STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The many voices we're hearing about this election include Faiz Shakir. He is the chief political adviser of independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He directs the media organization More Perfect Union. He's come by Studio 31 this morning. We've got him some coffee with a little cream. Is that right? Did we get you - is it good?
FAIZ SHAKIR: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK.
SHAKIR: Good to see you.
INSKEEP: It's the staff who brought it by. Glad it's according to your order. So how will you read first the New York results?
SHAKIR: Well, already Zohran Mamdani has engineered a massive turnout. If you go back to the 2024 election, Steve, and you say, what were the challenges of the Democratic Party and the Harris campaign? It's that they didn't mobilize traditional constituencies and get new voters into the voting booths.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
SHAKIR: And it was a - one of the reasons why she didn't win. Here you have Zohran Mamdani almost answering for the problem. He's in the primary and now in the general - if you look at the early vote turnout in New York, already engineering massive turnout, particularly among constituencies - people of color, young people - who were least likely to vote in the last election cycle. And that's good news.
INSKEEP: There's a couple of different ways I could think about Mamdani's appeal, and one is he's a Democratic socialist and he has a certain set of policies. But another way to think of him maybe is just that he's young and he's talented and different, and so he's interesting to younger people. Which do you think it is?
SHAKIR: He's all of those, and he has an agenda that speaks affirmatively at a time when I think one of the struggles of the Democratic brand is, what are you going to do if I put you into power? What are the answers to the solutions that you want to bring? Here comes Zohran Mamdani saying, hey, buses fast and free, child care universal, new grocery stores to service underserved populations. Here comes taxes that - we tax more on the rich. These are affirmative visions of a society that we want to have. And I think Mamdani has tried to hopefully urge a lot of other Democrats to say, campaign on the back of something, not just against Donald Trump.
INSKEEP: Just to be clear, you're saying these are not symbolic promises. People will expect him to deliver those exact things if he is elected.
SHAKIR: Thankfully, Mamdani is impressive in this way that he understood the tools that the mayor actually has. When he says freeze the rent, he knows that that's a power that the mayor has. When he talks about expanding bus lanes...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
SHAKIR: ...That's something he has already done. So I think he's been grounded in what are the actual authorities that the mayor has, and how can I use them to do something for you?
INSKEEP: Although, I think I just want to pause on this for a moment. I mean, the mayor does have the authority to freeze the rent. The city government messes with rent all the time in New York, and the rent is still too damn high. I mean, rent control doesn't seem to have worked in New York City. Is there...
SHAKIR: Because what...
INSKEEP: ...A danger in making these promises that maybe you can't do much with?
SHAKIR: Well, one of the challenges of a candidate at this moment - any candidate - is integrity. When you say you're going to fight for somebody, is it in your bones? Is it in your DNA? One of the reasons I think Mamdani's succeeding and so many people - Bernie Sanders is so popular right now is that there's a sense that while corruption is all abound around us in politics - Trump is certainly leading the way in the most corrupt government we've seen in our modern lifetimes - here comes people with integrity saying, we may disagree, but the North Star solution is improving your life. And know that when I'm in office, I won't forget about you. I am wholly focused on it. You can trust me.
INSKEEP: I want to underline another aspect of this that I'm sure you're very familiar with. Mamdani has become a big star on Fox News, possibly the biggest star short of Sean Hannity. He's on all the time. People are warned about him continuously. He actually went on Fox News and took some questions, of course. But I'm curious if you think that kind of intense attention by Republicans helps him or hurts him.
SHAKIR: Well, you know, nationally, it's a challenge because Zohran Mamdani is a New York City mayoral candidate, and he has done a fantastic job of making himself aware to the people of New York City. Now, if you live in Nebraska or if you live in California, if you live in Arizona, you know, why does Zohran Mamdani matter to you? Not much. But Fox News has decided and the right has decided, well, I want to tell you that this is scary - a scary proposition. And I suspect that one of the lessons that comes out of the Mamdani campaign is that people in Arizona, Nebraska, California will have to figure out the way that they speak to their own constituencies that learn some lessons about the successes that Mamdani's had, both in how he's communicated but the fact that he's got a substantive agenda that people believe and trust in and want desperately. Especially as Trump - you know, leading our economy, I think, right now, as polling has suggested, he's the least popular he's ever been on the economy - 70% disapproval.
INSKEEP: Let me ask about that because Trump is unpopular right now, and Democrats seem to be even more unpopular. And it's a close race, at least in New Jersey. We don't know what's going to happen there. Does it bother you that Democrats have not been able to take so much advantage of Trump's unpopularity?
SHAKIR: We'll see. I mean, I - you know, you'll find out what the results of this were. If you look at 2024 election, Kamala Harris wins both of those states by six points. So that's the baseline heading into this election cycle. If you go back to how Trump - how we did in the first Trump term, you know, Virginia - I think the gubernatorial candidate there was a Democrat, Ralph Northam. He won by nine points. In New Jersey, they won by double digits in Trump's first term. So I think you can overperform the baselines of plus-six if that's the way you're looking at it.
INSKEEP: I guess I'm just thinking Democrats don't seem to have a very coherent national message at this point.
SHAKIR: Well, yes. You're right. And I - you know, that's one of my challenges and problems and frustrations right now, is that you should go into this election cycle saying, here's three, four, five things that we as Democrats want to do. That said, there's an energy and enthusiasm out there among the public that is incredible. Already in the - Trump's second term, you're seeing more activism and action and grassroots engagement than you did in Trump's first term.
INSKEEP: Faiz Shakir, chief political adviser to Bernie Sanders, thanks so much.
SHAKIR: Thank you, Steve. Good to see you. Transcript provided by 91制片厂, Copyright 91制片厂.
91制片厂 transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an 91制片厂 contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of 91制片厂鈥檚 programming is the audio record.
