Mayor apparent: class warrior Zohran Mamdani triumphs in New York

America has just witnessed "one of the most significant victories by an unabashedly left-wing candidate" in its history, said Ross Barkan in New York Magazine. A few months ago, few had even heard of Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist assemblyman in New York's state legislature. But last week he won the Democratic nomination for one of the most powerful positions in US politics: mayor of New York.

He beat Andrew Cuomo, a veteran New York politician who spent vastly more on his campaign. Whereas outside fundraising groups had backed Cuomo to the tune of $25 million, Mamdani received just $1.2 million. He relied on small contributions from individual donors – the average donation was $78 – and made brilliant use of social media. The victory instantly established Mamdani as the progressives' new figurehead – and the Republicans' "great new bogeyman".

As the Democratic nominee, Mamdani is the runaway favourite to win the mayoralty in November, said National Review. That's too bad for New York, as his "pie-in-the-sky socialist agenda" – state-run grocery stores, rent controls, free buses, free childcare, all funded by taxes on the rich – is a recipe for disaster. His past support for defunding the police, and fervent criticism of Israel, are also worrying. This sort of "self-soothing progressivism" goes down well with hipsters in Brooklyn, said Carine Hajjar in The Boston Globe. But those in high-crime areas of New York won't be keen to "gamble their safety and economic well-being" so that Mamdani, the son of an Ivy League professor and a Hollywood director, can play the working-class hero.

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Whether Mamdani could turn his agenda into reality is unclear, said Karen Tumulty in The Washington Post. But his victory holds important lessons for the Democrats. The main one: "candidate quality matters". Voters are fed up with being presented with "deeply flawed" candidates by the party establishment. Mamdani is charismatic and energetic; he engages with younger voters. Cuomo, by contrast, came across as "joyless" and entitled. It's barely four years since he left the governor's office in disgrace amid "credible allegations" of sexual harassment by 11 women. That Cuomo's mayoral campaign was nonetheless endorsed by a raft of party elders, including former president Bill Clinton, "speaks to a breathtaking level of cluelessness".