Pro-Zohran Mamdani group pushes to recruit thousands to DSA in wake of mayoral-election victory

Comrades wanted!

A new advocacy group pushing Zohran Mamdani’s tax-and-spend agenda is plotting to recruit thousands of the mayor-elect’s star-struck supporters to join the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The effort by the group Our Time for an Affordable NY could potentially triple or quadruple the membership of the powerful left-wing DSA chapter.

“We got more than 100,000 volunteers involved in this campaign, and we want as many of them as possible to join DSA,” Jeremy Freeman., executive director of the group, said in a leaked recording of a post-election DSA chapter meeting last week.

“If anyone on this call was volunteering and is not a member of DSA, you should join right now,” Freeman added in the recording, which was obtained by The Post.

The DSA has about 12,000 members in the city and more than 80,000 nationwide.

The Mamdani campaign boasted having 100,000 campaign volunteers, an army that could swell the DSA ranks in a successful recruitment effort by Our Time and DSA.

Freeman spoke at the meeting to discuss the new advocacy group.

“We think this organization [Our Time] can be a place to continue to engage them in a home for them to continue to be involved and activated, and showing up week after week to find ways to deliver on affordability,” Freeman, a DSA member who was involved in the Mamdani campaign’s outreach efforts, said during the meeting.

“And then we can help them find their way to DSA and other membership orgs as our long term political home.”

The Our Time group officers are all DSA members.

The NYC-DSA for years has had a “Tax the Rich: Seize Our Future” campaign calling for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations to fund housing security, public transportation and a “Green New Deal” for New York.

Mamdani has proposed boosting income tax hikes on millionaires and corporations to provide free public child care, free buses and help build more affordable housing. He also wants the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze the rent on regulated apartments.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with folks in DSA leadership and especially `tax the rich’ [campaign members] to make sure that we are as fully aligned and collaborating as possible, while leveraging the things that I think make this org unique,” Freeman said on the Zoom call.

“There’s a lot more to come as we refine the specific campaigns that we’ll be working on, we’re going to target the big three planks of the platform and try to make all three of them a reality, transit, childcare and housing, and we’re gonna share more about the activities we planned and how folks can get involved.”

The Our Time website said the campaign for an affordable New York City “is just beginning.”

“Even as billionaires have made their opposition clear, more than 100,000 volunteers helped win this election, and they want to keep going,” the site said. “Our Time can be a vehicle for continued engagement — a way for folks to plug in and stay active while they find a long-term political home.”

DSA’s muscle flexing comes as the city’s Democratic Party organization and establishment look weak and inept after failing miserably this election cycle. All the Democratic county leaders — and most major unions — backed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for governor.

The DSA was the first major organization to endorse Mamdani, a three-term-Queens assemblyman and DSA member, in the primary race — which he won handily before winning the general election week.

Mamdani has said he would not have run for mayor without the DSA’s support.

The mayor-elect was asked about the allied Our Time group at a Somos press conference on Friday in Puerto Rico. He said he’s not involved in the group but supports efforts to build on his successful grassroots campaign and further its agenda.

He also said he’d encourage people to join the DSA when asked.

But Mamdani’s left-wing DSA allies are out to undermine or even supplant the Democratic Party, not broaden or strengthen it, one campaign veteran claimed.

“Anyone who thinks the DSA is out to help the Democratic Party needs to see a psychiatrist,” said Hank Sheinkopf, whose campaign clients have included ex-President Bill Clinton.

“The DSA could potentially quadruple its members. It’s about grabbing power and creating an unbreakable bloc of voters to elect officeholders. It’s about killing the Democratic Party and making it into a DSA operation. The Democratic Party is like a dead carcass. There’s nothing there,” he added.

Sheinkopf said the DSA members would not have created the advocacy group without Mamdani’s blessing.

One prominent Democratic Party figure who backs Mamdani is concerned the left-wing DSA might go too far and turn off Democratic lawmakers needed to help pass his agenda.

The DSA could go on the attack in a midterm election-year when Gov. Kathy Hochul, members of Congress and the state Legislature are up for re-election.

“These are people who don’t want to compromise,” the Democratic official said.

“Don’t put the cart before the horse. Hochul is going to have a tough race. Next year is about taking back the House and keeping the governor’s seat blue.”

The source, who requested anonymity, said Mamdani poked Democrats in the eye when admitting he voted for himself on the left-leaning Working Families Party, somewhat allied with the DSA, rather than the Democratic ballot line.

“The Democratic line got you here. If he just ran on the Working Families Party line, he wouldn’t be mayor,” the official said.