Hope-ium

Off-year elections across the country were an absolute bloodbath for Republicans, and New York finally picked a good mayor.

Hello from the “commie corridor,” which is what they’re calling my neighborhood now that New York has elected its first Muslim socialist immigrant mayor thanks in large part to this belt of Brooklyn. I woke up in a hungover haze this morning and went to a million different bodegas and “newsstands” hunting for a copy of today’s New York Post in order to frame the incredible cover below, but newsstands apparently don’t sell newspapers anymore. Just tobacco and gum. One guy actually got mad at me for asking if he had a copy of today’s Post and snapped, “Why is everyone coming in here asking for this??”

Needless to say, it’s been an incredibly dark year—perhaps decade—and I’ve been desperate for any kind of shot in the arm. Any reason to believe that this country isn’t completely cooked to the point where I need to leave and not return. And last night actually brought loads of great news on the “state of democracy” front that has put some wind back into my sails, to use another mixed metaphor in this paragraph that will make my high school English teacher want to wade fully-clothed into the sea.

First, a word about Mamdani: I know, because I woke up to a few DMs calling me “delusional” and other unsavory things for celebrating his win, that some of you have reservations about Mamdani that are likely related to people like Debra Messing called him antisemitic in a series of 4,529 unhinged Instagram stories yesterday. If you find yourself in that category, and it’s not out of base Islamophobia but out of a genuine concern over his positions, I recommend Bess Kalb’s excellent and thorough essay on her own decision to support Zohran as a Jewish woman (as a third of Jewish New Yorkers also did, per exit polls).

What I see in Mamdani is the first genuine, honest, empathetic, and ethical mayor New York will have had in my lifetime. He ran a positive and joyful campaign, which we never see anywhere in American politics anymore, much less New York City. He embraced being Muslim and his Indian/Ugandan heritage rather than trying to downplay those parts of his identity to be more palatable to the bigots spewing AI memes about women in New York having to wear burqas if he wins. (Have you seen his absolute babe of an aloof wife?) He has big ideas about making life more affordable for working class New Yorkers, whether or not he’ll be able to wrangle enough power from Albany to effectuate them all. And at a time when ICE is punching brown people in the face and dragging women out of their cars by their legs for sounding Spanish, it was really powerful and cathartic to see Zohran stand up there last night with more than 50% of the vote and say the words: “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, run by an immigrant.”

I had chills. My friend Anna was full-on weeping at the bar, though she does cry a lot. It was just one hell of a victory speech.

But it wasn’t just Mamdani night; Democrats crushed Republicans up and down the ballot across the whole country on Tuesday in a way that has clearly and rightfully terrified Donald Trump. I’m just going to bullet point some of these:

• California voters approved Prop 50, which allows Democrats to draw new congressional districts for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections in response to Republicans in Texas and other states trying to gerrymander their way through the midterms

• Virginia elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger its first woman governor, in a race where 57% of all ad spending by Republicans was on anti-trans ads

• Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the New Jersey governor’s race, defeating the Trump endorsed MAGA backed Jack Ciattarelli. Latino voters swung hard to the left

• Pennsylvania voters retained three state Supreme Court justices, preserving Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the state’s high court, in a race that was heavily about abortion rights. And Democrats swept the down-ballot races in Bucks County, winning both the District Attorney and Sheriff offices for the first time in history, along with races for prothonotary, recorder of deeds, and county controller

• Mississippi Democrats broke the GOP’s supermajority in the state Senate for the first time since 2011. Mississippi!

• Georgia Democrats easily flipped two Public Service Commission seats held by Republicans

• Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for public school students, and Dems swept school board races in conservative parts of the state

As it turns out, people don’t like it when you smash the East Wing of the White House to build a hideous ballroom and throw yourself a Great Gatsby party at your personal country club while literally starving the millions of people who depend on SNAP benefits to survive. Trump’s politics of cruelty are historically unpopular. And it appears, at least for now, that our elections are still intact enough for us to have a shot at kicking Mike Johnson out of the speakership next year, inshallah.

Now, someone please find me a New York Post!!!!