Can the US afford a Zohran?

While President Donald Trump was making headlines this week on the global stage, particularly playing ‘daddy’ in the Israel-Iran conflict, a political earthquake was recorded in New York City after midnight on Tuesday, and its tremors are being felt across the United States.

Enter Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Muslim of Indian origin who is a proclaimed socialist. And the game of politics in the country has suddenly changed. It would be hard to even imagine that someone like him would be the nominee of the Democratic Party for the election of the mayor of New York.

His main rival in the primary election of the Party, Andrew Cuomo, a former governor of New York state, conceded defeat in the small hours of Wednesday when almost all the ballots had been counted and Cuomo, a big star in the Democratic Party’s galaxy, was way behind Zohran. This is a stunning upset in American political history.

“In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done”, Zohran told his cheering supporters. “My friends, it is done”.

The big question, of course, is how this was possible in the time of Trump. Is the tide turning against right-wing populism? Besides, what does this say about the future of the Democratic Party, because analysts feel that Zohran’s emergence is likely to divide the party.

Zohran has been a member of the New York State Assembly for some years. The central point of his campaign is quite simple: ‘A city we can afford’. Affordability is a maj