‘Make halal eight bucks again’: Zohran Mamdani has the blueprint
Regular readers know I’ve been harping on this theme: To win, Democrats need to promise—and deliver!—clear, immediate, and simple solutions to the cost-of-living challenges facing voters. (And also speak plainly about those policies.)
To briefly recap, I’ll just quote myself:
The data confirms what our ears are already telling us: We’ve become the party of the elite, and the 2024 exit polls make that clear. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won wealthier voters who make $100,000 and above by 51-47%, but lost those earning less than that by the exact same margin [...]
[President Donald] Trump won those who said that inflation had caused them “severe hardship” by a whopping 76-23% margin. He also won those suffering “moderate hardship” 52-46%. Being the party of the elite, Harris won those suffering “no hardship” 78-21%. As former Daily Kos writer Kerry Eleveld once said during a podcast, “Democrats are the party of people who don’t have to look at grocery prices while shopping.”
Trump tapped into that anxiety by promising to lower prices “on Day One”—a ridiculous pledge that he still hasn’t met despite being however many hellish days into this presidency. But by simply acknowledging the economic pain people felt, he didn’t just win lower-income voters; he also made major inroads with Latinos and Asians.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, is taking the same approach, promising free child care, free buses, a rent freeze, and low-cost city-run grocery stores, plus a lot else. It’s easy to promise big things when you’re not yet in charge, but the first job of a politician is to get elected. And step one is understanding what people actually care about.
I’m skeptical of Mamdani’s ability to deliver on his entire platform, but he’s doing the most important thing: explicitly telling voters, I hear you. I’m going to try like hell to make your life easier. Even if he pulls off only part of that, voters will reward the effort. And his relentless focus on pocketbook issues gives confidence that he gets it.
Take this viral clip from January, back when he was stuck in the single digits in the polls. He interviewed halal food vendors and revealed that, thanks to city hall’s broken permitting system, entrepreneurs have to pay tens of thousands to so-called fixers for a permit that technically costs around $400, according to one of the vendors. That’s legalized corruption, driving up food prices.
“New York is suffering from a crisis, and it’s called halalflation,” Mamdani said in the video. In a post accompanying the video, he hit the message perfectly: “Chicken over rice now costs $10 or more. It’s time to make halal eight bucks again.”
That line is genius, painting a picture of a Democratic city drowning in dysfunction. It’s not just about the $2 or $3 extra it’s costing New Yorkers for what should be cheaper eats. If we can’t make government work in a city where we run everything, why should voters trust us anywhere else?
A newer ad from Mamdani on this theme is just as strong:
In this one, he promises to make it “faster, easier, and cheaper” to start and operate a small business. Why should an aspiring barber have to, in Mamdani’s words, “fill out 24 forms and go through seven agencies to start a barbershop”?
I tested NYC’s business portal myself. To start a barbershop, I got a list of 31 requirements spread across more than a dozen agencies. I didn’t dig into all the forms (I’m not moving to Queens to cut hair), but his numbers check out—and might even be conservative.
To be clear, not all red tape is bad. Some regulations exist for good reason—like making sure that chemicals used in barbershops don’t poison the air or water, or that buildings meet fire codes.
But when the process becomes so bloated that entrepreneurs have to pay $22,000 to fixers for a $400 permit, that’s not public safety—it’s legalized extortion. When it takes a year to get a sign approved, you’re not ensuring quality; you’re suffocating small business.
That’s the larger truth: Even well-intentioned regulations can pile up into an expensive, time-consuming, job-killing mess. Local governments should be doing everything they can to make starting a small business easier, not treating it like a hazing ritual.
Democrats can’t cede the language of struggle and survival to Republicans. We need more candidates who don’t just talk policy but can also translate it into plain language and real relief, communicating clearly to voters that they’ll fight to lower the damn price of lunch. And rent. And child care. And education … you get the picture.