It's the Brian Lear Show.

I'm producer Amina Serna filling in for Brian today.

Good morning again, everyone.

We'll now take a closer look at the communities that delivered Assembly member Zoran Mamdani his win in the Democratic mayoral primary this week.

Joining me now is S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder of URL media and CEO and publisher of Epicenter NYC.

Hi, Mitra. Welcome back to WNYC.

Hi, Amina. It's great to be with you.

You've admitted that you didn't believe Mom Dani stood a chance against, quote, the machines

and money he faced in this election.

Talk about the machines and money.

What makes these hurdles seem so insurmountable?

And what's your broad view of how Mamdani did it?

Sure. It's a great question. And it sort of is the backdrop of my career in local and national

politics. So I've been a journalist about 30 years. I've been in Queens most of that time,

although, you know, I've worked in national media. And, you know, it's sort of a thing that we all know in Queens,

that there is this infamous machine here,

they decide who wins elections,

and even as we've had a number of upsets, you know,

most notably, AOC and her defeat of Joe Crowley a few years ago, you know,

it's sort of known that you not just have to kiss the ring, but there's a, you know, a real

process to winning elections in Queens and sort of by virtue of that New York City.

And, you know, just sort of an example of this is if when people run for citywide office,

...