Socialist candidate Zeran Mamdani has pulled off what has been called the biggest upset in modern political history in the New York City Democratic mayoral election.

Running on a platform of free buses, free childcare, building city-run grocery stores and freezing the rent in rent-stabilized apartments,

Mamdani defied the odds and defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa.

He defeated Cuomo in both the primary and the general election,

earning over 50% of the votes more than both of his opponents combined.

As the New York Times noted, Cuomo had formidable advantages.

He had, quote, almost universal name recognition

and was leading in the polls before he even entered the contest.

A pro-Quomo super PAC, $25 million shattered campaign spending records during the

primary, and both Republican and Democratic billionaires did everything they could to ensure

that Cuomo would prevail. Mbani has showed here the viability of the kind of program that leftists have been arguing for since Bernie Sanders ran in 2016.

Uncompromisingly bold, committed to social democratic policies, focused on economic issues without sacrificing a concern for racial or gender justice, pro-labor, anti-fascist,

and delivered in plain language with humor, warmth, and solidarity.

I actually interviewed Zeran Mald Dany last year for this program,

and he returned consistently to the concern of New Yorkers that they couldn't afford

groceries and that they couldn't afford their rent. He presented an uplifting vision of New York

becoming the city that it was always meant to be. Which is a place that working people can flourish,

that working people can dream of more than simply getting off the wheel

to go to sleep and getting back on the hamster wheel in the morning to go back to work.

Because what we have right now is a crisis where the people who've built this city,

who sustain this city are the ones who are being pushed out of this city,

all while we are concerned about this imaginary flight of the wealthy from New York

...