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In this time of deep, angry political divisions, it’s touching to see Republican leaders in Texas take time out of their busy day to express concern for people in faraway New York City. While thousands of Texans are struggling to feed themselves due to the interruption of SNAP benefits caused by the shutdown of the federal government, GOP stalwarts in the Lone Star State couldn’t help but clutch their pearls and shed a tear or two for the fate of The Big Apple
Hours before the polls closed, it became evident that Democrat Zohran Mamdani was going to win the election. Just after 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, The Associated Press called the race, with Mamdani securing 50.4% of the vote, trailed by independent Andrew Cuomo with 41.6% and Republican Curtis Sliwa with 7.1%.
The closely watched election witnessed one of the highest voter turnout rates for a mayoral election in New York City in decades. Crucial to the Democratic Socialist’s win was the attraction of young voters by his exceptionally progressive policies. A key aspect of his campaign promises is improving the notoriously expensive city’s affordability by freezing rent increases, offering city-funded free buses and increasing the minimum wage to $30 by 2030.
Cuomo, a Democrat and governor of New York before stepping down in light of sexual harassment allegations in 2021, described Mamdani as a “radical.” The career politician, whose father also served as governor of New York, secured a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump but still lost the election. It’s no surprise that Cuomo and Trump have labeled Mamdani a communist, but even Texas Republicans have chimed in to charge New York’s youngest mayor-elect in a century with the same failing.
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Tarrant County Republican Chairman Bo French, known for his use of the words “retard,” “homo” and “gay” as slurs, as well as his online survey asking people whether Muslims or Jews posed a bigger threat to America (sadly, the choices didn’t include bigots), appears to have come up with an answer:
Mandami is Muslim. We don’t want to speculate what French might have said had New Yorkers elected a Jewish or, God forbid, a gay Jewish Social Democrat.
Gov. Greg Abbott offered a more measured reaction:
Still, Abbott’s post on X showed the depth of his concern. Moments of silence and “thoughts and prayers” messages are usually passed out after natural disasters or mass shootings, of which Texas has its share. Perhaps Abbott was worried about the nearly 40,000 migrants he bused to New York City from Texas.
Other Texas Republicans also were feeling blue over the election, including state Rep. Jeff Leach from Collin County:
And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton:
Sen. Ted Cruz was more proactive, getting his shot in early:
Luckily, Texas Sen. John Cornyn bucked up and announced he’s ready to draw a line in sand (that worked so well for William Barret Travis at The Alamo) to keep Mandami’s fellow travelers from polluting Texas.
As far as we know, none of the four people Cornyn said shall not pass are, in fact, radicals, communists or Muslim (not that the latter would be a bad thing, except for people like French, i.e. Republicans). They’re just Democrats, which in the end is the hugely obvious point of all the garment-rending. Mandami=commie=Democrat. Former recovering commie … er, Democrat … and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was at least a little more forthright in coming to that point:
If you’ve been following the reporting and opinion-writing surrounding Mandami’s race for mayor — congratulations on having a strong stomach — you know that Republicans are going to strive to paint Mandami as the face of the Democratic Party. Good luck with that. As New York Times columnist and sane conservative Ross Douthat pointed out, mayors of New York do not generally rise to greater political heights. (See Michael Bloomberg or, for laughs, Rudy Giuliani.)
Attempting to scare voters with warnings about how awful things will be if the other guy wins is SOP in politics, SMU political science Professor Cal Jillson says.
“For many years, Hillary Clinton was the bogeyman held up by Republicans to show you horrible things could be,” Jillson says. Then it was Sen. Bernie Sanders, then U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Part of politics is dismissing the other party, and after the drubbing the GOP took nationally in Tuesday’s elections, the GOP is ready to rattle some skeletons to up the fear factor. Expect to see Mandami’s face in many Republican political ads before next year’s congressional election.
Of course, the Democrats have their own scary face to feature, Mr. Oogie Boogie himself, President Donald Trump. The trouble is that he takes pride in the role, and his voters seem to approve.
