Upstate NY city one-ups Zohran Mamdani by electing Communist student, 20

The leaves aren’t the only reds upstate this fall.

After Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won last week’s New York mayoral race, an upstate city has gone one better by electing a full-blown Communist.

Hannah Shvets, 20, a student organizer and member of the Communist Party USA, was elected to the Ithaca Common Council on Thursday in the Democratic stronghold’s Fifth Ward, which covers the western half of Cornell University’s campus in the city.

Shvets, a Democrat and Cornell sophomore, defeated independent candidate and former Democratic primary hopeful G.P. Zurenda after winning the endorsement of groups that include the Ithaca branch of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Ithaca Tenants Union.

The inexperienced radical — who was pictured with a cutout of Mamdani — was the youngest DSA-endorsed candidate to be elected in the party’s history.

Shvets has also participated in numerous anti-Israel protests since Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, according to left-wing outlet People’s World, which celebrated her victory.

Four out of 10 seats on the Ithaca Common Council were occupied by Cornell students ahead of Nov. 4’s election.

Among her ambitious pledges were raising the minimum wage to $25 an hour — just under the $30-an-hour figure promised by Mamdani — and adopting a just-cause employment policy that would make it far harder for employers to fire workers without good reason.

Similar to Mamdani, she campaigned on protecting rent-stabilized tenants from eviction except on grounds allowed by law.

“I just think it’s really important now to bring together issues of affordability and issues of justice. We need to find ways to make Ithaca a place in which both locals and students can live and afford to live and thrive,” the Austin, Texas-born Shvets said, as reported by the Ithaca Voice.

Shvets’ campaign did not respond immediately to requests for comment.