Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Zohran Mamdani is about to Seize the Democratic appointment to the mayor of New York. This sentence alone would have read like Dream Logic one to two months ago, but it is even more remarkable sincerew Cuomo is far from winning.
With almost all the constituencies, Mamdani, a 33 -year -old socialist assembly, holds a 44 to 36% lead on Cuomo, the former disgrace governor, among the votes in first place. The classified choice calculation is suddenly out of the point: it is very improbable that Cuomo constitutes the deficit on July 1, when the classified choice process is finished. He did in primary school. Unless he attempts a desperate race in the general elections on an independent line, Cuomo’s political Billology is written and will have no revision.
It is an election of realignment in the city, and perhaps one of the most important victories of a shameless candidate on the left in the history of the United States. No one as Mamdani has never won an election where up to a million people voted. This is similar to a socialist winning an average size state. There is no real precedent for what happened tonight. Progressives across America will be authentic to him. For the Republicans, he is the big new Bogeyman.
Mamdani, who surveyed almost 0% when he entered the race last October, killed a political dynasty and a democratic establishment that wanted him to dead. He beat a great CAP funded by the richest men in the world, including Michael Bloomberg, who sparked more than 25 million dollars in advertisements, many of which are wild attacks against his policies and character. It resulted in everything. He would be, if he won, the first South Asian mayor of the city and first Muslim mayor. He is already one of the most eminent left-wing politicians in America, joining the Pantheon with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. However, none of the members of the Congress has ever won a race like this. (Disclosure: In 2018, Mamdani managed my campaign for the State Senate.)
A parallel, if it is high, could be Barack Obama. Mamdani and Obama were initially mocked by their opponents, considered too inexperienced, ineffective and even foreigners. Few Americans have imagined someone with a name as Obama could become president of the United States. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, even a year ago, could also have seemed eccentric.
Within New York, Mamdani wrote a new game book. He beat Cuomo in three boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan – and won a voting of a multracial youth which seemed far beyond most of the candidates. Cuomo’s coalition was classic and apparently durable, a mixture of organized work, the rich and the moderate of the outside district. It was enough to elect Eric Adams. But he could not push Cuomo in front of a rival which was over thirty his junior. A new city was born in this election: a much younger gradual block which bends its muscle like never before. And Mamdani turned out that a avowed leftist could deeply reach the city for votes, winning racial and economically diverse districts. His populist campaign spoke to a city in shock from an accessibility crisis, and its pro-Palestine opinions, alienating to conservative Jewish voters, were a large draw for a wave of youthful sickness of carnage in Gaza.
A word for Cuomo: he ran, no doubt, the worst undergraduate campaign in New York history, if everywhere in the country. He entered the race with enormous survey responsibility, universal recognition of the name, a huge advantage of fundraising and a multitude of institutional mentions. None of that matters because it has barely campaigned. He avoided public appearances and media issues. His various scandals, allegations of sexual harassment which forced him to go to his mismanagement of Covid, continued to the dog and he had no answers. His campaign was a fleeing dreadnusht. Mamdani sank it.
Before this evening, there have been a lot of discussions on a potential general election between Mamdani, Cuomo, mayor Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa, a republican. Cuomo as a sign -up seemed to be forced to run, even if he has lost, and now the question will become If he tries again in autumn. The city’s elite of power – the real estate and financial class – is terrified by Mamdani and throws for someone who can block his ascent. Adams, which jumped the Democratic primary, is extremely unpopular and marked by the scandal, but it suddenly seems unattractive than Cuomo, who has just been exploded by a young socialist. Does Adams have a second wind? Does Cuomo try again anyway? Can Sliwa sneak with plurality?
With this kind of victory, Mamdani is embraced. The Democratic establishment, which Cuomo is so intimidated, will now drift towards him. Labor approvals will be to come. Mamdani will have a lot of money. He will be his own mastodon. A new city has increased, and we are about to discover what it will look like.