Zohran Mamdani’s astonishing win in the primary to determine who will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor in New York City was good news for the incumbent Eric Adams, who will run in November as an independent.
Yes, that Eric Adams. The one who faced multiple counts of corruption, which were dismissed thanks to his groveling before President Trump. The same Eric Adams who may not have even lived in New York City at the time of his election. Who promised to return New York to its prepandemic glory, only to get distracted by the offerings at his beloved Osteria La Baia.
That’s because for many New Yorkers, Adams, for all his shortcomings, is still the better option than Mamdani, the 33-year-old state legislator and democratic socialist who excited the electorate by promising free buses and city-run grocery stores. Some expected the ballot-counting to take days, even weeks. But his main rival for the nomination, former governor Andrew M. Cuomo, conceded well before midnight.