{"id":15355,"date":"2025-11-07T01:31:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mamdani-gets-the-star-treatment-in-puerto-rico\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T01:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:31:55","slug":"mamdani-gets-the-star-treatment-in-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mamdani-gets-the-star-treatment-in-puerto-rico\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani gets the star treatment in Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

SAN JUAN \u2014 Zohran Mamdani wants to be a new kind of leader for New York. But in his second day as mayor-elect, he embraced an old political tradition: partying in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s Democrats \u2014 from state lawmakers to City Hall aides to union power brokers \u2014 decamp to San Juan every November for a long weekend of panels and receptions, schmoozing and dealmaking. With more than 4,000 attendees, the Somos conference doubles as the New York political world\u2019s unofficial family reunion, and this year the family member with the newest and unlikeliest win was its biggest draw.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old democratic socialist, whose stunning victory upended the political order those insiders helped build, arrived at the Caribe Hilton hotel early Thursday evening to address a teeming crowd of hundreds that had been waiting for him on the oceanfront.<\/p>\n

While Mamdani\u2019s audience was different than the crowds he faced during his campaign rallies \u2014 a sea of Democratic power players, many of whom view politics as an industry above all else \u2014 his message wavered little.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for working people to be able to afford to live in the city that they call home,\u201d Mamdani told the crowd. \u201cWhen I look at these leaders, I see partners who are willing to do two things all at once, fight an authoritarian administration and deliver on an affordability crisis. No longer can we just do one. Now we must do both. \u201c<\/p>\n

There are many receptions to choose from at Somos, and Mamdani made a statement with his pick: an outdoor gathering co-hosted by District Council 37 \u2014 the city\u2019s public employees union, which supported him in the election over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo \u2014 and state Attorney General Letitia James, who also embraced the upstart\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourage, my friends, is contagious,\u201d James said on stage. \u201cAnd what we have in the next mayor of the city of New York, Zohran Mamdani, we’ve got a leader with this bold leadership, this bold vision, who will bring us all together, and we must recognize and support him and protect him each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mamdani, the trip wasn\u2019t just a celebration \u2014 it was a debut before the establishment he once ran against. Somos is where New York\u2019s Democratic hierarchy gathers each year to gossip, broker deals and take the temperature of power. And now the mayor-elect was suddenly at the center of it all.<\/p>\n

His presence posed a new question for both sides: Would Mamdani try to build bridges with the Democratic old guard \u2014 or keep his distance from the machine he\u2019s long criticized? And would the party\u2019s power brokers, wary but impressed, open the door to a mayor who preaches redistribution and quotes Eugene Debs?<\/p>\n

For now, Mamdani is signaling coexistence rather than confrontation. He plans private meetings through the weekend but is steering clear of the bar circuit that defines much of Somos\u2019 after-hours politicking \u2014 a cautious entrance for a figure still deciding how close to get to the city\u2019s old power structure.<\/p>\n

Still, Mamdani has been the talk of the conference since it kicked off Wednesday, and his arrival was eagerly awaited. \u201cWhen\u2019s my boyfriend getting in?\u201d<\/u><\/a> Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez joked Thursday morning in the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n

When Mamdani attended the Somos conference for the first time in 2024, he didn\u2019t get much attention \u2014 he was a newly announced mayoral candidate polling near zero percent. One year later, he was the belle of the ball, having to sneak in the side door because the lobby would have been too busy, and later escape droves of admirers who rushed under the barricades after his speech for a selfie.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez and James were among those who joined him for a brief press availability in a hotel conference room before he stepped out to the reception.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he was \u201clooking forward to having a conversation with President Trump\u201d \u2014 after the president said on Fox News \u201cit would be more appropriate\u201d for the mayor-elect to reach out to him, rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have a specific time planned, Mamdani said, but when they do talk, \u201cit will be a conversation that will be geared towards serving New Yorkers across the five boroughs, New Yorkers who are currently being priced out of the most expensive city in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to pull federal funds from the city and send in troops if Mamdani won.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also responded to House Speaker Mike Johnson calling him a \u201cMarxist.\u201d\u00a0<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were Speaker Johnson, I would also not focus on the disastrous results of what the Republican administration has delivered for Americans across this country,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is time for us to show that politics can be more than the cruelty and the punishment we so often see coming out of Washington, D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when asked about Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik\u2019s plans to launch her campaign for governor<\/u><\/a> Friday, Mamdani said she \u201ctypifies the exact kind of politics that has created so much despair across the city, across the state and across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his focus wasn\u2019t only on GOP leaders. Asked how bullish he is on his plan to get state government to raise taxes on New Yorkers making over $1 million to fund his proposals like free, universal child care, Mamdani reiterated that \u201cthe most important thing is to fund the agenda.\u201d And if state Gov. Kathy Hochul remains opposed to raising taxes but has other means to raise revenue, \u201cI’m open to them, because what I care most about is that we actually deliver on these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul herself spoke at the receptions before Mamdani and celebrated his victory as an exclamation mark to a set of wins Democrats delivered throughout the state on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

But the governor \u2014 who initially kept Mamdani at arms length before putting out a carefully-worded endorsement<\/u><\/a> \u2014 seemed keenly aware of their political differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fight is not with each other,\u201d the governor said. \u201cIt is with Republicans in Washington who are destroying our way of life, our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven days prior, she had appeared at a campaign rally<\/u><\/a> with Mamdani for the first time, where his fans shouted down the more moderate governor\u2019s speech with chants of \u201cTax the Rich!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at the posh Somos gathering, the governor was subjected to those same calls, shouted from the crowd when she took the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear you, but I’m the type of person, the more you push me, the more I’m not going to do what you want,\u201d she said. \u201cSo little lesson to all of our friends out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani will stay in San Juan through Saturday morning. But he already got a taste of an island delicacy before coming to the hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m proud to report,\u201d he said, \u201cthat in the few hours I’ve been here, I’ve already had some mofongo, and it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN \u2014 Zohran Mamdani wants to be a new kind of leader for New York. But in his second day as mayor-elect, he embraced an old political tradition: partying in Puerto Rico. New York\u2019s Democrats \u2014 from state lawmakers to City Hall aides to union power brokers \u2014 decamp to San Juan every November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}