As mayor-elect, one of Zohran Mamdani ’s first acts was to squelch an insurgent leftist’s political campaign.

If this, like Mamdani’s chummy meeting with Donald Trump, was obviously jarring, it carried a certain logic. He had been open about the fact that he did not want Chi Ossé , a popular leftist and 27-year-old City Council member, to undertake a primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries next year. To make his point subtly, he had disinvited Ossé from his victory party. Then, to make it more bluntly, he showed up at a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America and told everybody not to endorse Ossé. Ultimately, DSA listened to its mayor.

Why has Mamdani been acting this way? Why does he seem to be forsaking another young leftist who is attempting, i

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