A New Morning in New York City
(Hell Gate)

A New Morning in New York City

The biggest political upset in city history, and other links to start a very different Wednesday.

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When State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani took the stage earlier this month to speak in front of thousands of supporters alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Terminal 5, he already had much to be satisfied about. His longshot mayoral campaign, which began with him polling at just 1 percent against former Governor Andrew Cuomo, had caught fire, and he was in second place (albeit a distant one) in the polls. He'd been able to amass millions in small donations and matching funds, and his campaign had built an army of 30,000 canvassers, who were fanning out across the city. The longshot race for a democratic socialist to become mayor had now become somewhat competitive.

If Mamdani lost to Andrew Cuomo, who was being powered by name recognition and, ultimately, $25 million in super PAC spending, then conceivably he could still look around at his campaign and consider it a massive success. 

But that night, Mamdani said to the crowd, whose roars had reached an ear-splitting decibel when he took the stage, that merely coming close to winning actually wouldn't be enough. 

"To everyone who pulls me aside to whisper with the best intentions, 'You have already won': I am sorry, but the days of moral victories are over," Mamdani told the crowd. "As my father told me years ago, when the right wins power, the left writes a great book. Those days are over too."

On Tuesday, those days ended in New York City—with the greatest political upset in modern New York City history. 

By the time he took the stage after midnight, Mamdani had scored a resounding victory, with Cuomo calling him to concede defeat in the Democratic primary. 

"Tonight was not our night," Cuomo told supporters earlier in the evening at a union hall in Manhattan. "Tonight was Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's night."

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