Zohran Mamdani is the presumed winner of New York City's Democratic mayoral primary: Technically, ranked-choice votes will take a week to fully tabulate, with the final results being declared on July 1, but second-place Andrew Cuomo has formally conceded to his opponent. Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who advocates a rent freeze, hiking taxes on the rich (and corporations), defunding the police (though he's walked this one back), and a $30 minimum wage by 2030, has taken 43.5 percent of the vote, to Cuomo's 36.4 percent, with 93 percent of votes in at publication time.
With ranked-choice voting, the candidate must still clear the 50 percent threshold, but once a candidate crosses that 40 percent line—and has some distance from their runner-up—they're the presumed winner. Mamdani's team is getting wasted, Cuomo's a bit depressed, and everyone in the city capitalism built is waking up to this crazy upset, wondering what happens next.
So what does Mamdani actually want to institute, if elected in November, and why would it suck so much?
