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In November, New York City may elect as its next mayor a man who was pretty much unknown to the broader public a year ago. Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-three-year-old member of the State Assembly and democratic socialist, won a primary upset against the current mayor, Eric Adams , and the former governor Andrew Cuomo, who was trying to stage a political comeback. Mamdani now leads the race by around twenty percentage points in most polls. His mayoral run has been remarkable, but far from easy. Mamdani’s campaign message of affordability—his ads widely tout a rent freeze in the city—resonates with voters, but his call to further ta

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