Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City this week and will take office on January 1. Photograph: Todd Heisler/The New York Times
As the extent of Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in the New York mayoral race became apparent on Tuesday night, it was hard to ignore the similarities with Catherine Connolly’s successful presidential campaign in Ireland.
Until late last year, Mamdani was an obscure state senator. He had support levels of about 1 per cent when he announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the mayoral election. To add to the Sisyphean task he set for himself, he was born in Uganda and, as well as being the child of immigrants, is a Muslim and self-described socialist. .
Unsurprisingly, his political enemies – from Donald Trump to Fox News’s Sean Hannity to the New York tabloids – were quick to brand him a “commie”.
Connolly had better comparative recognition, but she was hardly a house
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