The New Third Worldism in American Politics

On November 4, 2025, Indian-American Zohran Mamdani was elected as the first Muslim mayor of New York City. The city’s immigrants and young white liberals were central to his triumph. His platform combined left-wing economics and a ‘woke’ position on cultural issues with support for the Palestinians against Israel. This raised the question of whether a new ‘Third Worldist’ ideology was ascendant on the American left, a set of ideas that will set the tone for the next generation of progressive politics. The success of Rashida Tlaib in Detroit, Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary point in the same direction.

This report draws on a survey which oversamples liberals and Muslims to explore the level of support for Third Worldism. It finds that there is a substantial Third Worldist constituency which unites American liberals and American Muslims - including conservative Muslims. Attitudes toward the West, America, Israel and socialism tend to be correlated within individuals. An ‘oppressor versus oppressed’ power lens is applied by Third Worldists domestically and internationally, culturally and economically. Finally, the study uncovers an Extreme Third Worldist segment of public opinion which comprises fully one quarter of American liberals and nearly 4 in 10 American Muslims.

While Third Worldism and antisemitism are not strongly correlated, the Islamo-left coalition draws together liberals, who are less antisemitic than average, with Muslims, who are considerably more antisemitic than the average American. This raises the possibility that antisemitism may accompany anti-Israel sentiment in parts of this new coalition.

The rise of Third Worldism as the left’s cardinal belief system presages a realignment of the American left and wider Democratic Party away from liberal Jews, most of whom are attached to Israel, toward the fast-growing American Muslim population.