Every year, on January 1st, a gaggle of cold-hardy New Yorkers rings in the new year

by plunging into the ice-cold ocean at Coney Island.

All right, we're going in.

We're ready to go.

This year, they had a politician jumping in with them, a then-l-known mayoral candidate and Democratic socialist named Zahran Mamdani.

He belly flopped into the frigid water, suit and tie and all, and made a promise.

I'm freezing. Your wreck is the next barrier of New York City. Let's plunge into the detail.

Music rent as the next barrier of New York City. Let's plunge into the detail. Momdani was campaigning on a platform of affordability across many sectors, but at the top of

his list, it was a promise to bring down housing costs for renters.

That's our colleague Rebecca Pachodo.

She covers real estate.

New York is a majority renter city,

so railing against high rent cost has been a campaign formula for decades of New York City mayors.

And this was no different except that the affordability problem in New York has grown even more dire,

and renters are feeling it quite viscerally.

Tapping into that frustration helped Momdani pull off a surprise victory

in this week's Democratic mayoral primary.

We have won because New Yorkers have stood up for a city they can afford.

A city where they can do more than just struggle.

Mamdani's strong showing puts them in a good position to win the general election in November.

And that's energized many young voters, struggling to make it in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

But there's one powerful group that's not so thrilled with Momdani's success.

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