Why this Detroit lawmaker is in NYC for Zohran Mamdani

Former state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck, says the New York City mayoral candidate's campaign is showing what's possible in Democratic politics.

NY Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and Detroit’s Abraham Aiyash. Photo: Abraham Aiyash

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is getting help from politicians from Detroit and across the country ahead of the city’s Democratic primary election on Tuesday.

Abraham Aiyash, a former Michigan state representative, spent last weekend in New York to support Mamdani. The NYC mayoral candidate appeared in a video Aiyash posted to social media Saturday, encouraging those in Detroit who want to help his campaign sign up to phone bank.

“We’ve made 500,000 calls so far, supporters across the country,” Mamdani told Aiyash.

A Democratic socialist, Mamdani’s is surging in the polls thanks to an army of volunteers and a social media savvy campaign.

His snappy videos featuring trendy edits and memes have taken over young people’s timelines in recent weeks.

“You can just tweet “Zohran Mamdani” and immediately get 1000 likes,” one person said.

While some Democrats ran away from Twitter to a more comfortable, less confrontational alternatives, Mamdani’s videos are going viral on the platform. Videos of the candidate walking the length of Manhattan last week, dapping up locals and running into excited supporters, was an engagement trap for fans and opponents.

“Zohran’s campaign shows us how it is possible to excite working people and their struggle when you center them and their issues not just in New York, but in urban cores all over the country,” Aiyash told me on Monday. “In Detroit, we have so much potential to make this the most affordable city in the Midwest if our leaders put people focused priorities - like affordable and accessible housing, transit, and childcare - ahead of billionaire and corporate developer interests.”

A Mamdani win in NYC’s June 24 primary election would provide a template for progressive candidates across the nation. He’s promised to lower the cost of living, make city bares fares free and build rent-stabilized new housing. Democrats in Michigan, home of America’s largest Arab American population, are watching closely.

Mamdani’s campaign is energizing the left-wing of the Democratic Party at a time when leaders are desperate for a winning strategy. Progressives received major criticism from Democratic leaders following Kamala Harris’ election loss.

The post election takeaway from older, moderate Democrats was that the championing of progressive values within the party’s mainstream tarnished its reputation. But voters left of the party blame Harris’ centrist messaging and appeals to conservatives.

Aiyash says Mamdani is a friend he’s known since he lived in NYC for a short while.

“He was the one that organized the hunger strike outside the White House in November 2023 that I participated in,” Aiyash said. “And obviously, we have similar politics.”

Aiyash decided not to run for reelection in 2024 after serving Hamtramck as Michigan’s first Arab American Majority Floor Leader. He is considering a bid for an open state Senate seat.

Mamdani would be NYC’s first Muslim mayor if elected in November.