Sexism might be an easy answer, but let’s not forget that AOC is a rep with a small district, and got around 100k votes. Mamdani represents millions of New Yorkers and curried more than a million votes in his election. Mayor is also a much broader executive position than being one of 438 reps.
Point being, Mamdani’s election/position comes with a lot more mandate than AOC’s, regardless of gender.
AOC had to walk so Mamdani could run. Not only proving DSA candidates were electable, but also that they could actually do the job by being pragmatic (for better or worse).
Sexism might be an easy answer, but let’s not forget that AOC is a rep with a small district, and got around 100k votes. Mamdani represents millions of New Yorkers and curried more than a million votes in his election. Mayor is also a much broader executive position than being one of 438 reps.
Point being, Mamdani’s election/position comes with a lot more mandate than AOC’s, regardless of gender.
Truly, I wonder how much AOC paved the way for mamdani
AOC had to walk so Mamdani could run. Not only proving DSA candidates were electable, but also that they could actually do the job by being pragmatic (for better or worse).