Reports of the death of the Democratic party seem to have been greatly exaggerated. On Tuesday night, Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old political novice who won New Yorkers over with an affable demeanor that seemed to take infectious joy in the people of the city and a relentlessly focused message of affordability, swept to the mayoralty of the US’s largest city with a commanding lead.

In so doing, Mamdani defeated what has been, since 2010’s Citizen’s United decision unleashing unlimited money into American political campaigns, one of the most indefatigable forces in electoral politics: the preferences of billionaires. And it wasn’t close – Mamdani trounced his billionaire-backed opponent by nearly nine points.

Mamdani had faced down a robust funding campaign by the nation’s ultra-rich in favor of his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former New York governor who ran as an independent in the mayoral race after Mamdani defeated him in a landslide upset victory this past summer. (The Republican ballot line featured Curtis Sliwa, a perennial mayoral candidate and New York City eccentric who was not a real contender in the race.) Billionaires, perturbed by Mamdani’s avowed socialist politics, his proposals for expanded social services like universal childcare, and his declarations that billionaires should not exist, had backed Cuomo with a fervor that at times bordered on mania.

Bill Ackman, the hedge fund manager and prominent Trump supporter, gave a pro-Cuomo group a........

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