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‘Lot Of Baseball Left’: James Carville Says Not So Fast To Dem Socialist’s Chances Of Becoming NYC Mayor

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Democratic strategist James Carville on Wednesday cast doubt on socialist Democratic New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s chances of becoming mayor of New York City after his victory in the Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday conceded the race to Mamdani, who is advocating for a slew of left-wing policies from city-run grocery stores to a $30 minimum wage. Carville, on “Politics War Room,” said he did not think Mamdani becoming mayor was a foregone conclusion, citing his grocery store proposal and pro-Palestinian stance.

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“Yes, he said a lot of things and he did try to walk back ‘defund the police.’ Give him credit there. In terms of his idea of public-owned, city-owned grocery stores — all right, so I go to New York a lot … I do go through neighborhoods all over New York and I can’t tell you how many of these grocery stores there are,” Carville said. “I think they call them bodegas. They’re literally on every block. I don’t even understand what he’s talking about. Is he talking about maybe expanding food pantries? I don’t know. And the one other thing he has said that he has not walked back is that he was for global intifada — I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Mamdani has also refused to say whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, publicly backs the anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanction movement and asserted he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever came to the city.

“But hopefully this guy — I hope — he obviously represents dissatisfaction, particularly among urban Democratic primary voters,” Carville said. “Maybe he’ll turn in to be a very skilled candidate that can skillfully navigate some of his — what I refer to as esoteric positions. I remind one thing — he won the primary. There’s a general election coming.”

“I think Andrew is sending off noises that he’s not going to run in the general election as an independent candidate. So there might be a huge — I don’t know the ballot access thing — but it might be a huge undertaking to have somewhat of a left-of-center independent candidate run for mayor,” he added. “And you know, New York has had some history of electing Republican mayors — they’re not going to elect [Republican nominee] Curtis Sliwa, for sure — but it’s certainly possible they could. There’s a lot of baseball left here. That’s the only point I’m going to make. We got a lot of baseball to play.”

Mamdani is slated to face off against incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams — who skipped the Democratic primary and is running as an independent — as well as Sliwa, who is an anti-crime activist, in the November general election.

In contrast to the primary contest, the general election will not use ranked-choice voting.

Political strategist Adam Weiss told the Daily Caller News Foundation ahead of the primary that Adams may be able to defeat Mamdani in November.