Thursday, June 26, 2025
PMT: New York tea leaves
On Tuesday, New York voters in the Democratic primary for mayor delivered a surprising victory to NYC Council Member Zohran Momdani, who won by a surprising margin over former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Momdani was little known before the campaign, and is only 33 years old-- about half the age of Cuomo. He ran a vigorous campaign that emphasized get out on the streets, while Cuomo stuck mainly to staged appearances in the usual places.
The outsider beat the establishment candidate, and some are signaling this as a sign that perhaps Democrats are no longer going to listen so closely to the old heads who told them to support Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as it was their turn. I sure hope so. I agree with Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post, who suspects that the result is connected to a "Biden hangover."
It was about a decade ago that IPLawGuy looked around at Biden and Trump and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and said "these people are old." I think you can throw in Netanyahu and Putin, too. Anyways, they are all ten years older than that now, and the desire for generational change after the painful Trump-Biden campaign is growing. Of course, in 2024 that desire for generational change did not get Kamala Harris over the hump... but I sense the mood has changed since then, even in these short months.
It might be that the 2026 elections are a bloodbath for incumbents. I jus hope they leave the good ones!
