It was a few minutes before midnight in New York City when Zohran Mamdani stepped out to address the crowd at a Brooklyn venue. Less than nine months ago, Mamdani was showing up in early Democratic primary polls tied for last place, garnering just one percent of the votes.

Instead of patting himself on the back for turning his largely ignored entry into the mayoral race one year ago into a win establishing many firsts, he decided to congratulate the people. “New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change,” he said.

He went on to quote another politician, who, unlike Mamdani, had delivered his speech exactly at midnight. “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed,

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