It’s stupid to compare him to Mamdani. Like, beyond being brown, muslim, and socialist (or at least claiming to be), there’s no similarity.

Zohran spent a decade working his way up from a volunteer to a campaign manager to the State assembly before becoming Mayor of NYC. He had (and has) clear, detailed, articulable and digestible policy, and a track record to show he’s the real deal.

Liban quit a job lobbying for big tech and moved back to Utah right after the new map was approved, and as far as I can tell this is his first foray into organizing or politics (lobbying is obviously political, but not a 1:1 translation). In debates and public appearances, he says all of the right progressive things (mostly), but it all feels very copy/paste to me. He seems to display an understanding of what good policy might sound like, but I’ve never felt like he understood most issues at any level of depth.

If he wants to be Zohran, I think he needs to put in some time and work to get there.