Democrat Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday (US time), in a mammoth victory for the party’s progressive wing. It caps a stunning ascent for the 34-year-old, who will become NYC’s most liberal mayor in generations. But Mamdani has already drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and other Republicans, who have tried to cast him as the face of a new, more radical Democratic Party. This article was written as New Yorkers prepared to vote.

Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani looks increasingly like the one to beat at next week’s election. But he is up against more than the usual political challenges.

US President Donald Trump has referred to him as “my little communist” and called his nomination “a rebellion”. More recently there have been calls for Mamdani’s citizenship to be investigated.

Born in Uganda, and the first Muslim nominee for mayor of the biggest city in the US, the 34-year-old Mamdani is an obvious target. But it is his stance as a democratic socialist that has really invited the old-school “red-baiting”, aimed at discrediting him by invoking Cold War anxieties.

In fact, Mamdani’s approach to democratic socialism is less about an abstract political ideology than it is about practical solutions. As he has put it:

We want to showcase our ideals, not by lecturing people about how........

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