Since Zohran Mamdani's sweeping victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, GOP lawmakers and leaders have unleashed a barrage of Islamophobic attacks and smears. Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid says that the racist comments obscure and distract from Mamdani's platform.

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Washington, D.C., an annual evangelical gathering in the nation's capital, Republican leaders showcased an emerging line of attack against Democrats to energize voters and defend their congressional majorities: the ascent of New York state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani,