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By Theodore Hamm / OR Books
This is an excerpt from Ted Hamm’s new book Run Zohran Run! Inside Zohran Mamdani’s Sensational Campaign to Become New York City’s First Democratic Socialist Mayor. Published here with permission.
Immediately after the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, Rupert Murdoch’s army declared war in New York City. The target was a small leftist group that criticized both capitalism and Israel, two things long championed by the nonagenarian’s media empire. That cadre included an activist state legislator named Zohran Mamdani.
On the afternoon of October 7, 2023, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) posted a social media invitation to a protest planned for the next day at Times Square. The statement expressed loud support for Palestine, making no mention of that day’s violence against Israeli civilians.
The New York Post, Murdoch’s noisy flagship U.S. media outlet, pounced. With uncanny foresight, the paper’s fiery editorialists predicted that “Swastikas would do the talking” at the Times Square event. Sure enough, an unidentifiable young male standing on the pro-Palestine side of the barricades flashed the Nazi symbol in the direction of pro-Israel activist, who snapped a pic.
The tabloid featured the alarming action shot on its Monday cover. Although the DSA did not sponsor the event, and no representatives of the group spoke at the rally, such details mattered little. “Swastika on display as Dem Socialists declare support for terror attack in Israel,” blared the front-page headline. Although the paper’s print edition is read far less than Post’s heavily trafficked website, the cover story remains an agenda-setter in the New York City news cycle.
The spurious DSA-Nazi linkage dominated local discussion, with Mayor Eric Adams denouncing the fictional alliance. The battle lines were drawn. “The NYC-DSA’s viciousness will spell the end of whatever scant power [the group] has gained in the past half-decade,” vowed one of the Post’s most prominent columnists.
Two years later, a leading member of the insurgent leftist outfit stands poised to claim City Hall. Borrowing a phrase from a legendary British Marxist historian, one might say that New York City has been turned upside down.
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Zohran Mamdani and the NYC-DSA responded to the Murdoch-led assault by standing firm in their commitment to the liberation of Palestine. Six days after October 7, the future mayoral frontrunner joined large numbers of Jewish peace activists and fellow socialists in a civil disobedience protest outside of the Brooklyn home of Senator Chuck Schumer, a longtime Israel hawk. Mamdani warned of Israel’s “impending genocide” in Gaza, a sadly prophetic vision.
One year later, the New York Post paid uniquely close attention to the local DSA chapter’s internal decision-making regarding whether to support Mamdani’s candidacy for mayor. In October 2024, the socialist group had only 6,600 members. Outside of activist circles, Zohran was not yet a widely known figure. But Murdoch’s crew kept him in their crosshairs.
As the 2025 mayoral primary race took shape, Zohran’s DSA-led grassroots campaign steadily gained steam. In March, the insurgent candidate angrily confronted Trump’s border czar Tom Homan over the White House’s attempt to deport Columbia University graduate student leader Mahmoud Khalil because of his pro-Palestine activism. The Post repeatedly attacked Khalil.
The leftist mayoral hopeful made his first appearance on the tabloid’s cover in early April. “Dangerous Mam,” declared a large headline. According to a sub-headline, the “anti-Israel forces” that propelled the insurgent’s rise to second place in the polls needed to be “stop[ped].” A full-page cover pic showed Mamdani running.
In an interview that same week, Zohran told me that the Post “usually has a better pun game,” adding that he wasn’t sure what the headline of his debut cover “even means.” As would become clear in the tabloid’s subsequent usage, Murdoch’s hatchet crew used “Dangerous Mam” as an Islamophobic slur that linked Mamdani to radical clerics. The Muslim mayoral candidate’s resounding popularity showed that many city residents no longer shared the Post’s bigotry.
On the day of the Democratic primary, the Post’s front page urged voters to “reject radical, antisemitic socialist,” with Mamdani shown speaking into a megaphone beside a female Muslim activist holding a sign calling for “intifada.” Although Murdoch’s team did not initiate the “globalize the intifada” brouhaha, they eagerly helped stoke the fire.
Panicked by the leftist’s shocking victory, which corresponded with a dramatic shift in local support in favor of Palestine, the tabloid featured Mamdani on its front page five times during the next ten days. On July 5, another ineffectual cover pun declared “Uganda Be Joking,” referring to a pseudo-scandal about boxes that the socialist candidate once checked on a college application. The New York Times first served up the hit piece, which seemed more suited for the Post.
In mid-July, Zohran and his creative team memorably spoofed Murdoch’s once-mighty outlet. In a short video set to a generic contemporary African beat, Mamdani announced his upcoming trip to his birthplace. The upbeat candidate showed off perfectly mocked-up Post covers that featured potential headlines including “Uganda Miss Me” and “He Afri-Can’t Be Serious.”
Just four years earlier, the New York Post helped catapult Eric Adams, a conservative Democrat, into City Hall. This time around, a next-generation leftist ran circles around Rupert’s wounded attack dog.
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Theodore Hamm
Theodore Hamm is the author of Bernie’s Brooklyn: How Growing Up in the New Deal City Shaped Bernie Sanders’ Politics. He covered Mamdani’s mayoral campaign for The Indypendent and Drop Site News.