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.

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February 2026 Issue

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.

In one of the most acclaimed ads of his campaign, the then-longshot candidate interviewed food cart operators about “halalflation.” They’d applied for permits, but were stuck in a waiting list almost 10,000 would-be vendors long. The number of permits was strictly capped, and between 2021 and early 2024, only 71 new ones were issued. So, to start their businesses, the vendors paid extortionate sums on the black market to rent existing permits, passing their artificially inflated costs on to customers.

In December, with Mamdani’s support, the City Council passed a bill raising the cap on street vendor permits. The benefits may not be solely economic: Amid the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown, which has seen even minor infractions used to justify harassment, detention, and deportation, providing the city’s largely immigrant street vendors with the chance to operate legally may help shield them from abuse.

And amid his universal childcare push, Mamdani’s administration has pledged to partner with in-home daycares. Despite their integral role in supporting working families and the city’s economy, these small businesses were sidelined during prior 3-K and pre-K expansions—in part because they struggled to contend with regulations that larger childcare providers could more easily meet.

This is a far cry from the carnival of red tape–shredding that the right longs for, and stands apart from the corporate-friendly vision of abundance adopted by Klein and Thompson’s most fervent supporters. Instead, as Mamdani put it, this is an “agenda of abundance that puts the 99 percent over the 1 percent.”

For Democrats, whom voters have historically trusted less than Republicans when it comes to the economy, this is an opportunity to embrace a politics that turns a longtime weakness into a new asset. The Trump administration’s egregious economic mismanagement has cost the party much of its lead in voter confidence. Now the left has a chance to maintain and even build upon these gains—perhaps by proving itself to be both tamer of big-business excess and champion of small-business success.