Socialist candidate Zoran Mamdani has pulled off the biggest upset in modern New York political history

in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary.

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

He had almost universal name recognition, and he was leading in the polls before he even entered the contest.

A pro-Quomo super pack with

$25 million shattered campaign spending records and both Republican and

Democratic billionaires did everything they could to ensure that Cuomo would prevail.

But Cuomo was complacent. He limited his public appearances, hoping to avoid awkward confrontations with voters.

He hoped his name and his money could get him into office, and he flooded the airwaves with attack ads against

Mamdani. Namdani, on the other hand, while he could be vicious towards Cuomo when he wanted to,

ran a largely positive and joy-filled campaign,

meeting New Yorkers on the streets, deploying humor and whimsy, and relentlessly hammering

his core theme of affordability. When I interviewed Mamdani last year for current affairs,

he returned to the core concern of New Yorkers that they couldn't afford groceries,

that they couldn't afford the rent. He presented an uplifting vision of New York. And I asked New Yorkers

who lived in those neighborhoods, why? Why did they vote for Trump when previously many of them

had been voting Democrat? And what I had heard from them is the same issue, that they felt

they had more money in their

pocket four years ago, that they couldn't afford groceries, they couldn't afford their rent.

And here, in their words, was a candidate that spoke to their anxiety, spoke to their, the necessity

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