Gavin Newsom said he had never heard of Zohran Mamdani until a few months ago. The two first communicated on Election Day.
But that night's results suddenly linked the California governor and the newly elected mayor of New York as the two most prominent figures on the left - two geographic and ideological poles in a party that has been without a clear national leader for months.
"Voters are looking for people who represent the very opposite of what seems like a strategic, deliberate, overly political and overly 'inside' approach," said Democratic strategist and pollster Evan Roth Smith. "Newsom and Mamdani represent a rejection of the way the Democratic Party is used to doing politics."
The two could hardly be more different. Newsom has been the establishment favorite in every race since emerging from the centrist ranks of San Francisco, becoming mayor in a narrow victory over the Green Party frontrunner, and has occasionally angered the left wing of his party on issues like homelessness, tech regulation and transgender rights. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, not only comes from outside the political hierarchy, but also stunned New York’s political powerhouses by winning on an affordability platform.
What they have in common, in their parallel rise, is the art of modern campaigning and a return to the combative attitude that drove the Democratic Party at the beginning of Donald Trump's first term, when Democrats retook the House of Representatives in 2018, and before Trump's nationwide victories in 2024 not only pushed Democrats into political limbo, but made them wonder how hard they should oppose him.
Now Newsom is attacking Trump from the west, Mamdani is doing so from the east, and both are openly criticizing Democrats, whom they accuse of not being decisive enough in resisting the president.
"Painful. This is not a deal, this is capitulation. Don't kneel before it," Newsom's office said on the X network Sunday night, before eight Democratic senators reached a deal with Republicans to reopen the government. Mamdani wrote that "this deal should be rejected, along with any policy that is willing to compromise on the basic needs of working people."
In an interview in Brazil, Newsom, who traveled to South America to present California's environmental agenda at a United Nations climate conference, said Mamdani was among nearly 50 people he sent a message to during that successful election night for Democrats.
Newsom built his campaign on a national platform and strong anti-Trump rhetoric, while Mamdani focused on economic issues and the cost of living - topics that have alienated some voters from the Democratic Party in recent years.
As two key figures in the extraordinary election cycle, Newsom and Mamdani have become the driving force behind a party that, a year after Trump's victory, was struggling to find a way back to political relevance, but is now showing signs of renewed momentum ahead of the 2026 congressional elections. Both marked that turnaround with a sharp condemnation of the deal to unblock the government.
"They both represent a generational shift from the gerontocracy of the Democratic Party," said Ben Tulchin, a Democratic pollster. "Newsom is a leader who openly opposes Trump and doesn't hesitate to hit him where it hurts, while Mamdani offers a bold, progressive, economically populist message."
Newsom, who earlier this year told Trump that he was offering him "an open hand, not a clenched fist," is at the forefront of the party's resistance, urging Democrats to enter the political fight with the former president more decisively, while at the same time acting in coordination with the party's national leadership.
Mamdani won over New Yorkers with his vision of a more affordable and inclusive city, but he did so in stark contrast to Trump, a Muslim socialist who has charmed progressives and built the kind of multiethnic, intergenerational coalition that political strategists have dreamed of since Barack Obama left the White House. Mamdani said he would work with anyone to solve the cost of living problem, including a Republican president, but he also described himself as "Trump's worst nightmare."
"It shows the breadth of the party, because those are the two men who emerged from that election night as the biggest winners," said Katie Merrill, a Democratic consultant from California, noting that the outcome reflects two possible directions for the party: the "Mamdani Way," which opposes Trump and the MAGA movement by moving as far left as possible, and the "Newsom Way," which is more strategic and closer to the party establishment.
Their victories have raised hopes among Democrats that a broad party coalition can be rebuilt. Both men succeeded by relying on different messages: Newsom built his campaign on a national platform and strong anti-Trump rhetoric, while Mamdani focused on economic issues and the cost of living - topics that have alienated some voters from the Democratic Party in recent years.
But in their victories, both men showed political instinct and a sense of what voters really wanted, even though political insiders initially wrote them off. Few Democrats expected a lesser-known state assemblyman to become the leading candidate for mayor of New York City. And in California, Newsom's redistricting initiative was initially rejected and described by many Democrats as unworkable.
"Both deserve credit for being able to shape the environment in which they operated," said Loren Hitt, a Democratic operative who has worked for multiple candidates across the country. "At the outset, no one thought they had a good shot. But both had a good sense of the mood of the voters, even when the media and party insiders were on the other end of the spectrum."
Both have also embraced a message of unity in the fight against Trumpism. Newsom told Telemundo that Mamdani was "very useful to the party" because he ran a vigorous campaign that attracted new voters. In his victory speech, Mamdani called on his party colleagues to unite against the White House, telling Trump directly: "To get to any of us, you're going to have to go through all of us."
Newsom and Mamdani fit into the tradition of Democratic leaders from New York and San Francisco - cities with dominant industries, large Democratic voter bases and dynamic political cultures that function as a kind of "development league" for future leaders. Newsom secured the victory of Proposition 50, relying on a strong Democratic majority in California.
In more conservative parts of the country, as well as in Washington, Republicans are eagerly attacking both, portraying them as alienated liberal elites from the coast. The Republican Party has been lambasting Newsom for years, accusing him of pursuing personal ambitions while failing to address pressing issues in California like homelessness. Mamdani, on the other hand, has become the new favorite target of attack. Trump has derided him as a “little communist,” while Republican strategists have sought to politically connect him to every prominent Democrat in the country.
But their rise is not based solely on ideology. Newsom and Mamdani have skillfully adapted to the modern media ecosystem, using it to reach voters. Newsom, who has warned for years that Republicans are dominating the "attention economy," said last month that Mamdani's success shows Democrats "how to build a brand" and "how to communicate in a new world."
Newsom has worked with left-wing influencers on the campaign trail, while provoking Trump on social media with sarcastic posts, often peppered with references to artificial intelligence and imitations of his signature writing style. Mamdani, meanwhile, has attracted attention with a series of short, viral videos that have shown he has a perfect grasp of the language of the internet and is not tied to old, expensive forms of political communication.
Polls show that voters across the country see Newsom more favorably than Mamdani as the leader of the Democratic Party. At the same time, there remains skepticism among Mamdani's supporters about Newsom, a representative of the party establishment who has been in the public eye for decades. His harsh stance on Trump, they say, has its limits.
"He's playing the old anti-Trump card skillfully, but what's more interesting is how Mamdani, with his laser focus on the cost of living and mobilizing new constituencies, is actually charting a winning path forward," said Bill Lipton, former director of the New York Working Families Party, a left-leaning political movement.
For Mamdani, it has translated into global recognition, unusual for a would-be mayor who will lead a city administration of about 300.000 employees. His supporters want to harness the energy unleashed by his victory, an "army of volunteers" that has helped him assemble a new multicultural coalition, to push through left-wing policies such as raising taxes on the wealthy.
"He's a global icon," said Gustavo Rivera, a Democratic senator from New York and one of Mamdani's early supporters. "I hope the rest of the Democratic Party understands what this is all about and embraces what he has to offer. He inspires not only Democrats who have long been passive, but a whole new generation of voters."
The newly elected mayor, however, insists he does not want to become a national figure, balancing carefully as he prepares to take office at City Hall.
"I consider myself the newly elected mayor of New York," Mamdani said. "And I try to maintain the worldview of that New Yorker cover where the world ends in New Jersey."
Translation: NB
Bonus video:
