New York periodically exaggerates and over-promotes some event in the city as a huge turning point in the affairs of America, if not the world. But the election of Zohran Mamdani as its mayor this week, despite a ferocious and heavily financed campaign against him, may prove just as important as it looks.

Sceptics downplay the significance of his win, claiming that the liberalism and ethnic diversity of New York make it an atypical outlier in US politics. They miss the point that successful centrist Democrats running to be the governors of New Jersey and Virginia largely adopted Mamdani’s promise of radical social and economic change.

“I am fighting for affordability and on day one I am declaring a state of emergency to stop rent hikes,” said Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic gubernato

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