Zohran Mamdani and the Future of Free Enterprise – What Are We Missing?
Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory in New York was a watershed moment – and a clear sign of the need for the kind of policy innovation FREOPP offers on critical issues.
As you are undoubtedly already aware, a few weeks ago, a little-known state representative named Zohran Mamdani shocked the political world by winning the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City.
The reaction since then from people who consider themselves supporters of America’s free-market system has been a combination of disgust, confusion, anger, or simply hand-waving away another progressive victory in a deep-blue jurisdiction.
As we head into the slow days of the “August recess” in the policy and political arena, I think it’s a good time for introspection, and to ask ourselves, “what are we missing?”
Zohran Mamdani is no ordinary Democrat—or even New York progressive. He has expressed countless views far to the left of even the most extreme mainstream national Democratic figures. He is on record supporting everything from government-owned grocery stores to abolishing private property to—in his own words—“seizing the means of production.”
It is worth noting that, despite Mamdani’s constant class warfare rhetoric, he performed better among wealthier, college-educated voters than among lower-income, non-college voters. That suggests that many elite progressives liked the sound of his ideas, while many of those who have the most at stake in them saw through them.
But even if we caveat that he only won a Democratic primary in a very Democratic city with low voter turnout, we must grant that he clearly has a level of appeal that should be shocking given the abhorrent historical record of the policies he supports. Mamdani ran a sophisticated and effective campaign, but he also ran on issues that a significant portion of the electorate sees as critical to the ability of poor and working-class people to get ahead.
And clearly, good ideas on these issues are failing to penetrate in areas where they are needed most: major urban centers that have been roundly failed for decades by progressive, bureaucratic, special interest-driven policies—hurting those who need help the most.
The free-market movement has simply done an inadequate job of working on these issues and advancing solutions for key audiences.
This is where FREOPP comes in. On issue after issue that Mamdani ran on, our scholars have developed market-oriented solutions that would specifically improve the lives of the bottom half of Americans, whereas Mamdani’s ideas would make them worse.
On housing, in our “Affordable Housing in the 21st Century” paper, FREOPP scholars spelled out in detail how to expand supply and lower costs, with ideas such as tying federal aid to local supply-side reforms; moving away from government-funded housing projects toward more flexible vouchers; and several ways to improve housing finance to allow the market to lower costs.
On homelessness, in “Reimagining the Policy Approach to Homelessness,” Michael Tanner offers several solutions to clean up America’s streets while providing the homeless with the care they need – whether that means voluntary or involuntary institutionalization, mental health care, or substance abuse treatment. Tanner notes that these proposals should be coupled with state and local experimentation and housing reforms, as well.
On health care, FREOPP has previously helped write the only free-market health care reform legislation in Congress that would result in universal coverage, the Fair Care Act – providing every American with coverage and access to care that works for them at a price point that works for patients and taxpayers alike.
On education, FREOPP has tirelessly advocated for greater choice and parental control in K-12 education as a critical vehicle to improve outcomes for students from low-income families, and led the way on higher education reform, proposing alternatives to “free community college,” reforms to reduce the cost of college and allow more low-income Americans to attend, and critically – an innovative workforce development agenda to equip those who choose not to attend college.
Finally, on poverty and upward mobility, our scholars have produced unique research and analysis on everything from innovating the social safety net to help more people at lower cost, to fixing broken incentives in the welfare system to reward rather than punish work, to the link between marriage and poverty and the reforms that can help facilitate it.
FREOPP is not in the business of influencing elections. But as our presence and our influence on the policy landscape grows, our work can help provide alternatives to ineffective and downright destructive policies like the ones supported by Zohran Mamdani.
How we can do this more effectively alongside our allies will be a major topic of conversation at our annual Freedom & Progress Conference, which we just announced will be held at the beautiful Conrad Hotel in Washington, DC, on November 21. We’ll have much more to come on that in the coming weeks.
FREOPP is an engine of unique market-based proposals to uplift the bottom half of Americans, and with the help of those who support our work and share it with others, we can play an even greater role in shaping the landscape in the years ahead.
I hope you’ll join us at the Freedom & Progress Conference this fall to be part of that conversation.
In freedom,
Akash Chougule, President