How Working Class South Asians Organized To Elect Zohran Mamdani

FEATURING JAGPREET SINGH - Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor was a massive political earthquake, one that establishment forces have been analyzing since the primary election in June.

Was it his “easy charisma, youthful good looks and exuberant style” as the New York Times wondered? Or was it that his message galvanized the often-overlooked residents of a city that is increasingly out of reach of working class people? 

Jagpreet Singh is the Political Director for DRUM Beats and in an in-depth interview, he examines how and why South Asian voters in New York City mobilized for Mamdani and what lessons the election holds for the rest of the nation.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Welcome to the program Jagpreet. 

Jagpreet Singh: Hi Sonali. Thank you so much for having me on. It's a pleasure to be on your show. 

Kolhatkar: So, to explain the beginning of the connection between Zohran, Mamdani and DRUM Beats and the South Asian organizers in New York City… Obviously he comes from, you know, South Asian royalty, if you will, in that he's the son of Mira Nair, the celebrated filmmaker, and Mahmood Mamdani, the celebrated academic. But was this a match right from the beginning or did one woo the other? 

Singh: Yeah, so we've had a relationship at DRUM and our organization DRUM Beats with Zohran Mamdani for quite some time since he's been an assembly member in Astoria. Initially one of the first actions that he took on as an Assembly Member was a hunger strike for taxi drivers here in New York City, and a large portion of these working class taxi drivers come from South Asian Indo Caribbean backgrounds, had approached Zohran about the crushing debt many of these drivers were facing. 

And throughout the campaign, Zohran worked with the taxi drivers, our organization got involved. So many of our members are also taxi drivers, and together they had come up with a plan to challenge the mayor to make sure that there was debt relief. And Zohran actually took on a 14-day hunger strike at that point, alongside some of our members and members of Taxi Workers Alliance, a campaign that we ultimately had won.