There was a moment midway through the New York City mayoral debate last night that perfectly captured how drastically out of touch mainstream, establishment Democrats are with their constituents. At stage left was the front-runner, state assemblymember Zohran Mamdani; on the right, disgraced former governor and sex pest Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after New York Attorney General Letitia James concluded that he’d sexually harassed multiple women and illegally retaliated against at least one when she complained publicly. The Department of Justice last year put the number of Cuomo’s victims at 13. Between the two was Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, founder of grassroots crime-fighting group Guardian Angels. He was without his signature red beret.

Moderator Sally Goldenberg, senior New York editor at Politico, prodded Cuomo about his resounding 12-point loss to Mamdani in the Democratic primary three months ago. She repeated words Cuomo said at the time, which he attributed to his grandfather: “When you get knocked down, learn the lesson and pick yourself back up and get in the game.” Goldenberg asked: What lesson did Cuomo learn? Did it indicate anything he did wrong or something he needed to change about himself?

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“I think in the primary campaign, I did not do enough on social media,” Cuomo responded. “That has changed now.” He began to monologue about how the people of New York need a manager to get things done.

Goldenberg stopped him. “This is a question about self-reflection, is the thing you’re reflecting on the most that you need to be on social media more? Was there any other deeper lesson?”

“Between the two campaigns, social media, more accessibility,” Cuomo responded.

Mamdani interjected. “I just have to say, it’s been an hour and 20 minutes of this debate and we haven’t heard Governor Cuomo say the word ‘affordability.’ That’s why he lost the primary. That’s why he’ll lose the general election.”

It was a quiet moment compared to the rest of the debate, but it was emblematic of the emptiness at the heart of the Democratic establishment, and a reflection of how poorly suited its membership is to oppose the mad kings of our era. Mamdani’s economic populism and ability to talk policy with voters has now attracted 87,888 volunteers to knock on 642,000 doors across the city and make 620,000 calls, spending their precious free time after work and on weekends to get the first Democratic Socialists of America member elected mayor since David Dinkins beat Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch in 1989.

In the same way that he trounced Cuomo three months ago, Mamdani showed an understanding of working New Yorkers and the struggles they face.

Meanwhile, mainstream Democrats, who are too squeamish about working people to speak to them like intelligent adults, if at all, are examining nothing about their own policies and instead turning their attention to learning how to make TikToks. As my colleague Harold Meyerson pointed out recently, the distance between what Democratic voters believe in and what leaders like Cuomo, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have to offer is as vast as the Grand Canyon.

So it should be no surprise that Mamdani won the debate last night. In the same way that he trounced Cuomo three months ago, he showed an understanding of working New Yorkers and the struggles they face. He showed a flinty side, standing his ground as Cuomo tried and failed to land a punch, then performing swift uppercuts of his own.

Not five minutes into the debate, Cuomo belittled Mamdani’s résumé, saying he “literally never had a job,” though he was a foreclosure prevention housing counselor and is currently an assemblymember, both of which are jobs. The role of mayor is “not a job for someone with no experience,” Cuomo said, because “any day you could have another 9/11, a health pandemic, if you don’t know what you’re doing, people will die.”

“And if we have a health pandemic,” Mamdani replied, “then why would New Yorkers turn back to the governor who sent seniors to their death in nursing homes?”

Cuomo flailed around, criticizing Mandani’s policy proposals as belonging to former Mayor Bill de Blasio and calling him a “Mini Me BDB,” an insult that will not catch on because it is too long and not funny, unlike, for example, “No Cuomo.” He repeatedly said Mamdani had “given the finger” to a statue of Christopher Columbus and derided him for once working for his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair. He repeatedly harangued Mamdani for failing to denounce the Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who once said that America deserved 9/11. Shortly afterward, Piker posted a video of himself laughing with disbelief and wrote that Cuomo is a “deeply unserious person, to bring a twitch streamer up TWICE.”

For his part, Sliwa spoke briefly about himself in the third person, complained to the moderators that they were marginalizing him, called for more police officers, and said it was a mayor’s duty to march in parades. When moderators asked the surreal question “Are there any parades that don’t exist that you think should?” Sliwa responded in kind: “Every parade has the right to exist in New York City.”

Mamdani calmly returned again and again to his main policy positions: Fast and free buses, a freeze on rent for rent-stabilized apartments, and universal child care. He reiterated his proposals to create a Department of Community Safety that would send mental health professionals to help people suffering from mental health crises rather than cops, and to build 200,000 affordable homes across all five boroughs over a decade. And he reiterated that President Trump is terrorizing immigrants across the country with his mass deportation campaign, including in New York, and that there is no need for the National Guard in New York City, two major concerns the Prospect has covered.

There were issues he and Cuomo agreed on. They agree, for example, that immigrants need more legal representation before they attend hearings before a judge, which as the Prospect has written, is a major problem. Cuomo said he was the right person to stand up to Trump; Mamdani countered that New Yorkers can trust he has their back, “because I’m not funded by the same donors who gave us Donald Trump’s second term, which isn’t something that Andrew Cuomo can say.” Asked what he would write as his own headline a year after serving as mayor, Mamdani said, “Mamdani Continues to Take On Trump, Continues to Deliver on Affordable Agenda for New Yorkers.” It could have been a summary for the debate.

Mamdani’s win against Cuomo in the June 24 primary shocked the political establishment, which cast him as too inexperienced and radical to govern. But New Yorkers had other ideas. Mamdani’s message of economic populism drew a record number of primary voters to the polls, as did his approach toward building grassroots power and his decision to speak to potential constituents like adults rather than insulting their intelligence and/or scolding them like children, as centrist Democrats often do. At least 1,026,783 voters cast ballots, the most for a New York City mayoral primary in decades, almost 87,000 more than in the last Democratic mayoral primary four years ago.

Ranked-choice ballots allowed voters to list 5 of the 11 candidates who ran. Officials had expected that the winner would not be determined for days after the race, but Mamdani was the obvious winner just hours after the polls closed. A data analysis by The City showed Mamdani’s popularity even in more conservative parts of town, including in South Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens.

Cuomo subsequently chose to run in the general election as an independent on the line “Fight and Deliver.” Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Trump ally, is likewise listed on the ballot, though he recently dropped out. His line is Safe&Affordable/EndAntiSemitism. Sliwa is running on the lines for the Republican and for the Protect Animals party.

Since the primary, Cuomo has gathered some support, including from MAGA Republicans who view him as more likely to win against Mamdani then Sliwa. Earlier this month, a Quinnipiac University survey found Cuomo had gained ten points on Mamdani since Adams quit the race. Mamdani still led, with 46 percent of votes compared to 33 percent for Cuomo and 15 for Sliwa. More recently, a Fox News poll showed Mamdani pulling away with 49 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for Cuomo.

The second debate is next Wednesday, October 22. Early voting begins October 25 and runs through November 2. Election Day is November 4.