Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is set to introduce New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday as Republicans aim to paint him as the leader of the Democratic Party.
The GOP has persisted in its efforts in recent months to tie Democrats to the socialist who won the high-profile New York mayoral race last month. Since Mamdani began to rise to fame, Republicans have shown early indications that they plan to continue framing him as the face of the Democratic Party as part of their 2026 midterm elections messaging.
Ocasio-Cortez will be joined by longtime Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for the City Hall inauguration ceremony on New Year’s Day that can be attended by 4,000 ticketed guests. Sanders will administer the oath of office, swearing in Mamdani as mayor.
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“For the many New Yorkers who have long felt betrayed by a broken status quo, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embodies a new kind of politics that puts working people at the heart of it,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I’ve been so proud to count her as a partner across the many stages of our people-powered movement—from the primary campaign to our Forest Hills rally in October to the very first day of the transition—and I’m honored that she’ll be a part of our historic City Hall inauguration.”
New York Republicans have slammed the mayor-elect in the weeks and months leading up to the election and his inauguration.
“With the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City, you will see the face of the Democratic Party: Mamdani, AOC, and Bernie Sanders,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) wrote on X. “Zohran Mamdani is an avowed socialist, and we are seeing socialists across the country run for office as the Democratic Party continues to embrace and move further to the left.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee pushed messaging this week ahead of the inauguration that tied candidates across the country to Mamdani, listing out examples of each candidate.
“[Texas state Rep.] James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett are modeling their campaigns around Zohran Mamdani’s socialist and extremist agenda in an effort to pull ahead in their messy primary,” NRSC regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell wrote. “Democrats are rallying behind Mamdani’s radical, copy-cat candidates in messy primaries across the nation.”
Republicans pushed this narrative throughout the record-long government shutdown earlier this year that lasted through the November elections.
“The new power center of the Left isn’t the moderates; it’s the AOCs and the Bernie Sanders and the Mamdani’s of the party,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said last month after Democrats’ sweeping victory across the country while the government remained shut down.
The GOP has long tried to tie the progressive end of the Democratic Party to the other factions as Democrats continue to search for a strong leader. Republicans have targeted Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is running to be the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Ocasio-Cortez, among others.
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“Republicans have been playing this sort of Whack-a-Mole for so long,” Democratic operative Jon Reinish told the Washington Examiner earlier this year. “[Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)] was the liberal San Francisco hippie [former President Barack] Obama, super, super lefty, boogey woman, then it switched to AOC, and [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton’s no longer such a focus. [Former Vice President] Kamala Harris skyrocketed for a minute and then lost terribly.”
All eyes will be on Mamdani as he assumes his position in one of the largest cities in the United States to see how his policies work and how he responds to President Donald Trump, who has long been known to go after states and cities with Democratic leadership.