Democratic socialists like Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani may win primaries. But they are pulling that party so far to the left that they can’t win a general election.

In many ways, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders are doing the Republican Party a big favor.

Yet the New York City mayoral election will be an interesting experiment.

Can a moderate Democrat, Mayor Adams, now running as an independent, who was once a Republican and a New York City cop, defeat Mr. Mamdani’s socialism?

I think he can.

Mr. Mamdani wants to defund the police, and that is pure insanity.

This is not the Summer of Love when cities like Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland went up in flames.

New Yorkers don’t want another Summer of Love.

Crime and safety are a crucial issue.

Families, schools, businesses, neighborhoods — everyone wants safe streets.

Mr. Adams, the former cop, is the guy to do it.

Probably Mr. Adams’s single best appointment was, for police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

She and Mr. Adams put a lot of cops into the subways. And crime promptly went down 18 percent, to the second-lowest level in 27 years.

Overall, in the past two years, crime has gone down 7 percent. Murders have fallen 33 percent, robberies 9 percent, burglaries 12 percent. These are NYPD numbers and they tell an important story.

A crazy socialist like Mr. Mamdani, who wants to defund the police, poses a great threat to every New Yorker.

He also wants to fight Tom Homan’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the effort to deport violent criminals. Mr. Homan won’t be stopped. And the border tsar is standing squarely behind Mr. Adams.

“Yes, I met with Eric,” Mr. Homan says, “I’m starting in November, and he wants to do the right thing. Look, he wants to be a law and order mayor.”

And Mr. Adams should make the same case.

Crime has no place at NYC. But the blue line is most welcome.

And, just like all socialists, Mr. Mamdani wants to spend and spend. Tax and tax.

One estimate is that all of his “free” spending on buses, childcare, tuition, government-run grocery stores, gender transition, and who knows what else, would come to $100 billion — which is just short of the $116 billion NYC budget today.

In other words, he wants to double the budget. And raise taxes on businesses and successful individuals in order to pay for it.

Mayors can’t do that — it’s up to the state legislature. That’s a small consolation if Mr. Mamdani actually won.

Then again, if he does win, all the New York area airports will be completely clogged up with businesspeople fleeing to Florida or maybe Texas, or North Carolina, or Nashville.

One thing socialists never seem to understand, as Prime Minister Thatcher pointed out years ago, is that at one point they actually run out of other people’s money.

And then of course, Mr. Mamdani is antisemitic.

The day after the tragic October 7, 2023, Hamas murder of 1,200 mostly Jewish people, antisemitic Mr. Mamdani blamed Israel, rather than Hamas or Iran.

He has also vowed to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu next time he comes to the city.

And, sure, all these college students from Columbia and NYU in the New York area think it’s cool to march against Israel and embrace antisemitism. Yet it’s not cool. It has become a hate crime. Mr. Mamdani is a hater.

And you know what?

Somebody with hatred of Israel is going to be a hater of America as well.

These are crucial points that Mr. Adams could make throughout the campaign.

I also think Governor Cuomo should just give it all up — and take himself out of the race.

Crime and the economy. Common sense versus far-left socialism. Safe streets and prosperous businesses.

If Mayor Adams makes the right case, he will be re-elected as mayor of New York.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.