After weathering months of attack ads, racist smears and outright Islamophobic vitriol, Zohran Mamdani has secured a spot in the history books by becoming the first Muslim and first South Asian to be elected New York mayor.

His comfortable win in the Big Apple, driven largely by the huge enthusiasm and turnout of younger voters, will present something of a conundrum for Mr Mamdani's Democratic Party, which failed to fully embrace the charismatic millennial even as it become clear he had a lock on City Hall.

The hemming and hawing from top Democrats who worried their man was too progressive on key issues highlights the party's identity crisis as it continues to dissect what went wrong in 2024, when it lost control of the White House and Congress to President Donald Trump and the Republicans.

Instead of embracing Mr Mamdani and his populist vision of a more affordable New York, the Democratic establishment buried its head in the sand as its own candidate climbed ever upwards in opinion polls. Even on election day itself, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York wouldn't say who he voted for.

Former president Barack Obama, who also did not endorse Mr Mamdani, couldn't even muster a direct congratulations for his victory, instead issuing generic praise “to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight”.

Inconveniently for grey-haired Democrats like Mr Schumer and Mr Obama who want to move their party further towards the centre, Mr Mamdani's victory supports the argument that backing more progressive candidates might win back young voters who felt abandoned by the party.

My own view is that it would be unwise to try to view Mr Mamdani's victory as too much of a national bellwether. New York City is liberal, diverse and young and Democrat victories by centrists in Virginia and New Jersey show there can be no one-size-fits all approach for the Democratic Party.

Instead, it should stop obsessing about whether it wants to be centre-left or left of centre and take a page from Mr Mamdani's playbook and learn to present a clear vision that speaks to would-be voters.

Kamala Harris lost last year in large part because she was trying to be all things to all people.