Cue the strings. It's been a crazy six months, a primary election for the Democratic candidate for mayor replete with smears, scandals, and most importantly, content. The Democratic primary class of 2025 was just a ragtag group of kids brought together, "Breakfast Club" style, by the opportunity created by a mayor languishing in historic scandal and unpopularity. Each of them brought something unique to the table—you had the nerd (Zellnor Myrie), the theater kid (Zohran Mamdani), the jock (Brad Lander), the goth (Adrienne Adams), and the guy no one really even knew was part of the class (I was going to say Michael Blake, but really it's Whitney Tilson, who I actually still couldn't pick out of a crowd). And then, of course, you had the creepy principal who's too old to be a part of this (I don't have to say who that is… okay, it's Scott Stringer).
A few weeks ago, when New York Magazine dropped a video on social media which featured many of the candidates sat before a bowl of cartoon-like spaghetti, I actually found myself getting… a little misty-eyed. I realized that, despite how heated things got, now that it's all over, I'm actually going to kind of miss these crazy kids.
The emphasis on social media that arose this primary encouraged the candidates, however awkward and unwilling, to expose a little of their "true selves," or at least fragments of their personae that their teams thought might play well. And honestly, the more awkward the better: Ranked-choice voting created an orgy of uncomfortable alliances and glaring non-alliances, and it all played out on short-form video. So you had moments like Adrienne Adams delivering a deeply traditional stump speech while sitting across a diner table from quirked-up zillennial council member Chi Ossé.
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