Going into the second New York City Democratic mayoral debate on June 13, the momentum was clearly with Zohran Mamdani. The socialist state assemblymember had secured a strong second place position even before the first debate on June 4, and for weeks now has been slowly closing the gap with the front-runner, former governor Andrew Cuomo.

Mamdani put in a solid performance at the June 4 debate, projecting confidence in the face of opponents’ accusations that he is running on defunding the police or harbored an “antisemitic” position on Israel. Rejecting the more radical sloganeering on public safety, as he has throughout his campaign, Mamdani argued for the creation of a “Department of Community Safety” to help prevent crime through social service provision and mental health services, on the grounds that it would reduce overwork and overburdening of police with work better suited for social workers and mental health counselors, so those police could more effectively prevent and prosecute violent crime. When moderators singled out Mamdani by asking him whether he believed “Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state,” he answered that Israel had a right to exist as a state “with equal rights.”