It was not the show Donald Trump wanted to see.
America’s off-season “election special” starred Zohran Mamdani, and the supporting cast counted Democrats who won electoral contests across the country.
It was a “blue wave” of sorts – small but potentially significant.
New York mayor latest: US president reacts to Mamdani win
Mamdani’s victory places him as the first Muslim to hold the office of New York mayor. He’s the history boy who would style himself as the future of the Democratic Party.
His victory feels big – for him and his political movement. His left-wing politics and promises on affordability chimed with a body of people who feel disenfranchised from politics, whatever the party.
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Mamdani hit on the formula that worked for Trump, albeit at the other end of the political spectrum.
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He focused, relentlessly, on the cost of living, affordability in unaffordable New York, and it delivered populist appeal. He’s a big beast in the party now – too big for the old guard to ignore, as much as they might like.
Moderate Democrats see difficulties in selling his politics to middle America, where the 2028 election will be won and lost, believing his Democratic socialism does not bite so hard beyond the ‘Big Apple’.
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The party has to somehow accommodate and exploit his support and success, however.
Mamdani is not alone on the progressive wing of the Democratic movement, and he nudged its centre of gravity to the left.
Mamdani is ‘stick’ to beat Democrats with
“AND SO IT BEGINS!” wrote Donald Trump on Truth Social.
What begins, in earnest, is a Trump effort to use Mamdani as a stick to beat the Democrats with. The news has attracted controversy over time, in calling for the defunding of the police, decriminalisation of prostitution and staunch criticism of Israel.
Mamdani pointedly stated in his victory speech there would be no room for anti-semitism in City Hall – he knows where the attack lines are because he’s heard them before – “communist”, “extremist”, “insurgent”.
Read more from Sky News:
Mamdani: ‘Trump’s worst nightmare’
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
He has long been seen as the mayor that Trump wanted – for the same reason that the Democratic establishment was not keen – there are key parts of America where his politics, and/or his Islamic faith, will not land like they do in New York.
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Mamdani is the prime product in liberal New York who could be a hard sell further west.
Aside from the New York result, there were notable wins for Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, where their candidates won the races for governor.
Californians backed a move to redraw district boundaries, increasing Democrat chances of winning more seats in the House of Representatives.
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They are results that point towards mid-term elections next year and the presidential poll in 2028.
Donald Trump will not have missed the headline stories of the night, nor the details. It included the disappearance of much of the Hispanic vote in Virginia, which helped get him back into the White House.
Nine months into a presidency that’s deployed a hardened immigration policy and ICE raids on American streets, there’s evidence that Hispanic voters who got him over the line have deserted him.
