This is on the media's midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Well, it's official. Last night,

Zoran Mamdani won the 2025 New York City mayoral race.

The future is in our hands.

My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty.

This local race has captured the attention of the national media since June when he won the Democratic primary,

partly because he is young, energetic, and a candidate who mobilized voters,

partly because he's a dual citizen of Uganda and the United States, is Muslim and supports Palestinian rights, but I think mostly

because he comes with a heap of progressive policy proposals, is a member of the Democratic

Socialists of America and darn charismatic to boot.

New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand didn't back Mamdani,

and the top-ranking House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries waited until the day before early voting

began to endorse the Democratic nominee.

Mamdani's divided party support reflects an intensifying argument

over whether Democratic candidates must move closer to the political center

or further away to win.

It's a debate that stretches back decades, remember Bill Clinton and the New Democrats?

But this current iteration, which picked up steam after Kamala Harris was roundly defeated in the 2024 election,

has come to seem increasingly existential.

Late last month, the New York Times weighed in with an editorial that looked at the Democratic House candidates who won in districts that also went for Donald Trump.

And it concluded, quote, candidates closer to the political center from both parties continue to fare better in most elections than those further to the right or to the left.

The Democrats who win tough races work hard to signal to voters that they are less progressive than their party.

Elliot Morris is a journalist, statistician, an author of the data-driven news website Strengthen Numbers.

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