To the absolute surprise of no one, mayor elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani has become the primary target of the conservative media nutosphere.
New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, hasn’t taken office yet. But he’s already the new avatar of evil for conservative media figures.
He’s been called “downright sinister” and “incompatible with America.” His labels include commie, Marxist, jihadist sympathizer and “seething leftist.” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham warned her viewers not to be fooled by “smiling socialists who rule like Soviet tyrants.”
A New York Post post-election cover that depicted Mamdani holding aloft the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle symbol sold out on newsstands by noon and was offered on e-Bay for $75. By the end of the day, the Post was selling baby onesies and commemorative plates emblazoned with the cover.
Already, conservative outlets see Mamdani joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton as someone guaranteed to make their audiences’ blood boil. And by doing so, they can help Republicans in the midterm elections.
“It’s very clear that he’s going to be the No. 1 target of right-wing media for the foreseeable future, well into 2026,” said Howard Polskin, publisher of the Righting, a newsletter that follows conservative media. “He’s colorful, controversial and not afraid of a fight.”
The new bogeyman for conservative media
The head of an outlet that Polskin regularly monitors, the Daily Signal, said Mamdani is likely seen as a threat because his appeal to working-class Americans who feel left behind by the economy is similar to that of President Donald Trump, although they have different ideas about how to handle that.
“Remember years ago there was Nancy Pelosi who was the bogeyman for Republicans,” said Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. “I think Mamdani is probably going to be the new person. I think that’s why you see a lot of emphasis on him in conservative media.”
In the Washington Examiner, editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon saw ominous signs in Mamdani’s election night victory speech. “He was downright sinister, glorying not just in his achievement but in having laid low his vanquished enemies and stuck it to others besides. He took off his smiling campaign mask and revealed his venomous self,” Gurdon wrote.
Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt called Mamdani the “mayor for the foreign-born. We have flooded the country with diversity, and diversity delivered us Zohran.” In an interview, Schmitt said he wasn’t quite ready to anoint Mamdani as a deliberate target for the conservative media.
“A go-to bogeyman makes it sound like it’s manufactured,” he told The Associated Press, “whereas we are just appropriately concerned about people that are spewing or trying to push an ideology that is destined to not work.”
The Post recognized Mamdani as a target of interest well before the election. Between Oct. 27 and Nov. 5, he was the subject of seven of the tabloid’s covers. One, headlined “Mam-Child,” depicted Mamdani in a little boy’s overalls to illustrate a column warning that the city wasn’t a toy to hand to a “baby like Zohran.” Another front page blared “Not Zo Fast” to herald a tightening race in the polls. Election Day’s lead headline was “Trump to New York: Keep the Commie Out.”