An unthinkable victory on a historic night. A socialist triumphing in the capitalistic mecca. The first Muslim at the helm of the city of 9/11. The youngest politician in a century entering the veterans' office in a big way. And all in a few hours of joy for the Democratic Party after over a year wandering aimlessly through the halls of Congress, thanks to a cascade of significant victories in key states and cities across the country that have infuriated Donald Trump.
Zohran Mamdani, 34 years old, with no experience leading an institution and without formal support from his Party, won the mayoral elections of New York City, the largest city in the United States, this Tuesday. He did so decisively: with a whopping 50% of the votes in a day that saw over two million ballots, something unprecedented since the 1960s, to defeat former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
With a speech and a campaign focused on the cost of living, "hope over fear," and the almost impossible promise of real change. "Today we breathe the air of a reborn city. Tonight New York has spoken with a clear voice: hope is alive. Hope over tyranny, hope over the power of money and petty ideas, hope over despair. We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to believe that the impossible could become a reality," celebrated the hero of the day from a packed theater in Brooklyn filled with very young supporters.
The rise of Mamdani, a democratic socialist who wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, freeze protected rents, make public transportation and daycare and schools up to five years old free, but who lacks a solid plan to finance it and sufficient support in the administrations, has caught a country still assimilating Donald Trump's conservative revolution, which began exactly a year ago. Trump, who has scorned, insulted, and belittled the new mayor, threatening to cut off federal funding, was among the first to react. He did so first, true to his style, on social media, saying that "Trump's absence on the ballots and the State shutdown are the two reasons why Republicans lost the elections tonight, according to the polls." A way to emphasize that he never loses. And that the reason is the situation in Congress.
That's why, early Wednesday, he summoned all the senators of his party to the White House. There he acknowledged that the result had been bad. "I don't think it was good for the Republicans. I'm not sure it was good for anyone, but it was an interesting evening, we learned a lot and we will talk about it." That's why he urged, ordered, the senators to use what he calls the "nuclear option" and to change, by hook or by crook, the rules of the upper chamber to eliminate the rule that requires 60% of the votes to reopen the Government.
Trump was furious because he believes the results could have been different. The night was very good for the Democrats. Not extraordinary or definitive, but the first boost towards the 2026 legislative elections, something critical in a country built on traditions, anniversaries, and surprisingly simplistic analyses of demographic trends. Just as a few enthusiasts in Iowa or New Hampshire can decide the future of a national candidacy in the presidential elections, a few governor, mayor, or prosecutor positions change the country's media discourse.
And that happened on Tuesday. Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger won the elections in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, and will be governors. Jay Jones will also be the Attorney General of Virginia. The vice president's brother, JD Vance, was overwhelmingly defeated in his attempt to become mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mary Sheffield will be the first woman on the Detroit City Council and Corey O'Connor will become the mayor of Pittsburgh. Additionally, Proposition 50, the California governor's initiative to restructure districts in an electorally advantageous way for his party, was also approved.
Mamdani's victory is a municipal triumph, but a national symbolic shake-up that comes amid a deep debate over the soul of the Democratic Party. A party lost, without an opposition strategy, without a clear leader not only for the 2028 presidential elections but for the 2026 legislative elections. Divided between those who advocate putting all their chips on centrism and those who call for moving to the left and fighting. The new mayor, who will be sworn in on January 1, says that realism is essential and accepting that the clash with Washington "is not a possibility, it is practically inevitable." And that yielding or hiding is not an option. "We must respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength they fear, not with the complacency they crave. If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that saw him born," he concluded amidst cheers.