The 2028 presidential race is already taking shape, and there’s a Zohran Mamdani-shaped hole in it. New York City’s relentlessly upbeat new mayor is filling potholes, removing scaffolding, and, yes, taxing the rich. Not since FDR has there been a happier liberal warrior.
But assuming nobody amends the Constitution, the Ugandan-born Mamdani will not be going from Gracie Mansion to the White House. Yet after breaking bread with local leaders across the political spectrum and around the world, from Athens, Greece to Atlanta, Georgia—including with Mayor Mamdani in my hometown of New York—I’m convinced that a mayor should be our next president. Only three mayors have ever become president.
Calvin Coolidge, who served as mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1910 to 1911 before later becoming the 30th U.S. president in 1923, is the last U.S. president with past mayoral experience. Coolidge and before him, Grover Cleveland, are remembered as saving money for their cities, a mission that can be translated to protecting constituents from today’s roaring inflation. I would argue that the fact that we haven’t had a mayor as president since then explains the discontent and lack of community in American politics.
Too often, it seems that the higher up you go in the political food chain, the less functional things become. As the federal government fails to address skyrocketing costs, the case for a mayor-president has never been stronger. The things Washington hasn’t been able to tackle or has failed to accomplish for decades are precisely the muscles mayors flex every day.
The mayors I’ve met are can-do optimists, free of the cynicism and vitriol that has poisoned much of American politics. Many were political outsiders who felt called to serve. Haris Doukas was a mechanical engineering professor before being elected mayor of Athens, Greece.
Patrick Payton, the now-former mayor of Midland, Texas, was a pastor. Each signed up for a relatively unglamorous job that’s part CEO, part building inspector, part mediator—and, on a bad week—part first responder and grief counselor. In my experience, mayors tend to be deeply committed to their fellow human beings and their livelihoods.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
