“New York Is Not a democracy,” read a headline from The Atlantic earlier this month lamenting the city’s ranked-choice voting system ahead of the upcoming mayoral primary election. The statement rankled some observers, but it was largely true — just not because of ranked-choice voting.

A well-financed political machine is gearing up to topple New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani even if he beats former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for mayor. While Cuomo is heavily favored to win the election, a Mamdani victory appears closer than ever: The democratic socialist leads Cuomo in one of the latest polls ahead of the June 24 election.

While the outcome would be a major accomplishment for New York City’s progressives and socialists, it would be far from the end of the road. Even if Cuomo loses on Tuesday — despite the $24.9 million the city’s billionaires, real estate tycoons, and former leaders have poured into a super PAC backing him — the disgraced former governor, like current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, plans to run in the general election on a third-party ballot line.

That possibility sounds eerily familiar to those who watched what happened in Buffalo four years ago to socialist India Walton, who beat four-term incumbent Byron Brown in the city’s 2021 Democratic primary for mayor. Rather than concede, Brown ran a last-minute campaign

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