Suddenly, the music stopped.
The clock had just struck 10:21 p.m. on Tuesday night at the Carpenters Union Building in SoHo. This was supposed to be a victory party for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who had long been the leading candidate in the Democratic race for New York City mayor. Three blondes, each with a Modelo beer in their hands, blinked at a giant screen while it flashed the chyron: “ZOHRAN MAMDANI HOLDS LEAD OVER ANDREW CUOMO.”
“Well, fuck,” one woman muttered, before taking a swig of beer.
“Maybe I’m at the wrong watch party,” another woman laughed, saying that she used to work for Cuomo but that everyone she knows was in Queens, drinking to Mamdani’s triumph.
She was stuck at something closer to a wake as Cuomo shuffled to the podium with a stiff grin, saddled by his daughters, who couldn’t conceal the truth. Their eyes were wet with tears at the shock that Cuomo, the scion of a political dynasty, was being trounced by a socialist half his age who had been polling at 1 percent in February.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said, conceding the primary. “Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night.”
It sure was.