered Mamdani, he did not show it – but it is likely that among most of his core supporters, such a cold attitude only confirmed why they supported him in the first place. Few Democrats vote for Mamdani out of a desire to see him play well with the likes of Schumer.
This is where the Tea Party analogy may be most compelling—at least, I'm sure it will be. In 2014 the base is still boiling expelled House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican congressman from Virginia who has positioned himself as the party's leader new erain favor right-wing populist who taught economics in college. Democrats' anger at Jeffries and Schumer has cooled somewhat since the shutdown, but Jeffries, who is up for re-election next fall, is likely to face a dynamic challenger backing Mamdani in the coming weeks. Schumer, meanwhile, may already be sweating at the prospect of meeting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as his 2028 re-election approaches.
