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Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream<\/a>, winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign<\/span> struggled to win \u201cthe Black vote.\u201d<\/p>\n That was part of the narrative that emerged after Mamdani\u2019s surprising win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Though Mamdani, a state assemblymember, decisively triumphed over his chief opponent, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the young democratic socialist\u2019s performance in majority-Black precincts proved to be a weak spot.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s weak showing wouldn\u2019t be cause for much concern to his campaign if he were only running in the general against perennial Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. In addition, however, Mamdani will be facing two erstwhile Democratic candidates: disgraced incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and, again, Cuomo. In past elections, they have both relied on Black voters as a crucial bloc of support.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s campaign could show us a different side of politics in New York.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Last month\u2019s results in some 15 percent of voting precincts with majority-Black populations, though, don\u2019t tell the whole story. Rather than being a race about a mythically monolithic \u201cBlack vote,\u201d Mamdani\u2019s campaign could show us a different side of politics in New York \u2014 one that speaks to Black voters based on their material needs.<\/p>\n Staying on message about affordability was Mamdani\u2019s route to victory in the primary, and it could hold the key in the general, too. If he can win over some Black voters \u2014 rather than the \u201cBlack vote\u201d \u2014 he may yet again shock political observers and land himself in the mayor\u2019s office. His foes, however, are already seizing on his primary performance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s true that Mamdani struggled with Black voters. Cuomo won more than half of the votes in majority-Black precincts, while Mamdani got about 34 percent. In those areas with more than 70 percent Black residents, Mamdani did even worse.<\/p>\n In the general election, though, Mamdani stands a chance to perform relatively well among Black voters. With both Cuomo and Adams running, their historically strong numbers in Black precincts may be split: The most recent polling<\/a> shows Cuomo with 32 percent support among Black voters, and Adams trailing with 14 percent. Mamdani currently leads with 35 percent.<\/p>\n Either Adams or Cuomo could consolidate their Black support if the other drops out, but Mamdani\u2019s position speaks to something else that commentators almost never talk about.<\/p>\n There is no singular \u201cBlack vote.\u201d Not even with the Democratic Party, and certainly not in New York City, where the Black population is a wildly diverse mix of native-born New Yorkers, transplants like me, immigrants from the entire diaspora, radicals, conservatives, queer people, church-goers, Muslims, and older and younger residents.<\/p>\n The so-called Black vote, in other words, doesn\u2019t need to shake out the way it frequently has in the past; all indications are that it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n Mamdani is the candidate that has shown he can seize on young voter enthusiasm \u2014 and with young Black voters, themselves no monolith, offering Mamdani an opening. True, some of these younger voters are moving toward the Republican Party, but it\u2019s also true that young Black Democrats are more likely to hold more progressive views than their older counterparts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nYounger Voters<\/h2>\n