Young socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani appeared poised for a major upset in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary on Wednesday, trouncing his scandal-plagued establishment opponent in a race widely viewed as a referendum on the party’s direction.
Results were not yet final, but Mamdani – who is just 33 and would become the city's first Muslim mayor – had such a commanding lead that his biggest rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat overnight.
Mamdani's success was seen as a rebuke to Democratic centrists who backed the powerful Cuomo, as the party flails nationally in search of a way to counter Republican President Donald Trump's hard-right movement.
The Ugandan-born state assemblyman was behind Cuomo in polls until near the end, surging on a message of lower rents, free daycare and other populist ideas in the notoriously expensive metropolis.
Commenting on the primary result in his former hometown, Trump lashed out at Mamdani as "a 100% Communist Lunatic," adding that Democrats had "crossed the line" by choosing him.
