Election Day is finally here—and what a ride this election season's been.
But even after all of the sturm und drang of the months since Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani defeated disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in a stunning primary victory—to recap, Cuomo, displaying a remarkable capacity for self-flagellation, deciding to run as an independent; our current (also disgraced) mayor insisting he too would run as an independent, only to drop his reelection bid; a total billionaire freakout; and a last-minute turn toward naked racism and Islamophobia—we have Mamdani maintaining a fairly comfortable lead in the polls (and seemingly having the time of his life).
Excuse us for this (brief) moment of sincerity, but history will be made tonight—the greatest city in the world will, by all indications, soon enough be led by a democratic socialist, at a time when all of the bulwarks are crumbling.
There will be a lot to say in the coming days (and we'll be saying it—a special episode of the Hell Gate Podcast will be dropping tomorrow) but for now, Hell Gate's live blog will be humming all day as our reporters fan out across the city to talk to voters.
And don't forget: Tonight, from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Hell Gate will go LIVE on our YouTube channel for coverage of the general election. Your hosts in the studio will break down the results in real time, and kick it to our reporters in the field. We'll take you to the election night parties for Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa, with the delightful amount of chaos—and surprises—that comes with doing it all live. You won't want to miss it! Want to watch it with your fellow New Yorkers? You can find a list of bars that will be playing our livestream here.