ROOKE: Mamdani Finally Found Something He Can’t Use Socialism To Steal

Democratic Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was slapped in the face with reality Saturday while attending the Brooklyn’s Men’s Day open streets event.

The annual gathering was organized by the community group, 500 Men Making a Difference, on Franklin Avenue. The event was part of NYC’s Open Streets program, which aims to mentor youth, rebuild, and uplift local communities across the city’s boroughs through activities featured in outdoor gyms, such as fitness challenges and more.

The NYC mayoral hopeful needed full assistance from a spotter to complete two reps of a 135-pound bench press. While other candidates, Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams, had a field day mocking Mamdani over his assisted bench press, there’s a political repercussion here that the Democratic party as a whole has been unwilling to confront: fake masculinity isn’t going to solve their male voter problem.

64 vs. 33. A lifetime of hard work vs. a silver spoon. The results speak for themselves.

The weight of the job is too heavy for “Mamscrawny.” The only thing he can lift is your taxes. pic.twitter.com/HR6fDPKn0B

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) August 24, 2025

While Mamdani is undoubtedly popular among the upper-class white women falling for socialism’s trap, there isn’t much a weak man can do to get other men to see him as a leader. The failed solo bench press highlights this reality. Now, it’s not as if feats of strength are the only thing that sways male voters. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

Still, it does expose the fact that while Mamdani might campaign for taking a “fair share” from the rich to solve so-called income inequality, there is nothing he can do that will give him the strength to lift that bar without hard work and personal dedication — a core tenet of capitalism.

It doesn’t help Mamdani’s case that a large portion of his voting bloc are millennials who likely fall into the category of adult sleep-away campers I recently wrote about.

On Sunday, the day after the failed bench press debacle, Mamdani’s campaign organized a scavenger hunt, which brought out all the usual leftist suspects. The scavenger hunt concluded at a flower shop, where participants received their prize, which consisted of a picture with Mamdani.

new york’s hottest club is the #zcavengerhunt line for the @ZohranKMamdani scavenger hunt. it has everything: bed stuy gays with tote bags, a guy busking on the street, and racially diverse bisexual polyamorous socialists pic.twitter.com/9sqvbs9Z51

— kubi-snacks (@JKub_eXtreme) August 24, 2025

One would assume that after the entire world mocked you for not being able to lift 135 lbs at 33 years old, the candidate would at least attempt to recover some of his masculine image. Nothing says “I speak for men” quite like pictures in a flower shop. (ROOKE: There’s An Insidious New Plan Creeping In To End Humanity As We Know It)

Democrats are going to have to do better than propping up men like Mamdani, Pete Buttigieg, and Gavin Newsom as signs of the “right way” to be masculine. The problem these candidates have is that their party is primarily seen as being extremely feminine or effeminate, and not a natural home to regular male voters. They support radical identity politics like race and transgender ideology, which alienates or downright excludes male voters.

A significant reason many men flocked to the right in the last election is that Republican politicians, such as Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump, told them they heard them and were going to fight to bring them back into the decision-making process. This is something the left still doesn’t have an answer for.

Newsom can emulate Trump’s online persona, but he’ll never take action that would benefit men, rendering his new campaign strategy a failed parody. Buttigieg is the poster guy for Democratic femininity. No matter how many F-bombs he says on podcasts, his image will stay the same. Mamdani can’t even lift his own body weight on the bench and throws childish scavenger hunts for campaign events. All while telling successful, hardworking men that he’s going to come after their wealth.

If Democrats ignore this problem, it will be at their own electoral peril.

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