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New York Republicans are likely sticking with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

To be their bogeyman, that is.

While the recent New York primary brought to the fore a slate of other democratic socialists for Republicans to use to rile up voters, party leaders and strategists say Mamdani is likely still their best target.

John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster whose clients include GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman and President Donald Trump, said some of the new victors, like Claire Valdez and Darlializa Avila Chevalier, weren’t the best bogeymen because they aren’t familiar figures.

“They’re not as well-known as the political class thinks — so it’s going to take time to educate voters,” he said. “Right now, Mamdani is definitely a threat to homeowners and taxpayers in New York state.”

He added that Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy last year motivated Nassau County voters to back Republicans.

Avila Chevalier and Valdez, along with the democratic socialists who won a half-dozen state legislative challenges, will still play a role in the GOP strategy. Their collective victories make the GOP case an easier sell, operatives and officials say.

“It seems that the Democratic establishment has lost control and the socialists have taken over,” said Erie County Republican Chair Michael Kracker. “I believe it’s going to pull the Democratic Party in Albany and Washington even more to the left, and that’s going to put them more out of sync with common-sense New Yorkers.”

But Vince Casale, an adviser to GOP congressional candidate Peter Oberacker, said it was more effective to run against socialist policies than individuals. Mamdani works as a target because he actually has power.

“There’s a lot of focus on New York City,” Casale said. “If these socialist ideas don’t work there, then the whole thing just implodes even worse.”

A Siena University poll released last month found Mamdani had a slightly higher favorability rating than Gov. Kathy Hochul among voters surveyed around the state. Kracker and McLaughlin said they believed the mayor was more of an albatross in suburban and rural areas.

State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, who has clashed with the DSA, said associating the group with establishment figures wouldn’t work.

“This is the standard Republican playbook. Before Mamdani, voters will remember, it was de Blasio. And then it was AOC,” he said. “Republicans always try to find a bogeyman to attempt to paint all Democrats as extremists, because that distracts from their actual record.”

Speaking Monday on Long Island, Hochul said Republican attacks about Mamdani were inaccurate. NYPD statistics show crime has decreased this year in New York City, and the governor blamed higher costs on Donald Trump.

“Bruce Blakeman has said he's 100% MAGA and will never disagree with the president,” she said, noting Blakeman’s public comments.

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