Zohran Mamdani’s grin was as magnetic as ever, his rhetoric soaring, as he began his victory speech Tuesday night by summoning the spirit of an American socialist who died 99 years ago. “The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,’” the mayor-elect of New York told his audience in Brooklyn.

Mamdani’s election was indeed consequential. A democratic socialist, he is among New York’s youngest mayors ever, and its first Muslim and South Asian leader. His margin—he claimed 50.4 percent of the vote—fell short of grand. But this election saw remarkable turnout. Mamdani was the first New York mayoral candidate to gain more than 1 million votes since 1969. Andrew Cuomo, even in defeat, received more votes than any

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