Zohran Mamdani is an extraordinary political story: a generational political talent, an out-of-nowhere success, and—measured by the number of citizens he will soon govern—the most powerful elected democratic socialist in American history.

But his allies have tried to turn his victory into something different: a model for the national Democratic Party. “All across this country, people are sick and tired of seeing the billionaire class get richer and richer, and the billionaire class controlling to a significant degree both political parties. What Zohran Mamdani is showing is that a grassroots movement can take them on and defeat them,” Senator Bernie Sanders, a fellow democratic socialist, told The Nation just before this week’s election. “The take-aways may echo far beyond New York,” Time

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