Zohran Mamdani sharply criticizes Democratic Party as he rallies with progressive challengers | CNN Politics

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made one of his sharpest calls yet for change in the Democratic Party on Thursday night as he rallied with his slate of progressive congressional candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries. “For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said at a rally headlined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “It has seen its job as explaining why we cannot instead of showing how we can, and that old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.” “When does the race for 2028 begin?” he added. “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.” Mamdani’s insistence that the Democratic Party as it currently exists will be unable to win a presidential election again marks a new line of critique for the 34-year-old democratic socialist, whose anti-establishment campaign last year broke new ground for the progressive movement. “People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party. This sl