Two weeks after Democratic Socialists of America member Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, the election has emerged as a focal point of national politics. Mamdani has become the target of near daily denunciations and threats from Donald Trump and the fascist right, and a substantial section of the Democratic Party is working actively to ensure his defeat in November.

In the latest effort by sections of the Democratic Party establishment to block Mamdani in November—despite his own assurances that he will not threaten business interests—several Democratic members of Congress have launched baseless accusations of antisemitism.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who led the Democratic National Committee’s attack on Bernie Sanders in 2016, denounced Mamdani for refusing to disavow the slogan “globalize the intifada.” Calling it “dangerous rhetoric” that would “fan the flames of evil,” Wasserman Schultz made the statement to The Hill. A staunch supporter of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, she has had nothing to say about the ongoing mass murder that has taken over 57,000 Palestinian lives, including thousands of women and children.

The Hill also solicited criticisms of Mamdani from Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Brad Schneider of Illinois, both Jewish Democrats. The publication appears to have approached only Jewish lawmakers, part of the broader effort to conflate the interests of the Zionist regime with those of the Jewish people and slander opposition to the genocide as antisemitism.

Former New York Governor David Paterson held a press conference in Midtown Manhattan on July 7, calling on the four other candidates to unite against Mamdani. He urged them to “find a way to unite behind one of them,” but declined to offer a prediction or preference on who that “unity” candidate should be.

Paterson left office nearly 15 years ago, having never been elected, but finishing the term of Eliot Spitzer after Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal. His press conference was notable for the presence of two vocal Trump supporters: billionaire grocery magnate John Catsimatidis and radio host Sidney Rosenberg.

Mamdani enters the general election with a significant advantage, as Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York City by a 6-to-1 margin. Eric Adams is running as an independent, having skipped the Democratic primary after corruption charges against him were dropped by the Trump Justice Department in a quid pro quo for his collaboration with Trump’s persecution of immigrants.

Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani by a humiliating 12-point margin despite spending $30 million—largely from billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman, a vocal Trump supporter—has also left open the possibility of an independent run. The remaining candidates are lawyer Jim Walden and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who founded the notorious vigilante anti-crime group the Guardian Angels decades ago.

Cuomo and Adams exchanged public barbs this week. Adams, as reported by Politico, said Cuomo was the one obstacle standing in the way of a second term. While insisting that Cuomo should abandon the race, he also said that the former governor had asked the same of him. “I’m the sitting Mayor of the City of New York. and you expect for me to step aside when you just lost to Zohran for 12 points?” he proclaimed. In his usual turn to racialist politics when in a tight spot, Adams added the complaint that Cuomo was well known for undermining black candidates for political office.

Both Adams and Cuomo have seized on a 16-year-old application to Columbia University to attack their rival. Mamdani had checked boxes indicating he was of both Asian and African or African-American ancestry. He later explained that the form offered no option to reflect his actual background—born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent—so he “checked multiple boxes trying to indicate the fullness of my background.”

In response, Adams employed racialist demagogy, declaring, “The African American identity is not a check-box of convenience,” and called on Columbia to release the full application. The document only came to light due to a data breach carried out by a right-wing eugenicist hacker. Cuomo joined in, with a spokesperson declaring, calling for it to be “fully investigated because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg.”

Amid the flurry of denunciations, Mamdani has gained support from sections of the political establishment. Brooklyn Democratic chair Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn and Manhattan chair Keith L.T. Wright both endorsed him, as did Manhattan Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who backed Mamdani immediately after the primary. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a prominent figure in the national party’s “progressive” wing, also urged others to support the victor.

Several major union bureaucracies that had backed Cuomo in the primary, including the Hotel Trades Council and Local 32BJ of the Building Service Employees, have now shifted their support to Mamdani. The United Federation of Teachers, which had previously withheld an endorsement citing a divided membership, has also come out in support of Mamdani.

The union bureaucrats, an integral part of the Democratic Party, are endorsing Mamdani because they expect him to become the next mayor and plan on doing business with him—and that business will include close collaboration in the betrayal of their own members.

The opposition to Mamdani from within the political establishment has less to do with the policies he proposes—centered on a series of minor reforms—than the broad political radicalization expressed in the support for his campaign, including opposition to extreme social inequality and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Mamdani’s own response to the campaign of denunciations and threats has been to shift to the right, stressing his willingness to work with “business leaders” to explain why his policies “will benefit all,” as he put it in an interview last last month.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a revealing piece titled, “The Mamdani Millionaires Supporting the Socialist for NYC Mayor.” It quoted venture capitalist Bradley Tusk—Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign manager—restaurateur Keith McNally, and others. Their motive is clear: they are happy to pay an extra 2 percent in taxes—what they call their “fair share”—as a negligible cost to them and a form of insurance against a broader social explosion. Among those multimillionaires who recognize that the current crisis, especially as it is exacerbated by Trump’s policies, can only end with a crash, Mamdani looks like a safe bet.

Kathryn Wylde, the longtime spokeswoman for big business as the head of the Partnership for New York, told the Journal that she had met with Mamdani almost a year ago, when he was just getting started on his campaign. “He said, ‘Look, I’m not in favor of government taking over your business,’” Wylde said. “He made clear that he’s not anticapitalist in that sense.”