New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters Wednesday that Democrats must use their new House and Senate majorities to cut living costs now, saying the party should keep its “foot on the gas.”
What he said
At a City Hall media availability on Wednesday, Mamdani cast Tuesday’s midterm results as a turning point. “This country has elected a new generation of leadership,” he said, according to the official transcript posted by the NYC Mayor’s Office.
“Going through yesterday evening, it’s a realization that it’s a new dawn in America,” he told reporters, according to CBS News. Asked whether the party’s left should ease up or press ahead, he answered: “Foot on the gas.”
He framed the choice as moving from defense to offense. Defense, he said, means trying to stop New Yorkers from losing SNAP food aid or health insurance. Offense means “delivering to make life more affordable for them.”
- “We have to use that power to deliver change that Americans can feel in their wallets,” Mamdani said.
- He pointed to SNAP cuts that, he said, have left 26,500 New Yorkers without benefits, and to federal health policy that he said puts 900,000 New Yorkers at risk of losing insurance.
- On X Wednesday evening, he posted, “It’s morning again in America,” with a video clip.
How Republicans answer
Before the election, Vice President JD Vance urged voters to give Republicans “two more years” to deliver results, according to an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported by The Independent. Mamdani cited that plea on Wednesday, arguing that families facing rent, child care, and grocery bills “cannot afford two more years.”
President Donald Trump has said he is willing to work with Democrats after the midterm losses, according to NBC News. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is seeking the speakership, said Wednesday on NBC’s “TODAY” show that Democrats are “laser-focused on addressing the affordability crisis that has been crushing everyday Americans.”
Why it matters now
Democrats flipped at least seven Republican-held Senate seats and dozens of House districts on Tuesday, according to CBS News, putting both chambers under Democratic control when the new Congress meets in January.
Mamdani said he congratulated Jeffries after the wins and that the two “have a good working relationship.” He also said he looks forward to working with newly elected New York progressives Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier on a federal affordability agenda.
Delivering lower prices will still require deals with a Republican White House. Trump can veto bills, and Democrats are not projected to hold the two-thirds margins needed to override a veto, NBC News reported. Both sides say living costs drove the midterm fight. They disagree on who caused them and how to fix them.
Sources: CBS News; NYC Mayor’s Office transcript; NBC News; The Independent (Vance/Hannity); @ZohranKMamdani on X, Nov. 4, 2026.
