Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-three-year-old New York State Assembly member and democratic socialist, could very well become the next mayor of New York City. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 following sexual misconduct allegations, was widely considered the front-runner throughout the race. Though the contest had grown closer in recent weeks, few anticipated Mamdani’s victory. The outcome was especially stunning given the financial mismatch: Cuomo outspent Mamdani by a ratio of about four to one, with pro-Cuomo super PACs like Fix the City spending millions portraying Mamdani as an unhinged radical. Its ubiquitous negative ads were an expensive attempt to distract from Cuomo’s reputational liabilities, which Mamdani was not reticent to name.

Despite his broad unlikability (a Politico headline: “The Cuomo paradox: Unpopular, yet still leading the New York City mayor’s race”), Cuomo’s political comeback initially appeared inevitable. He had the money and connections. If he wanted to reboot his political career, it was his choice to make and his race to lose. Many in the coming weeks will ask how Mamdani managed to win the primary — what policy demands and campaign strategies were most effective, what his coalition looked like. But another glaring question also needs answering: Why was Cuomo, who slunk out of office humiliated just three years ago, empowered to run to begin with?

No one was clamoring for his candidacy. But once Cuomo decided to run, the Democratic Party establishment fell in line. Forty percent of Andrew Cuomo’s top endorsements this campaign came from politicians who publicly condemned him in the thick of scandal. Top Democrats went from calling Cuomo’s behavior “inappropriate, unlawful, and abusive” to praising him as “a strong and proven leader” overnight. Heavyweights like Bill Clinton, Jim Clyburn, and the Third Way foundation threw down for Cuomo as though he had never been ostracized from political life. How is it possible for a disgraced and unpopular politician to compel such allegiance by simply deciding to run?