Zohran Mamdani has won the race for New York City mayor, according to Decision Desk HQ, ushering in a new era of progressive politics in the city and reigniting the debate over the Democratic Party’s future.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, is poised to become the first millennial and first Muslim to lead New York City, after a campaign that pulled off one of the most stunning political upsets in recent memory. He defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who mounted a long-shot independent bid after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in his bid to succeed Mayor Eric Adams.

Mamdani focused heavily on affordability, pledging to freeze rent, establish city-owned grocery stores and make buses free for riders. He quickly became a progressive icon as well as a polarizing figure within the party over his positions, so much so that it divided prominent New York Democratic leadership over whether to endorse him.

  • merdaverse@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    A win for the people! Cuomo’s campaign expenses were $56 million, 2.5 times higher than Mamdani’s. Cuomo was mostly funded by billionaires, while Mamdani had mostly small sum contributions.

    Why are capitalists so bad at investments?? Weren’t they supposed to be the smart entrepreneurs?

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      58 minutes ago

      Truth is that this sort of thing has worked out for them before. Trump would not be in office right now if he wasn’t bankrolled by Musk and Thiel. There were reports in early 2024 that the GOP was basically broke.

      A few million to a campaign can be converted into billions of tax benefits. Just think of how much they got out of the Trump tax credits from the first term. Pile on top of that cases where they get sweet government contracts (like Palantir). It’s all a direct shift of money from the working class and into capitalists with the government as an intermediary.

      Which is to say that, yes, it is good investment for them. They can afford to miss a few sometimes. Generally, they play the game to win more than they lose. If you win every time, it’s actually an Enron-style red flag.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      Weren’t they supposed to be the smart entrepreneurs?

      Like Mamdani said. They’re spending a lot more than what he’s planning on taxing them.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Why are capitalists so bad at investments?

      Because it’s actually worked. The wealthy have become outrageously more wealthy in the last several decades because of their interference in elections.

      Mamdani is a setback for their plans, but honestly 56 million dollars is effectively nothing compared to the money the elite, donor-class holds and uses to influence society. The only way we topple their stranglehold is to have more “Mamdani Events” in every major city and state while we still have democracy and can launch grass-roots elections to remove corruption and money from politics.

    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Historically and even now, it works. The ones who spend the most, gets the air time, and the George Carlin Americans eat it up and form their opinions after “doing their research” which is nothing but watching TV and facebook from other people who are George Carlin Americans.

      It’s super effective and that amount of money where looking at is chump change to these guys.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        The funniest part is that I never, at least from the clips, got the idea that George Carlin was a conservative but he did always have an air about him that I think made conservatives believe he wasn’t talking about them.

        Now, I’m sure this will prompt me learning some things about Carlin but hey, I’m open to that too.

        • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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          58 minutes ago

          He was more anti-establishment than anything else. He was also famous enough to be in the big club we’re not in.

      • immutable@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        Don’t worry. There is a small army of well paid McKinsey consultants right now reassuring the DNC that while economic populism won for Mamdani it would never work outside of New York. They will tell the ghouls bought and paid for by big money donors that yesterday wasn’t a complete loss, Liz Cheney could get some sympathy votes on the ticket if the DNC is just brave enough to make her the VP nom and pivot to the center.