The Overton Window: Why Zohran Mamdani is a Blessing for Democrats
The new mayor of New York City may not be a candidate for Democrats nationally, but he can still be a blessing, especially for moderates.
Opinion
Democrats had a great night last Tuesday. Not only did California’s Redistricting Proposition pass with groundbreaking support, but Democratic Candidates also won crucial gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, both with strong margins. Mikie Sherrill won by 13 points in New Jersey, outperforming the polls that predicted a close race, and Abigail Spanberger ran 15 points ahead of her Republican opponent in Virginia, flipping the Governor’s mansion back to Democrats. Even in light of these successes, the star of the night was someone else: Zohran Mamdani. The 34-year-old won the race to become the new mayor of NYC after a long fight against the former Democratic Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani, a self-described socialist, is the new star for many on the Left.
Naturally, the election results sparked a discussion among Democrats. Some argued that Mandani’s successful outsider campaign against a well-known Governor of the Democratic establishment proves that left-wing ideas are appealing to voters, and that Democrats should adopt them nationally. Others point to New Jersey and Virginia, where moderate Democratic candidates exceeded all expectations, while Mamdani slightly underperformed the polls against a candidate with sexual assault allegations. This is also the argument that I find to be a tad stronger. Moderate Democrats had a great night, but I would nevertheless argue that they are also in desperate need of someone like Zohran Mamdani if they want to win big again. Why? Because of the most famous window of the Trump era: The Overton Window.
Trump Moved the Overton Window to his Side
The Overton window is a political construct used to analyze the political discourse. It describes the range of opinions and subjects that society views as acceptable. It usually includes opinions of the center, the left, and the right, but is limited at the window’s edges on the left and the right side. The opinions outside the window may range from just radical to extreme. When Donald Trump entered the political stage, the Overton window moved to the right.
Donald Trump almost consistently says outrageous and unthinkable things. From calling immigrants “vermin” to bragging about sexual assault. Many of his remarks can be placed in the “unthinkable” category on the right-wing edge of the graph. But Donald Trump was not some outside lunatic when he first voiced his unthinkable ideas to the entire nation; he was the Republican nominee for President, and as the political debate in the US shifted to the right-wing edge - towards Trump’s unthinkable remarks and ideas - the Overton window shifted as well.
Today, we are used to Trump, his MAGA colleagues in Congress, and their remarks that were once considered unimaginable. They still are vile in the eyes of a large share of the US electorate, but they have helped shift the narrative towards the conservative side. Calling Immigrants “vermin” may go too far, but it makes ideas like “mass deportations” sound more reasonable to voters. It becomes evident every time voters are confronted with a candidate who is not a MAGA conspiracy theorist.
When Haley gave Trump a run for his money in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary, she was viewed as the moderate choice compared to Trump. She led Biden by double digits in hypothetical polls. In a matchup with Kamala Harris, voters would have very likely viewed Haley as the more moderate or centrist candidate. That couldn’t be further from the truth, because before Trump shifted the Overton window towards Republicans, Nikki Haley was considered a conservative hardliner.
She supported anti-gay laws, wanted to bust unions, hike taxes for green companies while slashing them for the wealthy, cut social security, and much more. Enough to easily classify her as what she is, a conservative hardliner. Nikki Haley used to sit at the right-wing edge of the Overton window with her statements, one of which included a proposal to invade Mexico, but then came Trump. The President presents all Americans with such unthinkable ideas that Haley’s positions seem more moderate. Yes, she may want to attack worker’s rights and cut Medicare, but at least she doesn’t steal elections.
On the other side, Democrats suffer the opposite effect of the shift in the Overton window, and so do moderate Republicans.
Real moderate public figures, like President Joe Biden or fmr. Republican Gov. Chris Christie used to be near the center of the window, where most Americans see themselves. Now the window has moved, and it has led Americans to label these politicians as “too liberal.” Democrats tried to adapt in 2024 by moving their policy platform even further to the center. They courted the support of conservatives like Dick Cheney and even quoted Ronald Reagan, something that used to be unthinkable for a Democratic candidate. Both these men are, in fact, extreme conservatives, but in Trump’s era, they are just an old guard of moderates to the Republican base.
So what can the Democrats do, except move further to the right? The obvious solution would be to move the Overton window back to the center, but as explained before, it was the unthinkable and radical ideas that moved the window to the right in the first place. So, Democrats would need to enter extreme ideas from the left into the public debate to shift the window back to the center. That’s where Mr. Mamdani comes in.
Mamdani: A Blessing for Moderate Democrats?
First of all, I want to unequivocally say that I don’t believe Mr. Mamdani is an extremist. Fox News anchors and Republicans may label him a radical communist, but his platform clearly shows he’s not. He is a socialist, and in Europe, he might even be considered a social Democrat. Someone who wants to raise taxes on the rich, make buses free, and build housing. He’s on the left, but that’s where it ends. Most of Mamdani’s proposals are not, by any standards, extreme or unthinkable, and comparing him to Trump in that matter would be wrong. In America, however, someone like Mamdani is easily considered an extreme leftist by many voters, just because Trump shifted the Overton Window so far to the right.
While I believe that would make Mamdani, or any candidate with his platform, an unviable candidate for the national level, I do think that his ideas will become extremely valuable for Democrats. Not because they will necessarily adopt all his ideas - Polling showed that his ideas are popular with voters across the US. -, but because his ideas help shift the narrative back to the center and away from the far-right.
Be it Medicare for all, or taxing the rich. Americans like the ideas of Mamdani or Bernie Sanders, but they will remain ideas only if they stay out of the public debate. So Mamdani might be able to do what Bernie Sanders, a close ally of Mamdani, did ahead of the 2024 election. Sanders may have lost the primary to Biden, but his relentless push for his ideas that critics labeled as radical helped move the needle to the left. After winning the primary, Joe Biden ended up adopting many of Sanders’ ideas to different extents. He worked to erase college debt for millions of Americans, invested record sums in green energy, and worked with Sanders to cap exploding health care costs.
Someone like Mayor-elect Mamdani might not be the solution for Democrats on the national level, but the Democratic Party needs strong fighters on the left. Because if they don’t counter the Republicans’ increasingly radical platform, they risk having to battle an Overton Window of public perception that moves further and further to the right.