Over two million New Yorkers voted in the mayoral elections, which saw Zohran Mamdani win with more than one million votes himself. It’s the highest voter turnout seen in the race since 1969, when John Lindsay won re-election after switching from the Republican to Liberal Party. In 2025, the popularity of Mamdani’s campaign and the mass voter turnout was a clear result of widespread disillusionment with the entirety of the political and economic system.

The Mamdani campaign spoke to what New Yorkers - and workers across the country - need, and that’s what made it immensely popular. Free buses, city-run grocery stores with price controls, and being able to afford your rent aren’t radical demands, especially in the wealthiest city in the country. New York politicians were unwilling and unable to meet basic needs and demands, but continued funding the NYPD’s nearly $11 billion budget.

The right wing - including establishment Democrats like his opponent Andrew Cuomo, who was endorsed by the likes of Elon Musk and Donald Trump - and the far right have been whipped into a frenzy. Trump himself claims it’s a choice between “communism and common sense.” The Washington Post claims Mamdani won because “supporters of the free market” just haven’t convinced working people about the benefits of capitalism.

Now Mamdani is starting his transition plan, and soon will be a democratic socialist in charge of the municipal government at the heart of Western capitalism. From the influence of Wall Street money to the gentrification of property owners to the brutality of the NYPD itself, he will face a mountain of contradictions that only a mass movement can truly address.

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