If successful, his policies might offer a new nationwide playbook.

Kreyol Flavor owner Cursy Saint Surin walks with Democratic Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani inside of Kreyol Flavor as he takes a tour of the neighborhood on October 25, 2025 in the East Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. Mamdani was joined by Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and City Councilmember Farah Louis.

For the right, few words are more beloved than “deregulation.” GOP candidates often spend their campaigns raging against the boogeyman of the regulatory bureaucracy, and once they take office, right-wing policymakers use their power to slash at the guardrails protecting Americans’ health, environment, and wallets. In the earliest days of his term, President Donald Trump managed to one-up even the usual Republican enthusiasm for red tape-cutting, assigning federal agencies the ridiculous and arbitrary target of repealing 10 regulations for each new one they enact.

In recent weeks, however, a far more judicious form of deregulation has found a surprising champion: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. No, the new mayor isn’t making a shocking rightward turn—instead, his administration is focused on lightening the administrative load for New York’s more than 183,000 small businesses.

Progressives have long and justly condemned the deleterious effects of mega-corporations like Walmart and Amazon, whose tax dodging, union busting, and cost-cutting tactics undermine market competition and workers’ rights. But Mamdani is pairing leftist critique of big business with deregulatory measures that bolster smaller enterprises. If successful, these policies will help give mom-and-pop shops a fighting chance against the corporate behemoths—and may also offer a new playbook for progressives nationwide.

After declaring in his inaugural address that he would “free small business owners from the shackles of bloated bureaucracy,” Mamdani signed an executive order earlier this month to do just that. It directs city agencies to comb through the more than 6,000 rules governing small businesses and identify opportunities to simplify regulations and reduce the myriad associated fees and fines.

It’s a timely move that could strengthen the small businesses at the heart of America’s largest city. Though New York is the nation’s financial capital and home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other American locale, 89 percent of its businesses have fewer than 20 employees—and these small operations are facing significant pressures. In addition to navigating the city’s sprawling regulatory ecosystem, they must contend with rising rents, Trump’s scattershot tariffs, and an affordability crisis that is leaving middle-class Americans increasingly unable to engage in discretionary spending. The result: This spring, 8,400 businesses ceased operations in the city, while only 3,500 new ones opened.

Of course, many ordinances are indispensable; after all, few would want to eat at a restaurant that doesn’t answer to a health inspector. But in a fraught economic landscape, Mamdani’s reimagining of the city’s regulatory structure could be the difference between survival and shuttering for many of New York City’s struggling small enterprises. After all, when the government throws up too many hoops for independent businesses, only the wealthy will be able to afford to jump through them.

Mamdani is by no means the first left-of-center voice—or even the first inhabitant of Gracie Mansion—to attempt to reclaim the politics of deregulation from conservatives. Most recently, the topic was central to the political bestseller Abundance: How We Build a Better Future. In it, the journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that progressives have for too long tolerated labyrinthine approval processes and regulatory apparatuses. By doing so, the authors assert, well-meaning leftists have obstructed the construction of housing, public transportation, and other social goods.

The abundance framework has been lauded by centrist Democrats searching for a path out of the wilderness of the party’s disastrous 2024 election defeat—a path that won’t ruffle corporate feathers, of course. And it’s been roundly criticized on the left for its potential to provide cover for the sort of pro-business, deregulatory free-for-all that libertarian fantasies are made of. However, the still-burgeoning Mamdani administration may prove that, when paired with other progressive priorities, targeted deregulation can both serve working Americans and be politically resonant.