Mayor Zohran Mamdani How he won and what he’ll do. Plus: Fly-fishing with Dick Cheney, and much more.
Zohran Mamdani reacts as he walks onstage to speak at a mayoral election night watch party on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, in New York. (Yuki Iwamura via AP Photo)
It’s Wednesday, November 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Fly-fishing with Dick Cheney, what Trump understands about Boko Haram, a disturbing theory about Luigi Mangione, and more. But first: About last night. Democrats had a very good night on Tuesday. Abigail Spanberger won big in the Virginia governor’s race. Mikie Sherrill comfortably defeated Jack Ciattarelli in the governor’s race in New Jersey. Proposition 50 passed in California, a victory for Gavin Newsom that will create as many as five more Democratic-leaning congressional seats in the state. But perhaps the biggest story was the result in America’s biggest city: New York’s next mayor will be 34-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani. At the start of the year, virtually no one had heard of Mamdani. Yesterday, he became the first New York mayoral candidate in over 50 years to win more than a million votes. His win is many things: a sign of rising sympathy for socialism in America, the start of a high-stakes experiment in far-left government, a (final?) nail in the coffin of the Cuomo political dynasty, a blueprint other progressives hope to replicate nationwide, and much more. It is, in other words, an extraordinary story. Olivia Reingold has been covering that story from the start. In our first offering today, she reports from Mamdani’s victory party, talks to the next mayor’s supporters, and reflects on how he pulled it off. Next, Maya Sulkin and Tanner Nau look forward to how Mayor Mamdani will actually govern. His campaign has been full of big, expensive promises. Will he have the power to deliver on them? Many on the left are hoping Mamdani’s win isn’t just a one-off, but a blueprint that can be replicated nationwide. Jonas Du profiles the progressives hoping to repeat the Mamdani formula. If you weren’t one of the more than one million (!) people who watched our election livestream on X and the website last night, you can catch up here: Or watch some of the highlights, like former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly on why he thinks public safety will suffer under Mamdani, Reihan Salam on the “genius of this democratic socialist moment,” Nellie Bowles on why Mamdani won’t moderate, and Colin Quinn on why being New York mayor is like being a Jets quarterback. —The Editors |