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Alexis Madrigal: Welcome to Forum. I’m Alexis Madrigal.
Like much of the country last week, we were keeping a close eye on New York’s mayor’s race — a contest between Zoran Mamdani, a 34-year-old former SoundCloud rapper and state assemblymember, and Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and son of a governor. Mamdani won handily, taking every borough but Staten Island, and delivered a fiery victory speech that called out to many of New York’s immigrant communities.
Zoran Mamdani [CLIP]:
“Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses, Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties.”
Alexis Madrigal: And we thought — there are only a few places on earth where multiracial, multiethnic culture is so braided together. One of them is right here in the Bay Area: Samoan health care workers and Persian printers, East Africans in Brentwood and Armenian contractors, Filipino luggage handlers and Cambodian chefs, Taiwanese hardware store owners and Vietnamese academics, Panamanian outdoor educators and Salvadoran coffee roasters, Afghan realtors and Ukrainian plumbers.
See? We can do it too. We’ve got so many people here doing all kinds of work across the region. But many — maybe most — aren’t represented in local politics, at least not in the Bay Area’s biggest cities.
Here to talk about that, we’re joined by Adena Ishii, mayor of the City of Berkeley. Welcome, Mayor.
Mayor Ishii: Good morning.
Alexis Madrigal: Also with us is Noelia Corzo, a supervisor in San Mateo County. Welcome.
Supervisor Corzo: Good morning.
Alexis Madrigal: And Jane Kim, California chair of the Working Families Party and former San Francisco supervisor for District 6 from 2011 to 2019. Welcome to you.
Jane Kim: Good morning.
Alexis Madrigal: When people hear Mamdani describe “the people forgotten by politics,” we wondered — who would be on that list for your city?
Supervisor Corzo, let’s start with you. Who do you think about when you hear that list?
Supervisor Corzo: I think about my mother, who was a nanny and still cleans houses to this day. I think about the Mexican tenant-rights activist who went to Sacramento and brought me back a gift even though she has so little. And I think about the Asian grandmas walking through Central Park — in San Mateo, not New York — doing tai chi and taking care of their grandchildren. I think about so many people.
Alexis Madrigal: Right — Central Park in San Mateo.
Supervisor Corzo: Yes! We also have a Central Park.
Alexis Madrigal: Mayor Ishii, how about you?
Mayor Ishii: I think a lot about the fact that we live in a college town, and there are so many students whose voices aren’t heard. People assume that because they’re students, they’re temporary — that their opinions don’t matter. But here I am, a former Cal student, now mayor of our city.
I also think about our Black residents — their population has dropped dramatically over the years in Berkeley, and their voices aren’t being heard as much. I think about families who feel they can barely afford to live here. And right now, I’m thinking about immigrants — people who are scared to use their voices, even though they’re such an important part of our community.
Alexis Madrigal: Jane Kim, how about you?
Jane Kim: When I first ran for school board in my twenties, I remember looking at the board and thinking it didn’t reflect our district. Over 70% of our families were immigrants, more than half were Asian American or Pacific Islander — and the very constituency the district served, students, weren’t represented.
There’s so much work in governance, but also power when people come together. Most people don’t feel heard right now. Both parties have become captured by billionaires and corporations. That’s why so many Americans don’t feel represented — and I think that’s what propelled Mamdani’s unbelievable victory last week.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah. It’s interesting — there’s the specificity of the groups he named, but also the sense of a big, inclusive tent. It didn’t sound quite like the “identity politics” of the past.
Mayor Ishii: Right. It showed that he’d actually gone out and talked to people — he knew their stories. He represented not just their racial or ethnic identities, but what they do for work and how they support the city. That interconnectedness really came through. I think every group he mentioned felt seen and heard.
Alexis Madrigal: Yeah — finally, the Uzbek Nurses Club got an applause line!
Mayor Ishii: That’s rare.
Alexis Madrigal: It was such an incredible moment. Noelia, when you ran for office, how did you see yourself in relation to the people who were already in office?
Supervisor Corzo: I was absolutely different. I’m the first Latina county supervisor in the history of San Mateo County — and I wasn’t afraid to say that. I wasn’t afraid to point out that if I didn’t win, we’d have an all-male, all-white board of supervisors in a county as diverse as ours.
Alexis Madrigal: Right — I looked up the numbers. About 35% of households speak a language other than English at home, right?
Supervisor Corzo: Exactly. We have a huge immigrant community, and like Mamdani, I believe that while our cultures and backgrounds differ, we share a belief that everyone deserves to thrive in a community where they’re seen, valued, and respected. That’s what’s driven me in office. When I joined the school board in 2017, I was only the second Latino or Latina member — in a district where 35% of students are Latino.
Alexis Madrigal: So it’s been the norm for you to stand out.
Supervisor Corzo: Pretty much, yes.
Alexis Madrigal: We’re talking about Zoran Mamdani’s successful run for New York mayor — and what it made us think about: who’s represented, and who isn’t, in Bay Area politics. We’d love to hear from you. What do you love about your city that you want your leaders to celebrate?
Because that’s part of this conversation — how leaders connect with the people who make up their city. In San Francisco’s last mayoral race, candidates sometimes competed to describe how bad things were. Mayor Ishii, it seems like you’ve taken a different tack, going out to businesses, celebrating what’s working. Jane Kim, do you see a connection there — or is that something different?
Jane Kim: Lurie and Mamdani are very different candidates — and will be very different mayors — but what they share is that they’re both viewed as outsiders.
What we’ve seen over the last few election cycles is voters pushing back against the establishment, saying “anything but that.” Even Donald Trump, however we view his policies, was perceived by many as an outsider to the political establishment. People wanted someone who could break the mold. Mamdani, Lurie — and honestly, the two women sitting next to me — all represent that outsider energy.
The Working Families Party ran nearly 700 candidates across the country this year, including Mamdani, who appeared on the Working Families Party line on the New York ballot. We won mayoral races in Albany, Buffalo, and Syracuse, and in Seattle, our candidate Katie Wilson — president of the Transit Riders Union — is currently 91 votes ahead of the incumbent.
Alexis Madrigal: Oh my god — that race is still going, right?
Jane Kim: Yep, still counting.
Alexis Madrigal: Wow.
Jane Kim: I think what we’re seeing in New York is part of a broader national trend: people are hungry for something different, and they want to be listened to.
Alexis Madrigal: Mayor Ishii, you were also quite young when you were elected — 35, right? You hadn’t held office before. Did that feel significant?
Mayor Ishii: I think it’s valuable to bring that perspective. People like to call me an outsider, and in some ways that’s true — I hadn’t been elected before. But I was deeply involved in the community. I was an organizer with the League of Women Voters. I started as a student activist at Berkeley City College, fighting budget cuts to education.
So I understood the system — and like Supervisor Corzo, I wanted to see different kinds of people in office, voices that hadn’t been heard. I’m also Berkeley’s first Asian American mayor — and the first woman of color — in a city that’s had Asian residents since its inception. And honestly, I love that we’re having this conversation among three women, because even that is still rare. We don’t have nearly enough women in politics to reflect the population we serve.
Alexis Madrigal: We’re talking about political outsiders and the people who make your city what it is — with Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii, San Mateo County Supervisor Noelia Corzo, and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim.
I’m Alexis Madrigal. Stay with us.
